Episode 45 – How Trauma Shapes the Brain (And How Healing Is Possible) - Part 1

🎙️ Episode 45 – How Trauma Shapes the Brain (And How Healing Is Possible) - Part 1

We live in a world shaped by loss, stress, and unresolved pain. From global crises to family hardship, illness, broken relationships, and personal regret, emotional wounds are everywhere — even when we try to ignore them.

In this episode, Mark Odland, licensed therapist and EMDR consultant, explains how past experiences quietly shape the brain, influence our reactions, and impact our health, relationships, and sense of purpose. Drawing from decades of research — including the landmark ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study — Mark shows why unprocessed emotional pain doesn’t simply fade with time, and how it can surface later in life in unexpected ways.

More importantly, this episode introduces EMDR therapy and the brain’s natural capacity to heal through the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) system. You’ll learn why emotional wounds can become “stuck,” how they get triggered in the present, and how healing is possible — not by force of will, but by working with how the brain is designed to recover.

This episode is an educational introduction, not therapy — but it may change how you understand yourself, your reactions, and your path forward.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• How early life stress and unresolved experiences shape the brain over time
• Key findings from the ACE Study and why they still matter today
• Why emotional pain can show up later as health, relationship, or life difficulties
• How the brain’s natural healing system works — and what happens when it’s overwhelmed
• What EMDR therapy is, where it came from, and why it’s so widely researched
• How “triggered” reactions are often linked to stored memories, not present danger
• Why time alone doesn’t always resolve emotional wounds
• A hopeful framework for understanding healing without shame or blame

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💬 Comment prompt:

What part of this episode helped you understand emotional healing in a new way?

About the Lion Counseling Podcast

The Lion Counseling Podcast helps high-achieving Christian men understand emotional health, trauma, anxiety, anger, and purpose using evidence-based psychology, EMDR-informed education, and biblical wisdom. Episodes are designed to be practical, grounded, and hopeful — offering clarity without shame. New episodes drop every Tuesday.

Creators and Guests

Host

Mark Odland

Founder of Lion Counseling, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified EMDR Therapist

What is Lion Counseling Podcast?

The Lion Counseling Podcast helps men escape the cages that hold them back and become the Lions they were created to be. It exists to help men obtain success, purpose, happiness, and peace in their career and personal lives. The podcast is hosted by the founder of Lion Counseling, Mark Odland (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified EMDR Therapist), and Zack Carter (Counselor and Coach with Lion Counseling). In their podcasts, they address a variety of topics relevant to men, including: mental health, relationships, masculinity, faith, success, business, and self-improvement.

Mark Odland: 00:02

We live in a world ripped apart by trauma. Just turn on the news, and there it is. Another war, another attack, another pandemic. And even if we turn off the news, we're still left with the reality of our own lives and the challenges within our own families. Illness, death, broken relationships.

Mark Odland: 00:26

And then there's our regrets, our doubts, our insecurities, and our fears, all amplified by unhealed wounds from the past. So often we try to ignore these wounds. But over time, it catches up with us. Whether we like to admit it or not, our past shapes us. It shapes not only how we see the world, it literally changes our brains.

Mark Odland: 00:56

From 1995 to 1997, Kaiser Permanente did a massive study of over 17,000 subjects to try and better understand the way trauma experienced in childhood impacted individuals long term. In what is known as the ACE study, ACE, because it focused on adverse childhood experiences, subjects completed confidential surveys, allowing researchers to gather data on their experiences of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, emotional and physical neglect, and negative household experiences like divorce, addiction, violence, and incarceration. And the results were jaw dropping. The researchers found that not only were these adverse childhood experiences very common, but that as the number of these experiences increased, so did the individual's risk for a whole host of problems later in life. One might expect that there would be some mental health issues because of childhood pain, but the study demonstrated that the damage was even more pervasive.

Mark Odland: 02:11

In fact, it showed a direct link between these painful experiences and an increased likelihood of having medical and socioeconomic problems later in life, like addiction, heart disease, liver disease, financial stress, academic problems, risky behaviors, suicide attempts, and domestic violence. One of the big confirmations from this study was the importance of not only trying to minimize and prevent these painful experiences from happening, but also, and here's where EMDR comes in, also trying to heal the emotional trauma so that these problems later in life don't have to manifest the same way. Yes, there is a silver lining in all this. There's a ray of light in the midst of so much darkness in this world. With EMDR therapy, trauma can permanently heal, allowing individuals to live healthier, more joyful lives, and eventually break the destructive patterns passed down from generation to generation.

