Healing Complex Trauma Through the Neurosequential Model

At Grace & Emerge Recovery, we understand that healing doesn’t start with a diagnosis—it starts with a story. And for many women, that story begins long before adulthood. It’s shaped by relationships, rhythms, and ruptures that often occurred in early life.

The Neurosequential Model helps us trace that story back to its roots—not to relive it, but to understand where healing needs to begin. This approach allows us to meet each woman exactly where she is developmentally, neurologically, and emotionally.

What Is the Neurosequential Model?

The Neurosequential Model, developed by Dr. Bruce Perry is not a technique, it's a lens. It offers a way of understanding how the brain develops in response to early experiences, particularly those that involve ongoing stress or unmet emotional needs.

Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with you?” we ask, “What happened to you—and when?”

By mapping a client’s developmental and neurological history, our clinicians gain insight into which areas of the brain may be underdeveloped, overactive, or dysregulated. From there, we tailor interventions that support regulation first, then move toward processing, integration, and connection.

Healing in the Right Order

For women who have experienced complex trauma, traditional therapy can sometimes feel frustrating or even unsafe. That’s because when the nervous system is dysregulated, higher-level cognitive processing, like insight or self-reflection, is often inaccessible.

The Neurosequential Model helps us sequence healing in the right order. That means beginning with the brainstem and midbrain—the areas responsible for safety, rhythm, and regulation—before diving into deeper emotional or relational work.

When we honor this sequence, clients begin to feel safer in their bodies, more grounded in the present moment, and more available for connection. Only then can we begin addressing the core emotional wounds and attachment patterns that brought them here.

A Framework, Not a Formula

The Neurosequential Model doesn’t dictate what therapy should look like, it informs when and how healing happens best.

At Grace & Emerge, we use this model in tandem with other modalities like Brainspotting, Polyvagal-informed therapy, somatic practices, and expressive healing. It acts as a compass, guiding the order in which interventions are offered and ensuring that each one meets the client’s nervous system where it’s ready to receive.

It’s about moving at the pace of trust—starting with regulation, then expanding into integration, connection, and growth.

Have a history of developmental disruptions, emotional neglect, or relational instability

Experience intense emotional reactivity, dissociation, or hypervigilance

Have tried therapy before and felt overwhelmed or unable to engage

Need structure, rhythm, and attunement to feel safe in treatment

Are healing from complex relational wounds that began in early life

In other words—many of the women we serve.

The Neurosequential Model: A Developmental Approach to Healing

What Is the Neurosequential Model?

Healing in the Right Order

A Framework, Not a Formula

Who Benefits Most

Gentle, Rooted, and Sequenced Healing