Trapped emotions can silently shape our behavior, health, and relationships—often without us realizing it. In this feature for Mystic Mag, we explore how releasing these hidden emotional blocks can lead to lasting peace and personal transformation. To shed light on this powerful topic, we’ve gathered insights from experienced practitioners across various healing disciplines, including energy healing, EFT, somatic experiencing, and more.
Each expert offers their unique approach to identifying and clearing emotional residue stored in the body, mind, and energy field. Whether you’re curious about the mind-body connection or seeking effective tools for inner balance, these perspectives reveal how emotional release can be the key to reclaiming clarity, resilience, and a sense of ease in everyday life.
Energy Healer, Linda Riddle: “I Help Clients Release Emotional Blocks”
Linda Riddle, an energy healer and transformational coach certified in The Emotion Code, Body Code, and Belief Code, shares her insights on the following question: Based on your experience, how do you identify and guide clients through the release of trapped emotions—and what transformations have you observed once those emotional blockages are cleared?
“As an energy healer, I help clients release emotional blocks that often go unnoticed yet deeply affect their physical health and emotional well-being. These blocks—called trapped emotions—are unresolved emotional energies stored in the subconscious mind. Though unseen, they can interfere with our ability to give and receive love and contribute to a wide range of physical and emotional challenges, including chronic pain, anxiety, and fatigue. They may indirectly shape how we think, feel, and respond to life.
Each session begins with a brief prayer to center and align our energy, creating a sacred space for healing. To identify and release trapped emotions, I use a pendulum, which shows a clear yes-or-no response when asking the subconscious mind a question. I pair this with the Emotion Code Chart developed by Dr. Bradley Nelson. This method accesses the subconscious mind to pinpoint the emotion needing release. Once identified, I set a clear intention and swipe a magnet over the governing meridian. This creates a magnified flow of opposing energy, neutralizing the trapped emotion and allowing it to dissipate easily and permanently.
Clients often begin with a surface issue—like chronic stress or recurring physical pain— but as we gently unravel the emotional layers, deeper patterns emerge. One client, John, had back pain rooted in early feelings of abandonment related to being adopted. After releasing these, his pain eased, and his sleep improved.
In another case, a child became physically ill after a friend unknowingly drained her emotional energy, an “energy vampire.” This energetic depletion left her exhausted, causing fatigue and a fever. After identifying and releasing the trapped energy, her symptoms disappeared, and she felt clear, grounded, and re-energized.
Clients often describe feeling lighter, more peaceful, and more connected. Releasing trapped emotions makes space for healing, joy, and true alignment.”
EFT Master Trainer, Gail Mae: “EFT Is a Highly Effective, Evidence-Based Technique”
Gail Mae, an EFT Master Trainer, reflects on this key question: As an expert in Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), how do you use tapping to help clients identify and release trapped emotions? What lasting changes have you observed in their emotional or physical well-being as a result?
“EFT (tapping)is a highly effective, evidence-based technique that releases stuck energy and removes traumas frozen in time in your subconscious mind, body, or energy field. Unless this stuck energy is released and any trauma healed, one can experience chronic illness, pain, addictions, anxiety, and depression.
When a client works with me, we identify the presenting issue. All of our problems, such as being stuck in our careers, negative patterns in relationships, grief, anxiety, public speaking, etc. – no matter the issue, will be held in the body. Not everyone is aware of their emotions in the body; that is perfectly fine; we can still tap and get results. If the trauma was too intense, our system will dissociate from it and bury it in the subconscious. Tapping releases and neutralizes it safely.
70% of us have had trauma of some kind. When trauma occurs, the body goes into a freeze response to protect us. It will be trapped forever if we do not release it. Tapping allows energy and emotions to flow again, and the belief learned no longer feels true.
The lasting benefit to clients is that they are no longer held back in life because of fear, pain, or limiting beliefs. I have helped clients get free of debilitating fear, panic attacks, sleeplessness, chronic anxiety, being stuck in their careers, grief, and fear of relationships. They move on to healthy relationships, are happier in their careers, and grow their businesses. They have peace and a more fulfilled life.”
