Podcast
Trauma Rewired
Hosted by Elisabeth Kristof & Jennifer Wallace · EN
The Podcast that teaches you about your nervous system, how trauma gets stored in the body and what you can do to heal.
35episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
When Social Anxiety Is Actually a Complex Trauma Response
1w ago00:48:29Tap to summarizeSocial anxiety is often framed as shyness, insecurity, or fear of judgment. But for many people living with complex trauma, social anxiety is a nervous system output shaped by chronic relational stress, sensory overwhelm, hypervigilance, masking, shame, and learned survival patterns. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof explore how complex trauma changes social engagement, why connection can feel exhausting, the role of the inner critic and toxic shame, sensory processing, nervous system overload, people pleasing, social fatigue, masking, emotional suppression, and post-traumatic growth. We discuss why awareness alone does not create change, how nervous system rehabilitation supports healing, and what becomes possible when safety, capacity, and authentic expression begin to grow. If social situations leave you drained, overthinking, scanning for danger, withdrawing, overperforming, or feeling exhausted afterward, this conversation offers a new lens for understanding why. Chapters 0:00 - Social Anxiety as a Full Nervous System Output 0:36 - Welcome: Social Anxiety Through the Lens of Complex Trauma 1:30 - Elisabeth: Why She Never Identified as Having Social Anxiety 2:46 - The Post-Social Binge, the Crash, and What the Outputs Were Saying 4:03 - Jennifer: How Alcohol, Food, and Cannabis Got Her Through Social Situations 5:33 - Scanning the Room, Monitoring Everyone, and Masking It All 7:25 - What Shifting Capacity Actually Looked Like at a Recent Social Event 9:09 - Discernment vs Avoidance: Knowing Your Real Capacity 12:17 - The Neuroscience: Social Anxiety as a Protective Output 13:41 - How the Output Becomes the Input: The Spiral Loop 14:07 - Fight, Flight, Fawn, Freeze in Social Settings 16:07 - Why Masking Is Metabolically Costly 17:29 - How the Inner Critic and Toxic Shame Compound Social Anxiety 21:43 - Sensory Mismatch, Sensory Overwhelm, and Why They Drive Social Anxiety 24:39 - Why Social Environments Are Especially Demanding Sensory Spaces 26:43 - HPA Axis Dysregulation and Chronic Relational Stress 32:12 - Tired but Wired: What It Is and Why It Happens 35:28 - Post-Traumatic Growth and Increasing Relational Range 38:22 - Introvert or Trauma Response? An Important Distinction 40:31 - Micro Exposures, Recalibration, and Growth That Does Not Erase Sensitivity 41:00 - Human Design, Boundaries, and Knowing What Is Yours 43:09 - Neurodivergence, Neuro Abundance, and Social Overwhelm 43:29 - Authenticity, Expression, and Feeling Safe in Your Own Body First Ways to Engage with Neurosomatics Join us inside Rewire: This is where you actually experience the practices Jennifer and Elisabeth talk about on the podcast that brought us freedom, self-attunement, a new relationship with food and our body. rewiretrial.com Explore the neurosomatics of boundaries: boundaryrewire.com Introduction to neurosomatics for practitioners, coaches and therapists - The NSI foundations Bundle: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/workshops/ Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence: https://stan.store/illuminated Join Jennifer on Sacred Synapse to explore the intersection of neurosomatics and Psychedelic neuroscience: https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors: FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Resources and Links NSI Foundations Bundle for coaches and practitioners: neurosomaticintelligence.com/foundations Two week Rewire Trial of guided neuro somatic training: rewiretrial.com Learn more about Elisabeth's work at brainbased.com Learn more about Jennifer's work at her YouTube channel: Sacred Synapse https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and Rewiretrail.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewired@gmail.com All rights in our content are reserved
Transcribe →Toxic Shame: When Complex Trauma Becomes Your Identity
2w ago00:44:14Tap to summarizeThere is a difference between feeling ashamed and living inside shame. One is a passing signal. The other is the background atmosphere of an entire nervous system. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof go deep on toxic shame as the next distinguishing characteristic of complex trauma in their CPT series. This is one of the most personal episodes they have recorded. Both hosts share what shame actually sounded like at its loudest in their lives, the specific words, the body states, the loops that ran for years before they had any way to interrupt them. And they are honest about where they still meet it today. Toxic shame in complex trauma is not just a feeling that shows up after a mistake. It is an identity state. It shifts from "I did something wrong" to "I am wrong." It shapes posture, vocal tone, breath, gaze, and the way the body interprets every social interaction as potential exposure or rejection. And because it developed in relationship, specifically in environments where expressing needs or emotions led to punishment, abandonment, or