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Episode 151: Why Healed Trauma Returns in Perimenopause: Chinese Medicine Lens

  • Dr. Aimie Apigian
  • 12 hours ago
  • 13 min read



























Chinese medicine may help explain why stored trauma causes old patterns to resurface when we least expect it. In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Lorne Brown, a leader in integrative reproductive health and Chinese medicine who brings 25 years of clinical experience to the conversation. We explore the concept of qi stagnation and how it aligns with chronic functional freeze. Dr. Brown explains why the body stores overwhelming experiences in layers as a survival mechanism, and why that strategy begins to unravel around midlife when our resources shift. If you're in perimenopause or menopause and noticing old symptoms or emotions stirring again, this conversation offers a new lens for understanding what the body is trying to communicate.


In this episode you'll learn:

  • [00:02:00] The Body's Layered Storage System: How Chinese medicine understands stored trauma as a three-layer defense mechanism designed to protect our vital organs

  • [00:05:30] Why Around Age 40, Everything Changes: The body stops using resources to suppress stored energy and begins asking us to finally process it

  • [00:08:00] Perimenopause as a Tipping Point: Why hormone fluctuations shrink our window of tolerance and reveal what we've been holding

  • [00:11:32] The Second Spring: Chinese medicine's perspective on menopause as a spiritual awakening where resources redirect to the heart center

  • [00:13:24] Qi Stagnation & Functional Freeze: The connection between stuck energy and chronic patterns of protection in the nervous system

  • [00:17:00] The Radio Metaphor: How emotions are meant to move through us like a song, and what happens when we hit repeat

  • [00:21:14] When Healed Trauma Returns: Why perimenopause can bring back symptoms and emotions we thought we'd resolved

  • [00:28:40] Safety as the Foundation: Why Chinese medicine agrees that creating safety is the essential first step for allowing stagnation to move

  • [00:34:44] Sound, Laser & Frequency Medicine: Tools that bypass the mind and work directly with the cells and nervous system

  • [00:43:07] Notice, Accept, Choose Again: Dr. Brown's NAC process for metabolizing uncomfortable feelings and restoring flow


Main Takeaways

  • Emotions are the number one cause of disease in Chinese medicine. The classic Stored trauma is intelligent, not broken. The body stores overwhelming experiences to protect us. This isn't a fault—it's a brilliant survival mechanism that keeps strong emotions from reaching vital organs where serious disease develops.

  • Around age 40, the body changes its strategy. Resources that once kept difficult experiences suppressed get redirected toward longevity. The body essentially says: "You're not four anymore. It's time to deal with this."

  • Perimenopause reveals capacity gaps. Hormone fluctuations create internal stress. If our window of tolerance is already narrow, perimenopause shrinks it further—and stored patterns surface as symptoms.

  • Qi stagnation is functional freeze. When we resist, suppress, or fight what we feel, energy gets stuck in tissues. When we allow feelings to move through us, we restore flow and health.

  • Safety creates the conditions for release. Without felt safety, the body contracts and stagnation deepens. Creating safety—through breath, movement, acupuncture, sound—allows the system to finally let go.

  • The healing journey is ongoing. If something still triggers a somatic response, there's more work to do. This isn't failure—it's an opportunity to clean up the system and restore flow.


Notable Quotes

"It's not always the situation that causes the experience inside. It's how you perceive it."

"When we're children, we don't have the capacity to process and metabolize these strong emotions. But as we get older, the body eventually says, you need to deal with this."

"It's in the name—emotion. Energy in motion. So emotions are you feeling the flow of qi in your body."

"You have to feel it to heal it. And if you resist it, it persists."

"I don't care if you've worked it a million times. If it still has a somatic response, that's your message from your body that you get to work it one million and one times."


Episode Takeaway

This conversation gave me language for something I've felt in my own body for years. Dr. Brown's explanation of why the body stores overwhelming experiences in layers—and why it eventually stops spending resources to keep them hidden—makes so much sense when I think about what happens around midlife.

For so long, I resisted my own freeze response. I hated it. I didn't want to accept it or feel it. And yet it was always there, waiting for me. What I've come to understand, and what Dr. Brown articulates so beautifully through the lens of Chinese medicine, is that resistance creates stagnation. Fighting what we feel amplifies it.

