Episode 18: Why Your Body Keeps Score: Grief, Stress, and Trauma with Courtney Copeland
Courtney Copeland's dad died suddenly. For six months afterward, she burped. Constantly. No soda, no stomach bug, just her body processing grief her mind hadn't caught up to yet.
Courtney is a trauma-informed counselor, Reiki practitioner, and integrative somatic healer. Her clients call her their trauma bestie. She's sat with first responders after their worst calls, walked human trafficking survivors through healing, and held space for the caregivers who rarely get asked how they're doing themselves.
I asked her how grief and stress actually show up in the body, and her list didn't stop: GI issues, migraines, missed periods, pain that shows up with no clear cause. The kind of thing you take to a doctor and hear "everything looks normal" while your body is telling you something completely different.
Why she walked away from her license
Courtney had a provisional counseling license. Full licensure would have limited her to serving clients in Virginia. Trauma doesn't stop at a state line, so she chose to work outside that system instead, without the paperwork requirements that come with taking insurance.
Healing isn't linear
Courtney describes healing like a jack-in-the-box. You process something, close the lid, and move on with your life. Then, without warning, it pops back up. You process a little more, close the lid again. Some people go years cranking that handle before it opens all the way. That's not failure. That's how healing actually works.
How stress and grief live in the body
Cortisol takes over during stress and pushes out the hormones that regulate your mood, your cycle, your libido. Left there long enough, your body starts sending signals: unexplained missed periods, erectile dysfunction, migraines, tension that settles into your neck, shoulders, or jaw. Courtney's first question with every client is simple: how's your shit. GI symptoms, she says, are almost always the first sign something is off.
What to do with all this
You don't need a diagnosis, a dramatic story, or a specific incident to work with a trauma-informed practitioner. Stress, grief, and trauma live in the body whether or not you can name where they came from.
If you've been feeling off and can't quite name why, take the Tired Checklist and find out what's actually underneath it: Tired Checklist
Find Courtney: www.thecourtneycopeland.com
Guest bio
Courtney is a trained mental health counselor who expanded her knowledge with additional certifications and training so she can work with the whole person. She made the conscious decision to step outside of traditional licensure constraints to work with a broader understanding and scope of human transformation. She provides a safe, non-judgmental space and guides those she works with to understand what's beneath the patterns that keep them stuck so they can heal, trust themselves, and move forward. Her work integrates psychological insight, embodied wisdom, and lived experience to create transformation that is both profound and practical.