humiliation, it becomes deeply tied to every relational experience that follows. Elisabeth and Jennifer trace the full arc of how shame develops, from the child who cannot afford to see their caregiver as unsafe and so turns the blame inward, to the adult who moves through professional and personal relationships with a chronic bracing for exposure. They cover the neurobiology in depth: what the insula, default mode network, and vagus nerve have to do with chronic shame states, why shame can both amplify and numb internal sensation at the same time, and how shame formation, the physiological pairing of emotional shame states with immune and inflammatory responses, helps explain the health outcomes seen in adverse childhood experience research. The conversation also covers the double bind of shame in complex trauma, the trap of needing connection while also bracing for what connection has always brought. How shame drives substance use and disordered eating as regulation strategies. How systemic and cultural forces layer onto developmental shame in ways that make the pattern larger than any individual. And what post-traumatic growth actually looks like here: not confidence, not the absence of shame, but a little more space between the wave and the response, a little longer staying present in the body before the collapse happens, and gradually, relationships where being imperfect does not mean being abandoned. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why toxic shame in complex trauma shifts from an emotion into an identity state How shame develops as a survival strategy when caregivers are unsafe and self-blame becomes the only available adaptation Why shame is not just cognitive but embodied, showing up in posture, vocal tone, breath, gaze, and gesture What shame formation is and how chronic shame states are linked to inflammation, immune dysregulation, and the health outcomes in ACE research How the insula, default mode network, and vagus nerve are involved in chronic shame patterning Why shame can simultaneously amplify and numb internal sensation and what that means for healing The double bind of shame: needing connection while bracing against it How systemic and cultural shaming layers onto developmental shame and why the nervous system cannot fully distinguish between them How shame drives substance use and disordered eating as regulation strategies and why the shame-use cycle is so hard to interrupt What post-traumatic growth looks like in relation to shame: not the absence of it, but increased range, flexibility, and capacity to stay present with it How accountability, relational repair, and allowing others to have their own experience gradually shifts the shame pattern Chapters 0:00 - The Difference Between Feeling Ashamed and Living Inside Shame 0:33 - Welcome: Toxic Shame Through the Lens of Complex PTSD 1:54 - What Shame Actually Is: A Whole Body Physiological Response 2:14 - When Shame Becomes an Identity State 3:01 - Shame in the Body: Posture, Voice, Breath, and Withdrawal 3:34 - Systemic and Cultural Shame: When the Group Itself Is Dysregulated 5:55 - Shame as the Emotion That Represses All Other Emotions 7:15 - How Shame Develops in Complex Trauma: The Child Who Cannot Blame the Caregiver 8:48 - Everything Is My Fault as a State of Being 9:43 - Jennifer and Elisabeth Share What Shame Sounded Like at Its Loudest 11:28 - How Shame Physically Inhibits Expression 12:09 - The Double Bind: Needing Connection While Bracing Against It 14:00 - The Neurobiology: Insula, Freeze, Dissociation, and No Safe Discharge 17:31 - Large Scale Neural Patterning: DMN Loops, Reward Signaling, and Oxytocin 18:36 - What Shame Looks Like Now for Jennifer and Elisabeth 23:51 - Shame Formation: Inflammation, the Vagus Nerve, and ACE Research 26:43 - The Shame and Substance Use Cycle 30:28 - How Both Hosts Used Substances to Regulate Shame 34:15 - Systemic Shame and the Brain's Drive for Belonging 36:10 - What Post-Traumatic Growth Actually Looks Like With Shame 38:51 - Relational Healing: Repair, Accountability, and Letting Someone Love You Imperfectly 41:14 - Allowing Another Person to Have Their Experience Without Collapsing Resources and Links NSI Foundations Bundle for coaches and practitioners: neurosomaticintelligence.com/foundations Two week Rewire Trial of guided neuro somatic training: rewiretrial.com Learn more about Elisabeth's work at brainbased.com Learn more about Jennifer's work at her YouTube channel: Sacred Synapse https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and Rewiretrail.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewired@gmail.com All rights in our content are reserved
Transcribe →Complex Trauma and the Inner Critic: Why You're So Hard on Yourself