Mark Odland: 03:23

In this sense, EMDR truly can change the world, and I'm so honored to tell you about it. My name is Mark Odland, and I'd like to personally welcome you to this crash course on EMDR therapy and how it can transform your life. EMDR therapy is, simply put the most groundbreaking and powerful therapy out there. Its eight phase process is highly researched and at the time of this, this presentation has been empirically validated by over two dozen randomized studies of trauma victims. It's been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense.

Mark Odland: 04:10

And it's only one of two trauma therapies that have been endorsed by the World Health Organization for treating PTSD. From the outside, it can look a little too good to be true. But the research doesn't lie. EMDR is the real deal, and it's here to stay. But to be clear, this presentation itself is not EMDR therapy.

Mark Odland: 04:38

Because EMDR is something you'd receive over the course of several weeks or months from a trained mental health professional. This movie itself isn't therapy, and it's not a quick fix, But it is an in-depth introduction to EMDR therapy. My goal is to take the mystery out of it, to pull back the curtain to show you exactly what it is, how it works, why it works, and how it can help you or someone you love find lasting healing from trauma. Knowledge is power, and my hope is that this movie helps you to see and believe that emotional pain doesn't have to have the last word, That old hurts can, in fact, heal permanently. In our time together, you'll learn to recognize how past hurts may still be impacting your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and relationships.

Mark Odland: 05:34

And I'll teach you about the remarkable AIP system or adaptive information processing system. The amazing process of how our brains are wired to naturally heal from emotional pain and how sometimes during, trauma, it overwhelms this system causing painful memories to become dysfunctionally stored, frozen in time. And of course, you'll learn about the power of EMDR therapy. What it is, where it came from, and how it can jump start the brain's inherent ability to once again naturally heal itself. When this course is over, you'll leave with a better understanding of how trauma has impacted you and your loved ones, and a concrete plan for how to begin the journey toward healing.

Mark Odland: 06:38

There are plenty of EMDR therapists out there who could give you this information. However, I'm not aware of anyone else presenting all this information to the general public in such a concise way. So here I am, and I'm grateful for the chance to share this information with you. This movie draws on all the education, training, and experience that I've gained over the years as a licensed marriage and family therapist certified in EMDR. Using this powerful therapy, I've had the privilege of helping hundreds of individuals heal from their trauma and discover a deeper sense of peace and purpose in their lives.

Mark Odland: 07:19

I'm an LMFT and LPCC board approved supervisor, an approved consultant and CE provider with the EMDR International Association, and an approved EMDR consultant and basic training facilitator with the EMDR Humanitarian Assistance Programs In this capacity, I have the joy and honor of helping therapists around the the world improve their skills. On the flip side, I've also been blessed with the opportunity to receive my own EMDR therapy. And so I know what it's like to be sitting on that couch as a client. I can honestly say that the experience transformed my life for the better. It's helped me to heal from old hurts, find deeper peace, and become a better husband, father, and therapist.

Mark Odland: 08:13

I thought it was important for you to know that, that I'm not just speaking from the perspective of a therapist, but also as someone who's been through it as a client. In our time together, I'll use short stories, humor, and metaphor to help you each step of the way. In this movie, you'll not only get the head knowledge, you'll also get a glimpse of EMDR therapy in action, and will leave with a concrete plan for what to do when the movie's over. EMDR therapy has changed the lives of millions of people around the whole world, and if it's the right fit, they could change your life too. So thanks again for sharing your time with me.

Mark Odland: 08:56

No pressure. No obligation. Just a chance to listen, reflect, and learn more. What you choose to do with it is, of course, up to you. Let's get started.

Mark Odland: 09:21

In 1987, doctor Francine Shapiro was taking a walk in the park. This walk would have been like any other, but on this particular day, she made the chance discovery that eye movements can reduce the intensity of disturbing thoughts. Curious, she began to study this principle and began conducting research. And only two years after that walk in the park, Doctor. Shapiro was able to publish the treatment success in the Journal of Traumatic Stress.

