Written by Reza Mohammed, M.A., supervised by Andrew Hahn, Psy.D. — Licensed clinical psychologist, trauma specialist, and founder of Life Centered Therapy in Waltham, MA, specializing in trauma-informed care for anxiety, PTSD, depression, and relationship challenges.
Updated: 06/11/26
Yes. Stress and trauma can cause real, physical pain. When the body can’t fully process a stressful or traumatic experience, it holds onto that tension, which can surface as headaches, jaw clenching, neck and shoulder pain, digestive trouble, or pain that medical tests can’t explain.
At Life Centered Therapy in Waltham, our team of therapists treat this kind of pain as a message from the body rather than a malfunction. Rather than only managing the symptom, the work focuses on the unresolved stress underneath it — and as that resolves, the physical pain often eases.
TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- Stress and physical pain are directly connected. The body can translate unprocessed stress and trauma into real, physical symptoms — not symptoms you’re imagining.
- It shows up in familiar places: tension headaches, a tight neck and shoulders, a clenched jaw, chest tightness, digestive trouble, and chronic pain that scans can’t explain.
- Pain with a “normal” workup is not “all in your head.” It can be the body holding on to something it couldn’t fully process.
- Care has an order: see a doctor first to rule out medical causes, then a trauma-informed, mind-body approach like Life Centered Therapy can help address the stress underneath.
Table of Contents
- What is stress-related pain?
- How does stress turn into physical pain?
- Why does emotional stress and trauma show up as pain in the body?
- Where does stress-related pain usually show up?
- How does chronic stress become persistent or “unexplained” pain?
- When is physical pain a sign of something more serious — and when should you see a doctor?
- How does Life Centered Therapy address stress- and trauma-related pain?
How does stress turn into physical pain?
Stress turns into physical pain through the body’s built-in survival response. When your brain senses a threat — whether it’s a near-miss in traffic or months of relentless pressure — it releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, your muscles brace, your breathing tightens, and your nervous system shifts into high alert. That response is meant to be brief. When it switches on too often or never fully switches off, the bracing becomes chronic, and chronic bracing becomes pain.
This is why the link between stress and physical pain is so well documented. A physiologic stress response floods the body with the chemistry of “go,” and over time that takes a measurable toll on muscles, posture, digestion, and how the body processes pain signals (Psychology Today).
In plain terms: your body is not malfunctioning. It is doing exactly what it was designed to do under threat. The trouble starts when the threat passes but the body never gets the signal that it’s safe to stand down.
Why does emotional stress and trauma show up as pain in the body?
Emotional stress and trauma show up as physical pain because the mind and body are not separate systems. When an experience is more than you can take in stride in the moment, the body holds on to it — and what the body holds, it can later express as a physical symptom. As Dr. Hahn often puts it, the body holds what it couldn’t handle and integrate.
This is where the Life Centered Therapy view of trauma differs from the everyday definition. Most people picture trauma as a single catastrophic event. In Dr. Hahn’s framework, trauma is anything that, at the time, was simply too much to handle and integrate — which means it can be loud and obvious, or quiet and cumulative. Either way, it doesn’t just disappear; it waits to be resolved.
“What have you come to share?” — the question Dr. Hahn invites clients to ask the sensation in their body.
By treating body sensations as unresolved, frozen aspects of consciousness, and asking them what they are here to share, the stuck energy, messages, unprocessed experiences, and lessons (among other things) can be brought into consciousness.
Fundamentally, this is what allows the uncomfortable physical sensations to discharge-awareness and honoring them as messengers of the body and unconscious mind, not just symptoms to be managed.
That single question reframes the whole experience. Instead of treating an aching back or a churning stomach as an enemy to silence, Life Centered Therapy treats it as a messenger — your body trying to tell you something it couldn’t say any other way. The research bears out this mind-body link: chronic pain and post-traumatic stress frequently occur together and tend to intensify one another, and traumatic and stressful life experiences shape both (Journal of Pain, 2021).
How does chronic stress become persistent or “unexplained” pain?
Chronic stress becomes “unexplained” pain through a process called central sensitization. When the nervous system stays on high alert for too long, it can turn up the volume on pain signals and stay hypersensitive — so pain continues even after any injury has healed, and sometimes with no injury at all. Central sensitization is one reason a thorough medical workup can come back “normal” while the pain is still very real.
For someone living with stress and chronic pain, fatigue, or gut symptoms that doctors can’t explain, this is often the missing piece. The absence of a clear medical cause doesn’t mean nothing is wrong. It can mean the cause isn’t structural — it’s the unresolved stress or trauma the body is still holding, keeping the alarm system running.
Anxiety often rides alongside this. The more the pain is dismissed or goes unexplained, the more worried and watchful a person becomes, and that vigilance feeds the same stress response that’s driving the symptom. Naming the real mechanism can interrupt that loop, which is often the first relief a person feels.
