If your inner critic won’t shut up about how “broken” you are, this episode is your cease-and-desist. We’re reframing “What’s wrong with me?” into the much more accurate “What happened to me?” — and unpacking how your nervous system’s survival code got written in the first place. We’ll explore the psychology of the moral defense (why kids blame themselves to preserve unsafe attachments), how the four trauma responses — fight, flight, freeze, and fawn — are actually ingenious strategies, and why your anxiety or people-pleasing aren’t moral failures, they’re adaptive blueprints. Learn how to use a simple cognitive reframe to turn shame into context — and start seeing your symptoms as the receipts of survival, not the evidence of damage.
This week's worksheet can be found here.Sources Referenced:Armstrong, Amanda, MA.
Healing Through the Vagus Nerve: Improve Your Body’s Response to Anxiety, Depression, Stress, and Trauma Through Nervous System Regulation. Fair Winds Press, 2024.
Dana, Deb, LCSW.
Anchored. Vermilion, 2024.
Durvasula, Ramani, PhD.
It’s Not You: How to Identify and Heal from NARCISSISTIC People. Random House, 2024.
Ferguson, Anna, CCTAP.
The Vagus Nerve Reset. Random House Australia, 2023.
Gibson, Lindsay C., PsyD.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, Or Self-Involved Parents. New Harbinger Publications, 2015.
Kain, Kathy L., and Stephen J. Terrell.
Nurturing Resilience: Helping Clients Move Forward from Developmental Trauma--An Integrative Somatic Approach. North Atlantic Books, 2018.
Porges, Stephen W., PhD.
Polyvagal Safety: Attachment, Communication, Self-Regulation. National Geographic Books,
2021.Salar, Megan, LCSW.
The EMDR Workbook for Trauma and PTSD: Skills to Manage Triggers, Move Beyond Traumatic Memories, and Take Back Your Life. 2023.
Walker, Pete, MA.
Complex PTSD : From Surviving to Thriving: A Guide and Map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.
Zimmerman, Annie.
Your Pocket Therapist. Dey Street Books, 2024.
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