The invitation here isn't to dig up the past or analyze every event. It's simpler than that: when something surfaces, can we notice it without taking it personally? Can we let it move through rather than hitting repeat? Our body has been protecting us brilliantly. Now it's asking us to finally tend to what it's been holding. That's not a setback—that's partnership.


Resources/Guides:


Related Podcast Episodes:


About the Guest: Dr. Lorne Brown is the founder of Acubalance Wellness Center, where he introduced IVF acupuncture to Vancouver clinics in 2002. Starting his career as a chartered accountant and CPA, he brings analytical precision to integrative reproductive and hormone health. A certified clinical hypnotherapist trained in multiple energy psychology modalities, Dr. Brown developed the NAC process (Notice, Accept, Choose Again) to help people metabolize stuck emotions and create nervous system safety. He is the author of The Acubalance Fertility Diet and The Acubalance Longevity Diet for Perimenopause and Menopause, and hosts the Conscious Fertility Podcast.


Your host: Dr. Aimie Apigian, double board-certified physician (Preventive/Addiction Medicine) with master's degrees in biochemistry and public health, and author of the national bestselling book "The Biology of Trauma" (foreword by Gabor Maté) that transforms our understanding of how the body experiences and holds trauma. After foster-adopting a child during medical school sparked her journey, she desperately sought for answers that would only continue as she developed chronic health issues. Through her practitioner training, podcast, YouTube channel, and international speaking, she bridges functional medicine, attachment and trauma therapy, facilitating accelerated repair of trauma's impact on the mind, body and biology.



Why Stored Trauma Resurfaces in Perimenopause: Chinese Medicine Meets the Biology of Trauma®


Something happens around age 40 that catches many of us off guard. The strategies that used to work—the supplements, the acupuncture, the mindset practices—suddenly stop producing results. Symptoms we thought we'd resolved years ago begin to resurface. Old emotions bubble up without warning. And for those entering perimenopause, this experience intensifies.

I recently spoke with Dr. Lorne Brown, a practitioner with 25 years of experience integrating Chinese medicine with nervous system work. What struck me most about our conversation was how closely his understanding of qi stagnation aligns with what I teach about chronic functional freeze. We're using different maps to describe the same terrain—and both maps point to the same truth: the body stores overwhelming experiences on purpose, and eventually, it asks us to address what it's been holding.

This isn't a sign that something is wrong. It's actually a sign that the body is ready. For practitioners working with clients in midlife transitions, and for individuals navigating this territory personally, understanding why stored patterns resurface can shift the entire approach from fighting symptoms to partnering with the body's intelligence.


How Chinese Medicine Understands Stored Trauma

Chinese medicine offers a framework for understanding how the body protects us from overwhelming experiences. According to Dr. Brown, when we encounter emotional overwhelm, the body's primary job is survival. It stores that energy deliberately—not as a flaw, but as a brilliant protective mechanism.

The body uses a layered defense system. The most superficial layer keeps intense emotions at the surface, where they might show up as neck tension or tight shoulders. If the energy moves deeper, it reaches the blood and circulation level—this is where symptoms like IBS, migraines, and insomnia emerge. If it penetrates to the deepest layer, the organ level, more serious conditions like autoimmune disease can develop.

This layered storage explains something important: those chronic symptoms aren't random. The headache, the digestive issues, the sleep disruption—these are messages from the body. They're also evidence that the body has been working hard to keep intense energy from reaching vital organs. For practitioners, this reframe can change how we approach symptom management entirely.


Why Everything Changes Around Age 40

Here's where the conversation became particularly relevant for anyone in midlife. Dr. Brown explained that storing energy takes significant resources. When we're young, the body has reserves to spare. But as we age, the body's priorities shift toward longevity.

Around age 40—give or take five years—the body essentially says: "I can't keep spending resources to suppress this. You're not four years old anymore. You're an adult. It's time to deal with what's been stored." This explains why approaches that worked for years suddenly stop working. It's not that the acupuncture failed or the supplements became ineffective. The body has changed its strategy.

In Chinese medicine, we age in cycles of seven years. By 42, certain energy channels begin to decline naturally. This isn't disease—it's normal aging. But it means our capacity to compensate decreases. The window of tolerance shrinks. And anything we've been holding begins to demand attention.


Perimenopause as a Tipping Point for Stored Patterns

Perimenopause adds another layer to this process. Hormone fluctuations create internal stress. Estrogen levels become unpredictable. Progesterone declines. The body experiences these shifts as a form of demand on the system.

