Episode
E 319: How Childhood Trauma Creates Emotional Numbness + How to Heal | Megan Margherio
- Podcast
- Adult Child of Dysfunction
- Published
- May 25, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2841
- Processing state
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Summary
What happens after survival? If you grew up in dysfunction, emotional neglect, abuse, addiction, or chaos, chances are you learned how to survive. But what happens when survival mode becomes emotional numbness? What happens when you no longer feel the pain… but you also can’t fully feel the joy? In this deeply powerful and validating conversation, Tammy sits down with trauma-informed embodiment coach, speaker, and author Megan Margherio to talk about healing trauma through the body, reconnecting with safety, and learning how to feel alive again. Together, they unpack how childhood dysfunction shapes the nervous system, why so many adult children of dysfunction struggle with numbness, hypervigilance, anxiety, and emotional shutdown, and why healing is about so much more than “thinking positive.” Megan vulnerably shares her own healing journey and explains why survival is only half the story. The real work comes in learning how to trust yourself again, reconnect with your body, and create enough emotional safety to let joy, peace, delight, and goodness back in. In this episode, we discuss: • Why dysfunction impacts us even without addiction in the home • Emotional numbness and feeling like a shell of yourself • Why trauma survivors often struggle to feel joy • How trauma gets stored in the body • Nervous system regulation and survival mode • Somatic healing, trauma-sensitive yoga, and body awareness • Why talk therapy sometimes isn’t enough • EMDR, breathwork, and healing stored trauma • Learning to feel safe enough to receive good things • Why healing is not about perfection — it’s about becoming more alive One of the biggest takeaways from this episode: you did not survive everything you survived just to exist. You survived to experience joy, connection, peace, and a l…