Mark Odland: 09:54

Since then the therapy has benefited from the clinical work and research of therapists all over the world and has been developed into a set of standardized protocols. EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. It is a kind of counseling, or psychotherapy, that helps people experience lasting healing from their emotional pain. Although it's famous for its eye movements, it can actually use several types of bilateral stimulation, which is a fancy way of saying any left to right back and forth stimulus. EMDR actually has eight distinct phases and is a comprehensive approach to therapy, addressing not only one's past, but also one's present triggers and hopes for the future.

Mark Odland: 10:43

To give you a thorough explanation of the process, I'll describe each of these eight phases of therapy so you can be well informed and have a better sense of the process. In these explanations, I'll be paraphrasing content from the EMDR International Association's website, emdria.org. But first, I'd like to give you a basic overview of trauma, specifically how it works and how it can heal naturally with the MDR. The dozens of studies and the millions of people who have benefited from EMDR is proof enough that it works. So the next natural question is, why?

Mark Odland: 11:38

Why does it work? From the outside, it seems a little too good to be true, a little too simple. But remember, EMDR is much more than moving your eyes back and forth. Again, it's an entire approach to therapy. An eight phase standard protocol used by highly trained clinicians.

Mark Odland: 11:58

A therapy that not only uses the remarkable intervention of bilateral stimulation, but is also grounded in a deep understanding of how the brain heals from trauma. To understand why EMDR works, we first need to understand how the brain works, and specifically how the brain heals. Doctor. Shapiro's name for the brain's natural healing process is the AIP system, or the adaptive information processing system. EMDR works so powerfully because it jumpstarts the system and helps the brain to do what it was wired to do, heal naturally.

Mark Odland: 12:39

Think about it this way. If you get a cut, the wound will naturally heal as long as there's nothing stuck inside that will cause an infection. Some are surprised to discover that the way we heal through disturbing memories is actually very similar. In most cases, we're able to process through disturbing events, learn from them, and allow them to fade into the past as historical memories, much like that cut healing naturally. However, sometimes an event or series of events overwhelms the brain's ability to cope.

Mark Odland: 13:20

And like an infection slows down the healing and causes pain. Decades ago, Doctor. Shapiro recognized a profound truth. It was this, that the majority of our mental health symptoms are not because of an individual's character flaws or lack of willpower or any other standard explanation. Rather, they're actually caused by dysfunctionally stored memories.

Mark Odland: 13:50

Memories that have, for one reason or another, not been able to heal naturally the way they were intended to. Instead, like a physical cut, these memories got stuck and became infected, essentially frozen in time with the original images, negative beliefs, emotions, and body sensations. Those carrying these frozen memories may be able to keep them bottled up for a while like a dam holding back a raging river. But without EMDR therapy, this dam will forever have a crack in it. And over time, with enough pressure, with enough stress, the compartments someone used to to hold it all together finally break, and it can all come back like a raging flood.

Mark Odland: 14:43

This doesn't mean that someone necessarily has one big nervous breakdown. For many, it comes out as little floods, strong emotional reactions that occur every day or every week. To an outsider, it might seem like someone's being oversensitive or overreacting. After all, the intensity of the response doesn't seem to match what's actually happening in the current situation. It may seem like they're blowing things way out of proportion.

Mark Odland: 15:15

While this may be true, in truth, their response is perfectly proportional to the unhealed memories that were just triggered. They've just had old emotional wounds ripped open, wounds that never fully healed right in the first place. When unhealed trauma is triggered, there is no past. As far as the survival brain is concerned, it's all happening now. I sometimes tell my clients that a traumatically frozen memory is like a tiger sleeping in its den.

Mark Odland: 15:52

At first, it's tucked away in the darkness of its cave. You might even pass it by and not know what's in there. Or if you know it's in there, you might try to convince yourself it's not by avoiding it. But the trouble with trauma is that it rarely stays asleep forever. It can be avoided, ignored, and medicated.

Mark Odland: 16:16

But without EMDR therapy, you're always just one trigger away from the tiger waking up. And here's the thing. The situations that wake up the tiger can be everyday things, and these things actually get louder over time. They say time heals all wounds. But with post traumatic stress, it's simply not true.

Mark Odland: 16:43

Time just wakes up the tiger.