Advanced Somatic Experiencing Consultant, Patricia Berendsen: “Emotions Are Often Held in the Body Through Tension Patterns”
Patricia Berendsen, an Advanced Somatic Experiencing® Consultant (RMFT, RSW, RP, SEP), offers her perspective on these questions: As a Somatic Experiencing practitioner, how do you approach the release of trapped emotions stored in the body? What role does body awareness play in helping individuals heal from emotional trauma and rediscover a sense of inner peace?
“Emotions are often held in the body through tension patterns that may develop from threatening, challenging, or traumatic experience(s). Many of these tension patterns are outside of our conscious awareness. However, when we experience pain, illness, or chronic ailments, we start paying attention. And during times when we are inconvenienced by our physical body, we listen up.
Ideally, we want to get to know our bodies BEFORE something negative happens or we get sick. This means growing in our awareness of physical sensations. Our body is constantly broadcasting information, much like a radio tower. The radio station is there but we have to tune in to enjoy the music ora talk show. Likewise, we need to tune into our body and listen to its wisdom.
Learning to track our sensations can be a lot of fun. Check in with yourself as you engage in your regular activities. You could set random alarms to help you remember. When the alarm goes off, notice anything about your body’s sensations for only 10-15 seconds. Then continue on with your day. When the alarm goes off again, do the same thing. When the alarm goes off again, do the same thing. When the alarm goes off again, do the same thing. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Practice. Practice. Practice.
The only way to get better at tracking sensations and getting to know the language of the body is to practice. Of course, you can learn more about tracking by reading a book, taking a workshop, or a course. But you cannot become proficient in it without practice. There are no shortcuts.
At the beginning of this journey, tracking sensations and tuning into the body may seem tedious, awkward, and challenging. Remember when you were learning how to ride a bike or drive a car? It took time and practice to ride and drive with confidence, right? It is the same with tracking sensations. Having patience with yourself is an important part of the process. Growth can be nurtured, not imposed.
So, how might you apply tracking to something a bit challenging? Let’s imagine you have had another argument with your parent. You might tell yourself, “I am soooo angry!” Great! Angry. “Angry” is a thought. What sensations are you noticing in your body right now that let you know that you are angry? In this moment, where in your body are you noticing the “angry”? Is this a familiar sensation or feeling in your body? Is it tolerable? If it is, keep tracking the sensations and notice what happens next? For example, as you stay with the heat in your belly or hands, what else do you notice? Does the heat move? Get hotter? Lessen? Disappear altogether? If it feels like too much, take a look around your environment. See what gets your attention. Be curious. If and when you feel ready, you can go back to tracking your sensations and notice what is happening now? What are you noticing about “angry” in your body now?
This process of tracking sensations helps you become more self-aware and conscious. This is just the beginning. The more you practice, the more awareness becomes available to you. The more you practice, the more fluent in the language of your body you will be. Our bodies hold exquisite wisdom that is ours to discover. Enjoy your journey.”
Advanced Certified EFT Practicioner, Ruthi Cohen Joyner: “EFT Tapping Is Not About “Getting Rid” of Emotions”
Ruthi Cohen Joyner, Advanced Certified EFT Practicioner, responds to the question: As an Advanced Certified EFT and Matrix Reimprinting Practitioner, how do you help clients identify and release trapped emotions that may be affecting their well-being, and what makes your approach through Your Tapping Journey uniquely effective?
“As an Advanced Certified EFT and Matrix Reimprinting Practitioner, my approach to helping clients identify and release trapped emotions is grounded in calming and regulating the nervous system. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT Tapping) is not about “getting rid” of emotions—it’s about creating safety in the body and honoring emotions as messengers. In my practice, I teach clients to pause, tune in, and meet their inner experience with compassion, kindness, and curiosity.
At the heart of my method are what is often called “the 3 C’s of Tapping: Calm, Clear, and Create”. We begin by calming the nervous system through gentle tapping, which helps shift the body out of a stress response. Once calm, we can connect more deeply to the emotions and memories stored in the body without being so overwhelmed. With this connection, we can then clear old patterns, limiting beliefs, and emotional imprints with EFT Tapping, Matrix Reimprinting and, when appropriate, the spiritual insight of the Akashic Records. Once we have calmed and cleared what is ready to be released, we can create the life we want to create.
