Brad SchipkeFounder of Broken To Unbreakable

Why healing trauma feels worse before it feels better?

29 Jan 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:31

In this short monologue, Brad Schipke explains that the discomfort experienced early in trauma healing arises because suppressed emotional and physical pain finally surfaces. He describes this surfacing as a necessary, albeit intense, release—comparable to the cathartic pain of a good cry. While the initial phase can feel overwhelming, Schipke emphasizes that this painful release is essential for true healing and urges listeners to persist, assuring them that the journey leads to a beautiful, healthier state beyond the pain.

Chapters

Why does healing from trauma feel worse before it feels better? Well, it's because you're finally feeling what your body has repressed and suppressed. The pain comes to the surface so it can leave and be released for good. And releasing from your body is painful. It's the good type of pain. It's the type of pain that you feel after a good cry. And that's why healing trauma can feel worse before it gets better, because that initial release, that initial pain coming to the surface can be very intense. But do not let that deter you from healing. Everybody has to go through that initial pain to get to the other side. So keep going. It gets better. And the other side is so beautiful.