If our capacity is generous, we might move through perimenopause with minimal symptoms. But if we're already operating near the edge—if years of stored patterns have depleted our reserves—perimenopause becomes the tipping point. The hot flashes, brain fog, night sweats, and mood changes aren't simply hormonal. They reveal what the body has been holding all along.

Dr. Brown made an important distinction: if perimenopause symptoms were purely hormonal, every woman would experience them identically. But we know that's not true. The variation in symptoms reflects differences in capacity and resilience—differences shaped by everything we've stored over a lifetime.


The Second Spring: A Different Perspective on Menopause

Chinese medicine offers a perspective on menopause that I found genuinely beautiful. They call it "the second spring." Puberty is the first spring—a time when resources are directed toward reproduction. Menopause is the second spring—when those same resources get redirected to the heart center.

This isn't just poetic language. Physiologically, the energy that once supported the uterus for reproduction shifts toward what Chinese medicine calls the shen, or spirit. Women in menopause become matriarchs for their communities, whether they have children or not. The body is conserving resources so we can live well for decades longer.

Dr. Brown even suggested that every hot flash is like karma being burnt off—stored energy finally releasing. For those of us who've struggled with perimenopause symptoms, this reframe doesn't dismiss the difficulty. But it offers a different relationship to what's happening.


What Qi Stagnation and Functional Freeze Have in Common

As I listened to Dr. Brown describe qi stagnation, I kept hearing echoes of chronic functional freeze. In Chinese medicine, when qi flows freely, there's health. When qi becomes stuck, pain and disease follow. The number one cause of disease, according to classical Chinese medicine texts, is emotions in disharmony—not external pathogens, not accidents, not wrong prescriptions. Emotions.

This aligns precisely with the Biology of Trauma® framework. When the body perceives threat, it shifts into a protective pattern. If that pattern doesn't complete—if the energy doesn't discharge—it becomes embedded. The body stays stuck in protection mode instead of connection mode. This is functional freeze: the system works exactly as designed for survival, but it never returns to baseline.

Dr. Brown uses a helpful metaphor. Imagine a song playing on the radio. If you don't like the song, you have two choices: wait it out and let it pass, or change the station. Either way, the song moves through. But if you complain about it, resist it, try to suppress it—that's like hitting repeat. The song plays over and over. That's stagnation.


Why Resistance Creates More Stagnation

This brings us to something I experienced personally for years. I resisted my freeze response. I hated it. I didn't want to feel it, accept it, or allow it. And yet it was always there, waiting for me—especially when I got home at night. Like a text message that keeps arriving: "I'm here. I'm still here."

What both Chinese medicine and nervous system science confirm is that resistance amplifies stagnation. When we fight what we feel, we create more stuck energy. The feeling doesn't discharge—it deepens. Dr. Brown describes this as fighting with reality. When we refuse to accept what is—not resign to it, not like it, just acknowledge it—we add resistance to the system.

The alternative isn't passive acceptance. It's what Dr. Brown calls "Notice, Accept, Choose Again." We notice what's arising without believing the story. We accept that this is how the body feels right now. Then we can consciously choose a response rather than unconsciously reacting from old programming.


Creating Safety for Stagnation to Move

Both frameworks agree on something essential: nothing releases without safety first. In the Biology of Trauma® methodology, this is the foundation—Safety, Support, then Expansion. In Chinese medicine, Dr. Brown emphasizes that without felt safety, the body contracts further. Contraction is stagnation.

This is why pushing harder doesn't work. Intensive approaches that bypass safety can actually deepen the freeze response. The body needs to know it's not in threat before it will release what it's holding. Creating safety happens at multiple levels: mental safety through witnessing thoughts without fusion, somatic safety through felt sense in the body, and biological safety through supporting the chemistry of calm.

Dr. Brown uses acupuncture to create safety because it engages the parasympathetic nervous system and increases heart rate variability. When the body registers safety, circulation improves—and in Chinese medicine, circulation and qi flow are inseparable. But acupuncture isn't the only path. Breath, movement, sound, and other modalities can create the same conditions.

Tools That Bypass the Mind

One insight from Dr. Brown's practice particularly resonated with me. He uses sound therapy and low-level laser therapy because these modalities bypass the mind entirely. When we do conscious work—talk therapy, journaling, cognitive approaches—we have to get past the mental defenses. But vibration goes directly to the cells and nervous system.