What makes my way of working with this through my business, Your Tapping Journey, uniquely effective is that I don’t treat emotions as problems to fix, but as sacred signals calling for loving attention. I guide clients to explore the root causes of emotional distress—not just the symptoms—by helping them revisit and transform key memories that may be shaping their present-day reactions. This isn’t about reliving trauma; it’s about creating new internal experiences that foster healing and empowerment.
By integrating the body’s wisdom, the subconscious mind, and spiritual guidance, I support clients in creating lasting shifts—emotionally, mentally, and energetically. Through this journey, they learn to trust themselves, regulate their nervous systems, and meet life with more resilience, self-compassion, and inner peace.”
Shamanic Healing Arts Therapist, Rainbow Raaja: “Emotions Get Stored in the Body”
Rainbow Raaja, Shamanic Healing Arts Therapist and Host of the Rainbows Rising Podcast, shares her response to this question: In your experience, how does releasing trapped emotions help individuals establish emotional equilibrium and find lasting peace?
Emotions get stored in the body, suppressed when we are in unsafe situations or we are afraid to express ourselves due to fears of judgment or shame. Those emotions do not leave the body. They get stored as memory in the tissues. There are many techniques to release emotions – Energy work, like breathwork or Reiki, can provide a non-invasive approach to exploring deeper stored memories. Massage and myofascial release address those wounds directly by manipulating tissue to release the tension built up from suppressing the emotion.
Think of our body as a river. Our emotions are debris that flows through the river. If we allow things to flow through us, we can watch them down the stream and let them spin or swirl or bump about, but they leave us as long as we allow them to move freely. But if we try to stop them from moving, they start to block the flow of the river (our energy, our motivation). Emotions pile up like logs, and then we start to notice problems: low energy, depression, anxiety, and emotional instability.
If they stay there in the river and pile up, eventually it will lead to burnout, illness, or a nervous breakdown, as the flow of our river has become obstructed, and the body must do something to break down the block. Releasing old emotions is important maintenance for your overall health, but it also gives you a sense of freedom from no longer being reactive to situations that might upset your peace.
Emotions are Energy in motion. When someone begins reflecting on long-held emotional patterns, they start with reliving the emotion they avoided, allowing themselves to feel it more deeply, and giving themselves permission to go through the necessary process, whether that be crying or feeling anger or shame.
They must ease into the discomfort and pain associated without self judgement or restraint. Once the emotion has moved, the body has more space within it. People begin to feel lighter and more joyful, without the density weighing them down. They can see those situations from a more neutral, untriggered point of view and can derive meaning and experience from that particular situation.
They begin to recognize how that particular situation still plays a part in their present moment. They might notice similar circumstances in their everyday life that mirror that moment from the past. No longer feeling the emotional attachment to it, they can see it with fresh eyes, recognizing how they can process and respond accordingly without repeating the same pattern that caused the block to begin with.
Processing emotions allows us to become observers to our own emotional inputs instead of becoming reactive to the emotion itself. We break free of certain thinking patterns that keep us experiencing that wound over and over again.
This type of inner work allows us to release physical tension, create more energetic space within the body and begin to take action for new patterns in our lives. It sets a strong foundation, free of emotional baggage and trauma wounds, to receive new opportunities and build a new life for ourselves. It is the key to breaking free from emotional spirals and mental anguish that are caused by pent-up emotional suppression.”
CONCLUSION
Releasing trapped emotions is more than just healing—it’s a return to emotional clarity and inner strength. The experts featured here show that with the right guidance and tools, lasting transformation is possible. Whether you’re just beginning your journey or deepening your emotional work, we hope these insights offer both inspiration and direction. Let this be your reminder: peace lives within you—and it starts with letting go.
Credits:
- Linda Riddle | The Wise Woman Mentor | www.thewisewomanmentor.com
- Gail Mae | Gail Mae | www.gailmae.com
- Patricia Berendsen | Patricia Berendsen | www.patriciaberendsen.com
- Ruthi Cohen Joyner | Your Tapping Journey | www.yourtappingjourney.com
- Rainbow Raaja | Rainbow Raaja | www.rainbowraaja.love
