Self-Trust, Intuition, and Creativity: Reconnecting With Your Inner Voice After Trauma
I’ve been writing about self-trust recently in relation to creativity—how it’s an essential part of the creative process if we’re to stay the course. Whether we’re creating a screenplay, a character, manifesting an abundant life, or creating a family, self-trust is what allows us to keep going when the outcome is uncertain.
But I’m talking about the type of creativity that is sparked by something genuine inside of us—not the kind where we’re simply producing or replicating what’s already been done.
This kind of creativity is soul-led. It isn’t always logical, and the outcome isn’t always known. It involves risk. And when we’re truly creating from that deep place within us, it inevitably leads to transformation—both for ourselves and, potentially, for others.
My Own Creative Leap
My own example is deciding to recreate my life at the age of 51. I relocated from London to Lisbon with a five-year-old and a newborn, on my own. At the same time, I began pivoting from being a therapist to working with creatives and training as an actress.
During this period, I became a moderator in the acting lounge of Stage 32. I had countless conversations with actors, filmmakers, producers, and writers about the creative process. I also studied manifesting—another form of creativity. I realised that regardless of the medium, the inner process is often the same.
Uncertainty. Inspiration. Doubt. Fear.
I felt them all. I oscillated between feeling deeply inspired and completely terrified. The creative path requires persistence, courage, and, above all, self-trust.
What Is Intuition?
For me, self-trust is inseparable from intuition—but what exactly is intuition? Even as a psychotherapist, I wasn’t sure I understood it.
Intuition can be seen through several lenses:
Psychological: the brain’s ability to recognise patterns based on experience, leading to a “knowing” without conscious reasoning.
Somatic: a bodily sense or “gut feeling.”
Spiritual: an inner certainty, a voice of wisdom within.
As a therapist with thirteen years of experience, I’ve developed what you might call professional intuition—sensing when to speak, when to hold silence, or when to offer an experiment. That’s the kind of intuitive knowing that grows through experience.
But somatic intuition—the gut sense—I’ve found harder to trust.
When Trauma Confuses Our Gut Instinct
As someone who experienced childhood trauma, my body learned early that the world wasn’t always safe. Fear was a constant companion.
So as an adult, I sometimes can’t tell if a gut feeling is a true intuitive warning or an old fear memory being triggered.
For example, I’ve had dates where my gut screamed “run!”—and it turned out the person really wasn’t right for me. But I’ve also had moments where I felt the same gut fear, and the person was kind and safe. For many trauma survivors, the body’s signals can feel confusing.
It’s not that we lack intuition—it’s that our nervous system learned to equate safety with danger.
If we grew up having to stay hyper-aware to survive, it can feel unsafe to relax, trust, or feel certain. Our system may even sabotage calm or stability because it’s unfamiliar.
Learning to Reconnect With the Inner Voice
So how do we rebuild self-trust and reconnect with our inner voice after trauma?
Reconnect with the body, gently.
Spend a few minutes each day noticing physical sensations without trying to fix them. This builds tolerance for being in the body—the place intuition speaks from.Follow your energy.
Ask yourself which choices feel expansive and energising. When I walk around a room speaking as if I’ve already made a decision, I can sense which option feels lighter or more alive. That’s creative intuition.Observe your doubt cycles.
Notice when you oscillate between confidence and anxiety. Ask, “How does it serve me to stay uncertain?” Often, uncertainty feels safer than stability if safety once meant danger.Experiment with acting “as if” you trust.
Try living for one day—or one week—“as if” you trust your creative path completely. When fear arises, bring awareness to your body and breathe back into equilibrium. Over time, this helps the nervous system learn that it’s safe to trust yourself.
The Creative Process as Nervous System Work
Part of authentic creativity is surrendering—to not knowing, to risk, to vulnerability.
Whether you’re writing, performing, or manifesting a dream, the creative path is less about control and more about allowing.
As we heal, we learn that listening to our intuition doesn’t mean getting it “right.” It means building a relationship with our inner voice and allowing it to grow louder over time.
Closing Thoughts
If you find it difficult to trust your intuition or creative impulses, you’re not alone.
For those of us with trauma histories, self-trust is not innate—it’s re-learned. The more we practice presence, curiosity, and compassion toward our fear, the more space we create for authentic intuition to emerge.
Creativity, after all, is not about perfection or certainty—it’s about courage. It’s about learning to trust that quiet inner pulse that says, this way.