Learning to trust yourself again - how trauma can disconnect us from intuition and inner knowing

Many of us have heard the phrase “trust your gut.” But what happens when you feel disconnected from your gut entirely?

In therapy, I often hear clients say they no longer know what feels right for them. They second-guess themselves, ignore their own needs, or struggle to recognise when something feels unsafe or misaligned. Often, underneath this is not a lack of intuition, but a disconnection from themselves.

So what is intuition?

Rather than something mystical, I think of intuition as our ability to tune inwards and listen to the subtle messages coming from our body, emotions, and nervous system. It can show up as a sense of ease, discomfort, tension, openness, heaviness, clarity, or unease. Intuition is often quiet. It is less about panic or urgency, and more about an internal knowing.

When we are connected to ourselves, intuition can help us navigate relationships, boundaries, choices, and safety. It supports self-trust. Trauma, however, can profoundly impact this connection.

When someone has experienced trauma, particularly relational or developmental trauma, they may have learned to disconnect from their body in order to cope. If your feelings, instincts, or needs were ignored, criticised, or unsafe to express, it can become difficult to know what you truly feel. Survival responses such as dissociation, hypervigilance, fawning, or people-pleasing can pull us away from our inner experience.

Sometimes trauma can also make fear feel like intuition. When the nervous system is constantly scanning for danger, it can be hard to distinguish between a trauma response and a grounded inner knowing.

Reconnecting with intuition often begins with reconnecting with the body.

This can start gently: noticing sensations, slowing down, paying attention to moments of contraction or ease, and becoming curious about emotional responses without judgement.

Therapy can provide a safe relational space to explore these experiences and rebuild trust in yourself over time.

Intuition is not something we either possess or lack. Often, it is something that has been buried beneath survival strategies. With safety, awareness, and self-compassion, it is possible to reconnect with that inner voice again.