This aligns with what I've observed: the body holds patterns that the mind doesn't have access to. We can understand our history intellectually and still feel stuck. That's because the body remembers what the mind has forgotten—or never knew consciously in the first place. Approaches that work directly with the body can create shifts that thinking alone cannot produce.

Einstein suggested that the future of medicine would be frequency medicine—sound, light, vibration. Dr. Brown has built his practice around this principle, using whatever tools create safety and flow for each individual. The specific modality matters less than matching the approach to what that person's system needs.


When Healed Patterns Return

I shared a story with Dr. Brown about a woman I'll call Melinda. She had done extensive work processing her relationship with her mother—not just childhood experiences, but years of caregiving followed by her mother's death. She thought she'd resolved everything. Her chronic fatigue symptoms had cleared. She felt complete.

Then perimenopause arrived, and everything resurfaced. The fatigue returned. Old memories emerged. Anger she thought she'd processed bubbled up unexpectedly. She felt like she'd failed at healing.

Dr. Brown's response was both practical and compassionate. Perimenopause creates an inflammatory state that shrinks the window of tolerance. If someone's resilience is generous, they adapt without symptoms. But if they're near the tipping point, perimenopause pushes them over. What returns isn't evidence of failed healing—it's the body saying there's more work available now.

His guideline is simple: if something still produces a somatic response, there's still something to work. It doesn't matter if we've addressed it a million times. If the body still reacts, we get to work it one million and one times. This isn't failure. It's an opportunity to clean up the system further.

Start Here: Practical Steps for Restoring Flow

The principles from this conversation translate into immediate practices. Rather than overwhelming the system with intensive approaches, start with what creates safety and supports flow.


Immediate actions:

  1. Notice without narrating. When an old pattern surfaces, practice observing the sensation without analyzing its origin or meaning. This interrupts the story and creates space for the feeling to move.

  2. Use breath to signal safety. Inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for eight. This ratio engages the parasympathetic system and tells the body that immediate threat has passed.

  3. Add gentle movement daily. Qi flows when the body moves. Walking, stretching, or simple qi gong practices create circulation that supports the release of stagnant energy.

  4. Consider body-based support. Acupuncture, sound therapy, or other modalities that bypass cognitive processing can create shifts the mind cannot access directly.

  5. Respect the sequence. Create safety before attempting to process stored material. Expansion without foundation creates more contraction.


What changes when we approach returning symptoms as information rather than failure? The body has been holding difficult experiences to protect us. Now it's asking for partnership. That's not a setback—that's readiness.


Helpful Research

1. Emotions and Disease in Traditional Chinese Medicine Maciocia, G. (2009). "The Psyche in Chinese Medicine." Churchill Livingstone. Giovanni Maciocia's comprehensive text documents how Chinese medicine has understood the emotion-disease connection for over 2,000 years. The classic texts identify seven emotions (joy, anger, worry, pensiveness, sadness, fear, shock) that, when excessive or prolonged, create specific patterns of disharmony in corresponding organ systems. This framework validates what Dr. Lorne describes: emotions aren't separate from physical health but are primary drivers of disease when they become stuck or overwhelming.


2. Hormonal Transitions and Nervous System Capacity Gordon, J.L., et al. (2015). "Ovarian Hormone Fluctuation, Neurosteroids, and HPA Axis Dysregulation in Perimenopausal Depression." Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 23(3), 182-193. Research demonstrates that perimenopause creates a period of heightened vulnerability due to fluctuating estrogen levels affecting neurotransmitter systems, stress response pathways, and inflammatory markers. Women with prior mood episodes or trauma histories show increased sensitivity during this transition. This supports the clinical observation that perimenopause reveals underlying capacity limitations rather than creating new pathology.


3. The Role of Safety in Trauma Resolution Porges, S.W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory. W.W. Norton & Company. Polyvagal theory establishes that the autonomic nervous system requires neuroception of safety before higher-order social engagement and trauma processing can occur. Without this foundation, the system remains in defensive states that perpetuate symptoms. This research validates both the Chinese medicine emphasis on creating conditions for qi flow and the Biology of Trauma® sequence of Safety before Support before Expansion.



Disclaimer

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.


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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What resonated with you? What questions came up?

Please keep comments respectful and supportive. This is a community of people committed to healing. We welcome diverse perspectives and honest questions, but we don't tolerate personal attacks, spam, or content that could harm others on their healing journey.



 
 
 

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