Engrams

Engram or imprint are the words you’re looking for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engram

It’s where an emotional imprint has formed due to high emotional stress.

It can be either or both a mind or body reflex.

It is in fact a survival reflex.

Unfortunately the reflex (survival mechanism) is no longer needed in today’s environment.

For practical purposes:

Bodywork may cause an emotional outburst of crying or laughing.

This is due to a charged memory stored in a body part.

When the muscle is touched or manipulated in a specific manner, the emotion is triggered.

The other is what I call brain looping.

A fear or negative (usually) feedback memory is triggered.

Sometimes rarely, other times many times throughout the day.

EFT or some variant would be best to overcome brain looping.

As for early child abuse I recommend Myss and her Sacred Contracts.

This gives the mind a basis for understanding for which there is no justification.

Hope this helps.

Savagegrace