When is physical pain a sign of something more serious — and when should you see a doctor?
Always rule out medical causes first. Stress and trauma can absolutely produce physical pain, but pain can also be the body’s way of signaling an underlying medical condition that needs prompt attention — so a physician should be your first stop, not your last resort.
See a doctor promptly — or seek emergency care — for pain that is sudden and severe, pain following an injury, or pain accompanied by symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, numbness or weakness, a high fever, or unexplained weight loss. This article can’t diagnose you, and stress should never be assumed to be the cause until a medical evaluation has ruled out other explanations.
Once medical causes have been considered and your pain persists — especially if it tracks with stress and your tests keep coming back clear — that’s a reasonable point to explore whether unresolved stress or trauma is part of the picture.
What does this look like in practice?
In practice, this can be remarkably direct. One client, a teacher, came in with a lingering, choking tightness in her throat that her surgeon said the procedure couldn’t account for. As she let herself feel the sensation and allowed it to share, she connected it to a deep ongoing worry about protecting her children” please put “it revealed a deep, ongoing worry about protecting her children — and once that surfaced and was addressed, the throat symptom resolved. Another client living with Crohn’s disease described the result this way: the work gave him “a lasting sense of psychological and stress relief, which positively impacted my symptoms.”
These are individual experiences, not promises — results vary from person to person, and this work is meant to complement medical care, not replace it. What Life Centered Therapy offers the mind-body sufferer is a different question to ask: not only “How do I get rid of this pain?” but “What is my body trying to tell me?” For many people who’ve felt unheard or dismissed, that shift is the beginning of real relief — and the first step toward the freedom from suffering that is at the heart of Dr. Hahn’s work.
Frequently Asked Questions
My doctor ran tests and found nothing — does that mean the pain isn't real or it's "all in my head"?
No — pain that doesn’t show up on a test is still completely real. When a medical workup comes back normal, it often means the pain is being driven by how your nervous system and body are holding stress, rather than by tissue damage. That doesn’t make it imaginary; it makes it the kind of pain a mind-body approach is designed to help with.
Can stress or trauma cause physical pain years after the event happened?
Yes. An experience the body couldn’t fully process can stay stored and surface as pain long afterward, sometimes triggered later by a stressor that echoes the original one. In Life Centered Therapy, trauma isn’t defined by how long ago it happened, but by whether it was ever truly resolved.
Do I have to believe in the mind-body connection for this kind of therapy to work?
No. The premise of Life Centered Therapy is that the body responds whether or not you believe in the approach. You’re invited to stay skeptical and curious and simply notice what changes for you.
Is stress-related pain the same thing as fibromyalgia, IBS, or other chronic conditions?
Not exactly — fibromyalgia, IBS, and similar conditions are medical diagnoses that should be made by a physician. That said, research consistently links chronic stress and trauma to the onset or worsening of these conditions, so addressing unresolved stress can be one meaningful part of a larger care plan. Always work with your doctor on diagnosis and treatment.
Can addressing stress actually relieve physical pain, or only help me cope with it?
The goal of Life Centered Therapy is to address the root of the pain, not just to help you cope with it. Many clients find that when the underlying stress or trauma is resolved, the physical symptom eases as well. Results vary from person to person, and this work is meant to complement appropriate medical care.
Ready to explore what your body is telling you?
If you’re living with pain, fatigue, or symptoms that don’t have a clear medical answer, you don’t have to keep guessing on your own. Schedule a consultation with a therapist at Life Centered Therapy to explore whether your physical pain is connected to stress or trauma.
About Life Centered Therapy: Life Centered Therapy is a trauma-informed, mind-body-spirit practice in Waltham, MA, founded by licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Andrew Hahn. The practice helps individuals, couples, and groups work through stress, trauma, anxiety, PTSD, depression, and the physical pain that often comes with them — including symptoms that haven’t responded to conventional treatment. What sets Life Centered Therapy apart is its view of the body as a source of wisdom: rather than only managing symptoms, Dr. Hahn helps clients find and release the unresolved experiences the body is holding.
About the author: Andrew Hahn, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and trauma therapist in Waltham, MA, and the founder of Life Centered Therapy. He earned his A.B., Magna Cum Laude, from Harvard University and his Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from Hahnemann University, and is certified by Helen Palmer to teach the Enneagram. He works with individuals, couples, and groups through a mind-body-spirit approach to healing. Read his full bio →
This article is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment by a physician or licensed mental health professional. Physical pain can signal an underlying medical condition; please see a doctor to rule out medical causes before attributing pain to stress or trauma. Outcomes differ from person to person, and no specific result is promised. If you are in crisis or having thoughts of harming yourself, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988) in the U.S., or text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.