The Hidden Link Between Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and Trauma
As a naturopath and trauma-informed emotional healing practitioner, I’ve seen how deeply the body reflects what the heart has carried. Nowhere is this clearer than in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis — the most common autoimmune thyroid condition worldwide, and one that disproportionately affects women.
Hashimoto’s is estimated to impact around 5% of the global population, though rates are likely higher due to underdiagnosis. Women are affected seven to ten times more often than men, particularly between the ages of 30 and 50. In this condition, the immune system mistakenly attacks the thyroid gland, leading to inflammation, hormonal imbalance, and gradual thyroid underactivity (hypothyroidism).
Symptoms can vary, but often include:
Persistent fatigue and low energy
Sensitivity to cold
Brain fog or forgetfulness
Anxiety or low mood
Weight gain or difficulty losing weight
Hair thinning and dry skin
Constipation and digestive changes
Irregular menstrual cycles
While Hashimoto’s is often discussed in terms of nutrient deficiencies, gluten sensitivity, gut health, or iodine imbalance, I’ve found that many clients also have a significant emotional and nervous system component. Beneath the physical inflammation, there’s often a story of suppressed emotion, perfectionism, self-silencing, or inherited trauma quietly shaping how the thyroid responds.
The Thyroid–Trauma Connection
The thyroid gland sits in the throat — the energetic centre of communication and expression. Many clients with Hashimoto’s describe a lifelong pattern of not feeling heard, holding back truth, or struggling to express needs. This chronic inhibition can create internal stress that over time impacts the hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid axis — the delicate hormonal network that regulates metabolism, mood, and energy.
Physiologically, long-term stress and trauma dysregulate the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to cortisol imbalance and immune overactivation. Over months or years, this can contribute to autoimmunity — especially in genetically predisposed individuals.
But emotional trauma doesn’t only affect the biochemistry. It also shapes the subconscious belief systems that govern how we live and care for ourselves.
When the Body Says “No”
There’s a phrase I often come back to, from physician Gabor Maté: “The body says no when we cannot.”
Many women with Hashimoto’s are the carers, helpers, and high achievers — people who have spent years holding it all together, putting others first, and pushing through exhaustion. When we live in this hyper-responsible, emotionally restrained state, the body eventually steps in to set a boundary we never could.
One of my clients came to me with Hashimoto’s after years of burnout. She was tired to her bones, yet unable to rest without guilt. During our sessions, she realised that from childhood she had learned love was earned through being good, helpful, and never angry. Her thyroid, she said, had become “the voice of everything I couldn’t say.”
Once she began working with her subconscious patterns — learning to express emotion, set limits, and release inherited expectations — her energy slowly began to return. With the addition of tailored naturopathic support for thyroid and immune repair, her antibody levels decreased and her vitality improved.
The immune system mirrors our inner emotional environment. When someone lives in survival mode — hypervigilant, perfectionistic, or self-sacrificing — the body may begin to act out the same confusion: defending against its own self.
Trauma, Safety, and the Subconscious
To truly understand Hashimoto’s, we must look beneath conscious awareness. Trauma is not just what happened to us — it’s what remains unprocessed within us. The subconscious mind holds our earliest emotional imprints — beliefs like “It’s not safe to speak,” “I must care for others to be loved,” or “My needs don’t matter.”
When these beliefs operate unconsciously, they keep the nervous system in a chronic state of alert, which fuels stress hormones, inflammation, and immune imbalance. This explains why even with optimal diet, supplementation, and medication, many people with Hashimoto’s continue to feel fatigued, anxious, or emotionally stuck.
For deep and lasting recovery, we must address the subconscious patterns and survival responses that are driving the body’s physiology.
Family Constellations: Healing Inherited Patterns
Family Constellations is one of the most powerful tools I use to reveal the unseen emotional dynamics underlying autoimmune thyroid conditions. It’s based on the understanding that unresolved family trauma — grief, guilt, exclusion, or silence — can pass down through generations, shaping how we experience life and self.
