When Emotions Live in Your Body: A Different Way of Thinking About Healing
I wanted to share an email I received this morning from Jason van Blerk at Human Garage that perfectly captures something I see in my own practice—the way unprocessed emotions don’t just live in our minds, but actually reshape our bodies over time.
What struck me about Jason’s approach is how he connects emotional holding patterns to physical structure in such a concrete way. The idea that anger can create tension lines from the groin to the big toe, eventually causing bunions, isn’t mystical thinking—it’s recognizing that our bodies are integrated systems where nothing exists in isolation.
This resonates deeply with my own understanding of how trauma and stuck emotions express themselves somatically. In my work, I often see people who have “done all the emotional work” but whose bodies are still holding onto old patterns. Thomas Hanna called this sensorimotor amnesia—the way our nervous system forgets to release certain muscular contractions, until tension becomes the background music of our lives.
There’s something missing when we try to heal the mind without including the body, or address the body without honoring what it has been carrying emotionally. Real transformation doesn’t have to be either/or. It can be top-down and bottom-up at once: the mind bringing awareness, the body unwinding, each catalyzing the other. Sometimes the fascial release process moves spontaneously; other times we need tools and relational support to help it open.
That’s why I find it so valuable to integrate different modalities and perspectives along the healing path. Each one offers a piece of the puzzle. When we weave them together—somatic work, emotional processing, fascial release, spiritual practice—we create the medicine that actually works for us.
I’m not affiliated with Human Garage and I don’t know Jason personally, but his perspective on fascia as a key player in emotional release resonates with what I’ve witnessed in somatic work—that healing isn’t about choosing mind or body, but about allowing them to come into coherence together.
Here’s his email:
This is a 27-degree scoliosis.
It was reduced by almost half.
Here's the secret:
I believe bones float inside the body.
The only bones that actually touch are the ribcage and ears.
That means they can move around more easily than we think.
However, when we hold onto emotions or repeat the same movements (like sitting in a chair), we build tension lines in the fascia.
Fascia locks into position and pulls the bones and organs out of place.
For example, if you hold onto anger... we've seen it create bunions.
Why?
Because anger creates tension in the groin all the way into the big toe.
Over time, this begins to change the way we walk and move and, ultimately, the way the bones sit in the body.
But there's a way to unwind these tension lines.
We need to:
Address the emotions
Unwind the fascial restrictions in the body (through fascial maneuvers)
But what does addressing emotions even mean?
A lot of the time, I work with people, and they say, "I've done all the emotional work already."
But for some reason, they're still feeling stuck.
We can process emotions by:
Acknowledging them + giving them time and space to process
Changing perception of the situation that brought them up
Moving our fascia
Most of the time, the missing piece addresses how the emotion is trapped in the body.
If we do Fascial Maneuvers—which are slow rotational movements that unwind fascia and reprogram the body—we see the body change rapidly.
So if you're in this position where you feel you've tried everything or you've done all of the emotional work but your body isn't changing...
It could be your fascia needs some love and attention.
I genuinely believe Fascial Maneuvers has been the missing piece to unwind stress, emotions, and trauma from the body.
When we deal with scoliosis, autoimmune, Parkinson's, dementia, chronic anxiety, stress, and pain—we have found success when people move their fascia daily.
The possibilities are endless.
Healing should never be a long, exhaustive process. It should be as simple as:
Move your body
Remove chemicals
Get into nature
Connect with community
Find your purpose
But somehow it has become a game of what technology, supplement, or therapy can I do next to take away and suppress what's really going on...
I want to bring things back to the basics and empower people to heal themselves through simple movements.
I've documented the entire process in a 28 Day Life Reset, which we are starting in 2 days with people from all around the world.
This program is 15 minutes of fascia-based movements for 28 days to completely reset your life.
If you want to join the global reset, we begin in 2 days, on Sept 20th, 2025.
You can learn more about the program here.
See you inside,
Jason van Blerk
Human Garage
