Working with children has always been a passion of mine. When I founded Skye Therapy, my vision was to create a space specifically for children. Over the past several years, that vision expanded to include adults as well.
Early in my career, I worked as a special needs paraprofessional and was later promoted to a teaching role during the teacher shortage. During that time, I gained valuable insights into child development and began noticing patterns, particularly in children who had experienced distressing events before age 3. Many of these children showed developmental and nervous system differences. This led me to research preverbal trauma, often referred to as “cellular trauma.”
Cellular trauma refers to overwhelming experiences that occur before a child has the language or cognitive ability to process and store memories explicitly. Instead of being remembered as thoughts or stories, these experiences are stored in the body and nervous system as implicit memory.
Because these experiences are not consciously remembered, the body may still respond as if the event is happening in the present moment (this may reflect in tantrums or sensory sensitivities in children). This is why traditional trauma therapy alone may not fully address this.
Approaches such as sensorimotor psychotherapy, TS Yoga, and equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) can be especially effective because they work directly with the body, movement, and nervous system—helping to process and release these early sensory imprints.
In simple terms:
Cellular trauma means that when something overwhelming happens early in life, your body remembers it—even if your mind does not. Your nervous system can continue to react to present-day situations as if the past event is still occurring.
Examples of preverbal trauma may include:
- Witnessing a frightening event as a toddler
- Exposure to intense caregiver conflict
- Medical procedures or hospitalizations
- Accidents (such as a fall from a high chair or a car accident)
