Trauma and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Rebuilding From the Ground Up
In the first post of this series, we explored how Virgin River models trauma’s enduring impact — and how community, forgiveness, and vulnerability begin to stitch healing together. But understanding trauma at the emotional level is just part of the story.
To truly rebuild a life shattered by trauma, we have to start at the very foundation of human existence: our needs.
Abraham Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs offers a simple but powerful framework. It reminds us that healing isn’t about “thinking positive” or “moving on” — it’s about reconstructing safety, stability, and trust, brick by brick, from the bottom up.
Trauma disrupts that foundation. And rebuilding it takes patience, compassion, and a recognition that survival always comes before self-actualization.
A Quick Refresher: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
First published in 1943, Maslow’s theory proposed that human needs are structured like a pyramid. You can’t move up to the next level until the more basic needs are adequately met.
Here’s the classic five-level hierarchy:
Physiological needs: Food, water, warmth, rest
Safety needs: Security, safety
Love and belonging needs: Intimate relationships, friendships
Esteem needs: Prestige, feeling of accomplishment
Self-actualization: Achieving one’s full potential, including creative activities
Maslow (1943) believed that higher-level pursuits — like creativity, morality, or spiritual growth — are only possible when foundational needs are reasonably secure.
In essence: you can’t meditate your way to enlightenment if you’re starving, homeless, or terrified for your safety.
Trauma and the Shattering of the Hierarchy
Trauma devastates the lower rungs of the pyramid.
As SAMHSA (2014) emphasizes, trauma can obliterate a person’s ability to feel physically safe, emotionally secure, or connected to others. The physiological and safety levels of Maslow’s hierarchy — food, shelter, protection, predictability — become compromised or feel permanently out of reach.
This isn’t just metaphorical. Trauma alters the brain’s wiring, as Perry (2021) outlines: when survival circuits are chronically activated, the brainstem and limbic system dominate. The body lives in a constant state of hyperarousal, hypervigilance, or shutdown. Cognition, empathy, and creativity — functions of the cortex — are sidelined in favor of primitive survival strategies.
In short: trauma rewires the brain to focus only on survival. Climbing Maslow’s pyramid becomes neurologically, emotionally, and practically impossible without first addressing basic safety.
In Virgin River, we see this vividly. Jack Sheridan, struggling with PTSD, cannot meaningfully engage in relationship-building with Mel until he begins to feel some sense of internal and external safety. Brie Sheridan’s healing journey is similarly non-linear: until she feels physically safe and emotionally protected, trusting others remains out of reach.
These characters don't "choose" to be stuck. Their brains and bodies demand survival first.
Rebuilding After Trauma: Step by Step
Recovery from trauma, then, isn’t about “thinking your way” to healing. It’s about rebuilding the very layers that trauma damaged:
1. Physiological Needs
Before anything else, survivors need stabilization at the physical level: nutrition, sleep, shelter, medical care, bodily safety.
This can seem obvious, but many trauma survivors live with chronic disruptions to these needs — insomnia, substance use, housing insecurity, untreated health conditions. As Perry and Winfrey (2021) note, creating consistent rhythms of rest, nutrition, and movement is often the first therapeutic intervention needed.
In Virgin River, Mel’s insistence on medical care for underserved rural patients reflects this core reality. You can’t heal emotional wounds if the body is starving or sick.
In healing: Trauma recovery starts with stabilizing the body.
2. Safety Needs
Once physical needs are somewhat met, the next challenge is restoring a sense of safety — both external (housing, legal protection, stable relationships) and internal (emotional regulation, predictable routines).
This is incredibly difficult. For trauma survivors, the nervous system may continue to perceive threat even when actual danger has passed. As van der Kolk (2014) emphasizes, feeling safe is not about cognitive insight — it's about recalibrating the body's threat detection system.
In Virgin River, Jack's flashbacks and hypervigilance show that true safety isn't just about where you are — it's about what your body believes.