3w ago00:45:18Tap to summarizeEveryone has a critical inner voice. But if you grew up in an environment shaped by chronic relational stress, that voice does not just comment. It runs. It loops. It drives your body into a stress state before you have even finished the thought. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof explore the inner critic as the next distinguishing characteristic of complex trauma in their ongoing CPT series. This is not a conversation about toxic positivity or affirmations. It is a precise, neuroscience-grounded look at why the inner critic develops, what it is actually doing in the brain and nervous system, and what it genuinely takes to loosen its grip over time. The inner critic is a predictive safety mechanism. It developed to preempt rejection, suppress behaviors that previously led to punishment, and maintain attachment in environments where connection felt conditional. It is not your core self. It is a learned neural pattern rooted in threat detection and self-referential processing that, once formed, keeps running because it worked. Or at least, it worked enough. Jennifer and Elisabeth trace how chronic relational stress reorganizes the default mode network around threat rather than flexible identity development, what the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex have to do with rumination and shame-based identity loops, and why children with developmental trauma learn to blame themselves for relational failures that were never their fault in the first place. They also go deep on the outward expression of the same pattern: the external critic, the person who micromanages, projects, and stays braced and guarded because the nervous system is still predicting the letdown. Both hosts bring this into their own lived experience with real honesty. Elisabeth talks about the constant body-focused narrator that used to run during recording sessions. Jennifer shares what the inner critic sounds like when she is launching something new and putting her voice out into the world. Neither of them is pretending it is gone. They are showing what it looks like when it no longer runs the show. The episode closes with practical, nervous system-grounded pathways for working with the inner critic, including why celebration and reward matter more than positive thinking, how oxytocin-mediated safety gradually quiets social threat monitoring, and why the most important move is not arguing with the voice but interrupting the loop at the body level first. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why the inner critic is a predictive nervous system adaptation, not a reflection of truth or identity How chronic relational stress reorganizes the default mode network around threat and self-monitoring What the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex have to do with rumination and the inner critic Why children with developmental trauma internalize relational failures as personal flaws How perfectionism, body criticism, and post-performance crashes are all outputs of the same underlying pattern What the external critic is, why it always coexists with a loud inner critic, and how to recognize it in yourself Why you cannot think your way out of the inner critic loop and what actually interrupts it How the ventral striatum and reward signaling can be used to reinforce new behaviors and self-expression Why oxytocin-mediated safety, through connection, touch, nature, and sensory pleasure, reduces the social threat driving the critic What post-traumatic growth actually looks like in relation to the inner critic: not eliminating it, but expanding capacity beyond it Chapter Markers 0:00 - The Inner Critic as a Distinguishing Characteristic of Complex Trauma 0:58 - Welcome: What the Inner Critic Actually Is 1:49 - Jennifer and Elisabeth Share Their Own Inner Critic Experiences 4:36 - Why This Matters: Recognizing Complex Trauma in the Patterns 5:33 - The Difference Between a Normal Inner Critic and a Trauma-Amplified One 7:11 - The Neuro Biology: How the Inner Critic Develops as a Protective Pattern 8:28 - How Authenticity Becomes a Threat Signal 10:38 - The Default Mode Network and Self-Referential Rumination 13:52 - What the Growth Edge Actually Feels Like in Practice 17:05 - The Brain Science: The Default Mode Network, Medial PFC, and Posterior Cingulate 19:22 - Why Developmental Trauma Teaches Children to Blame Themselves 21:10 - How to Interrupt the Loop: Sensory Anchoring, Movement, and Tools 23:18 - Working With State to Shift the Story 24:51 - Perfectionism as an Output of the Inner Critic 28:11 - Why We Stay Stuck in the Loop Even When We Know Better 29:12 - The Ventral Striatum, Reward Signaling, and Why Celebrating Small Wins Matters 35:57 - Oxytocin, Social Safety, and Softening the Hypervigilance 39:49 - The External Critic: When the Inner Voice Gets Projected Outward 43:03 - Post-Traumatic Growth and the Inner Critic: What Actually Changes Ways to Engage with Neurosomatics Join us inside Rewire: This is where you actually experience the practices Jennifer and Elisabeth talk about on the podcast that brought us freedom, self-attunement, a new relationship with food and our body. rewiretrial.com Explore the neurosomatics of boundaries: boundaryrewire.com Introduction to neurosomatics for practitioners, coaches and therapists - The NSI foundations Bundle: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/workshops/ Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence: https://stan.store/illuminated Join Jennifer on Sacred Synapse to explore the intersection of neurosomatics and Psychedelic neuroscience: https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors: FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and Rewiretrail.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewi...