In a constellation, clients often discover that they are carrying emotional burdens that don’t truly belong to them — such as a mother’s sadness, a grandmother’s self-sacrifice, or an ancestor’s unspoken shame.
For example, one woman I worked with discovered in her constellation that her thyroid condition mirrored her mother’s story of not being allowed to express emotion or opinion. Her body had inherited that silence as loyalty — the belief that to stay loved, one must stay quiet. When this dynamic was acknowledged and honoured, her nervous system softened. She began to speak more freely, and her energy stabilised for the first time in years.
Family Constellations works systemically, helping us see how our body’s struggles often echo unresolved patterns in the family field. When these entanglements are brought to light, the body no longer needs to express them through illness.
Rapid Core Healing: Reprogramming the Subconscious
While Family Constellations helps us understand why a pattern exists, Rapid Core Healing (RCH) helps us reprogram it.
RCH combines Emotional Mind Integration with systemic awareness from Constellations work. It allows us to safely revisit the original moment a belief or emotional imprint was formed — often in early childhood — and resolve it through guided, compassionate dialogue between the adult self and the younger part of us.
Unlike hypnotherapy, which often relies on positive suggestion, Rapid Core Healing is interactive. Clients remain aware and engaged, creating a true corrective experience that updates the nervous system and releases the body from outdated programs.
For someone with Hashimoto’s, this might mean transforming a subconscious message like “I must hold everything together” into “I am supported, and it’s safe to rest.” Over time, this new inner state translates into calmer stress hormones, improved digestion, better immune regulation, and greater emotional resilience.
Neuroscience confirms that the brain is neuroplastic — meaning every experience of safety, compassion, and empowerment rewires our biochemistry. When we change our inner landscape, the immune system begins to mirror that harmony.
Naturopathic Medicine: Supporting the Body’s Recovery
Addressing trauma and subconscious patterns creates the conditions for healing — but the body also needs nutritional and herbal support to repair thyroid tissue and calm inflammation.
In my naturopathic approach to Hashimoto’s, I often focus on:
Anti-inflammatory, plant-rich nutrition — reducing gluten, refined sugars, and processed oils, and increasing colourful vegetables, legumes, and omega-3 sources.
Gut repair — since 70% of immune activity occurs in the gut, addressing dysbiosis or leaky gut is critical.
Nervous system nutrients — magnesium, B vitamins, zinc, selenium, and Ahiflower® omega-3 for thyroid and adrenal balance.
Adaptogenic and immune-modulating herbs — such as ashwagandha, holy basil, reishi, and turmeric to regulate stress and inflammation.
When this physiological support is combined with subconscious reprogramming, the healing becomes multidimensional — addressing both the roots and branches of illness.
The Path Back to Harmony
Hashimoto’s is not a betrayal of the body — it’s a call for alignment. The immune system isn’t attacking us out of malice; it’s reflecting a lifetime of trying to hold too much, say too little, and survive in overdrive.
Through trauma-informed approaches like Family Constellations and Rapid Core Healing, alongside naturopathic care, we can begin to interpret what the body has been trying to communicate all along.
When the nervous system learns that it’s safe to rest, speak, and receive support, the thyroid begins to follow. Energy returns, mood steadies, inflammation subsides, and life starts to feel spacious again.
Healing Hashimoto’s isn’t about silencing the immune system — it’s about helping it remember that the self is not the enemy.
About the Author
Camilla Brinkworth is the founder of Camilla Clare Holistic Health. She is a naturopath, nutritionist, and trauma-informed emotional healing practitioner based in Bali, but supporting clients globally. Drawing on her extensive background in Family Constellations, Rapid Core Healing, and naturopathic medicine and nutrition, Camilla supports clients in addressing both the physical and emotional roots of illness.
Her integrative approach combines science, emotional healing, and plant-based medicine to help people restore balance to their hormones, immune system, and nervous system. Through her one-to-one sessions, retreats, and educational programmes, Camilla guides others to move beyond survival, reconnect with their innate vitality, and create lasting wellbeing from the inside out.