In healing: Establish external stability. Develop internal regulation skills. Therapies that emphasize body-based approaches — such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), somatic experiencing, or trauma-focused CBT — are particularly effective here.
3. Love and Belonging Needs
Only once survival and safety are (relatively) secured can survivors turn toward relational healing: friendships, intimate relationships, community ties.
This is another colossal hurdle. Trauma often damages trust, attachment, and the ability to feel safe with others. Many survivors oscillate between isolation and clinging, between walls and desperate neediness.
Virgin River's genius is how it models this struggle. Mel, Jack, Brie — all are terrified of intimacy even as they desperately seek it. Connection triggers vulnerability, which in turn triggers old fears of abandonment, betrayal, or loss.
In healing: Rebuilding relational trust takes time, patience, and often therapeutic support. Peer groups, faith communities, and authentic friendships become vital scaffolding.
4. Esteem Needs
Trauma often leaves survivors grappling with deep shame, self-blame, and a fractured sense of worthiness.
As Herman (1992) noted, “The victim’s view of the world and of self is fundamentally altered.” Regaining esteem — the belief that you are capable, worthy, competent, and valuable — is part of the long climb toward healing.
Jack’s struggle with self-worth after military trauma. Brie’s reclamation of her career and voice after assault. Mel’s journey to redefine herself after profound loss. These arcs in Virgin River capture the painstaking work of reclaiming dignity.
In healing: Small, repeated experiences of success, agency, and affirmation build esteem over time.
5. Self-Actualization
Finally, with the lower needs increasingly stable, survivors can pursue higher aspirations: creativity, meaning-making, purpose.
This stage is not about “achieving” in a capitalist sense. It’s about living authentically — embracing your gifts, passions, and calling. For many trauma survivors, advocacy, storytelling, art, leadership, or caregiving emerge from this stage of post-traumatic growth (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996).
In Virgin River, we see this as characters begin to move from survival to service — building lives of purpose that integrate their scars, not erase them.
In healing: Self-actualization emerges organically once survival, safety, connection, and esteem are nurtured.
Trauma Recovery is Not Linear
It’s tempting to imagine trauma recovery as a simple climb up Maslow’s pyramid. In reality, it’s more like a spiral. Survivors often circle back to lower levels when new stressors, losses, or reminders arise.
Healing is about flexibility, resilience, and compassion for the process. Not perfection.
Jack doesn’t just “get over” PTSD. Brie’s healing from assault isn’t a straight line. And real-life trauma survivors — like me, and maybe like you — move forward, back, and sideways as we rebuild.
Laying the Foundation for Forgiveness and Healing
In trauma recovery, we rebuild from the bottom up: body, safety, connection, self-worth, purpose. Each layer matters. Each layer deserves time.
Only by understanding this scaffolding can we fully appreciate why forgiveness — the focus of our next post — is such an advanced, sacred act. Forgiveness, like healing, can’t be rushed. It must be rooted in a foundation of restored safety, trust, and belonging.
As Virgin River shows us: healing doesn’t happen alone. And it doesn’t happen all at once. But it does happen — steadily, stubbornly, beautifully — when we dare to begin.
Trauma Resources:
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (Dial 988) — 24/7 crisis support
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) — Free support groups and education
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) — Crisis help for sexual trauma survivors
EMDR International Association (www.emdria.org) — Find a certified trauma therapist
The Trauma Stewardship Institute — Resources for sustaining long-term trauma work
References:
Ferch, S. R. (2012). Forgiveness and power in the age of atrocity: Servant leadership as a way of life. Lexington Books.
Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence—from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396.
Perry, B. D., & Winfrey, O. (2021). What happened to you? Conversations on trauma, resilience, and healing. Flatiron Books.
SAMHSA. (2014). SAMHSA’s concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma-informed approach.
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The posttraumatic growth inventory: Measuring the positive legacy of trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9(3), 455–471.
Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.