Transcribe →Why You Leave Yourself: The Complex Trauma Pattern of Self Abandonment
4w ago00:46:10Tap to summarizeThe deepest wound in complex trauma is not emotional intensity. It is the learned loss of connection to yourself. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof open the next chapter of the CPT series by starting where the roots go deepest: self-abandonment. This is the pattern they chose to name first—and intentionally so—because when the nervous system learns that staying connected to the self is unsafe, nearly every other complex trauma response grows from that adaptation. Self-abandonment is not a personality flaw or a lack of self-awareness. It is a body-based survival strategy. From a neurosomatic perspective, it is a state-dependent loss of interoceptive access—a patterned inhibition of internal signals that the nervous system learned in order to stay attached, stay safe, and maintain stability in the relational environment. And like every other output explored in this series, it made complete sense at the time it formed. The conversation moves through the neuroscience of dissociation and how it is inseparable from self-abandonment, the brain regions involved, and what their altered activity actually looks like in everyday life. It explores the fawn response—including its lesser-discussed dimension of sexual fawning—and the specific pathways through which emotional neglect and parentification set the stage for chronic self-erasure. Jennifer and Elisabeth also trace how masking—whether in the context of neurodivergence, complex trauma, or systemic oppression—is another expression of the same root pattern: authenticity does not feel safe, so the self gets hidden. But this episode does not stop at the wound. Both hosts share what the growth edge of this pattern has actually looked like for them—what building interoceptive capacity from the ground up felt like in practice—and how self-attunement, the skill of staying present with internal experience without becoming overwhelmed by it, gradually became accessible rather than threatening. This is not a quick-fix episode. It is an honest, grounded map of one of the most pervasive and least visible patterns in complex trauma—and a clear-eyed account of what actually changes it. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why self abandonment is a survival adaptation rooted in the nervous system, not a character flaw How interoceptive access becomes inhibited under chronic relational threat, and what that feels like day to day The neuroscience of dissociation: which brain regions are involved and how their altered activity drives functional disconnection Why emotional neglect, even without overt harm, sets the stage for chronic self erasure How parentification creates a nervous system template of self abandonment that persists long into adulthood What fawn response is, how it operates neurologically, and why sexual fawning is a real and undernamed expression of it How masking across contexts including neurodivergence, complex trauma, and racial and systemic oppression overlaps with and compounds self abandonment What self attunement actually is as a nervous system skill and how it is different from insight or emotional processing alone Why healing is capacity-based rather than cathartic, and what that means for pacing How both hosts have rebuilt interoceptive access over time and what that process has opened up for them Chapters 0:00 - The Deepest Wound in Complex Trauma Is Not Emotional Intensity 0:38 - Welcome: Who This Episode Is For 1:27 - Introducing the CPT Series and Why We Start With Self Abandonment 2:53 - Defining Self Abandonment as a Nervous System Output 4:21 - Pete Walker, Fawn Responses, and How the Child Learns to Attune Outward 4:47 - The Neuro Somatic View: Interoceptive Access Under Chronic Threat 6:08 - Embodiment as the Opposite of Self Abandonment 6:35 - Collective and Intergenerational Dimensions of Self Abandonment 7:55 - What Self Abandonment Looks Like in Real Life: A Case Study 9:21 - Dissociation: What It Actually Is and Why It Is Inseparable From Self Abandonment 10:42 - Brain Science: The Insula, Hippocampus, Amygdala, and Thalamus 14:35 - The Fawn Response and Sexual Fawning 18:17 - Self Attunement: The Opposite of Self Abandonment 21:06 - Rebuilding Interoception: Starting Small 27:19 - Emotional Neglect as the Root of Self Abandonment 29:13 - Parentification and the Template of Self Erasure 31:21 - Masking: Neurodivergence, Systemic Oppression, and Complex Trauma 36:19 - What Growth Has Actually Looked Like for Jennifer and Elisabeth 40:20 - Stress Bucket Dysmorphia and Learning Your Real Capacity Resources and Links NSI Foundations Bundle for coaches and practitioners: neurosomaticintelligence.com/foundations Two week Rewire Trial of guided neuro somatic training: rewiretrial.com Learn more about Jennifer's work at her YouTube channel: Sacred Synapse https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and Rewiretrail.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewired@gmail.com All rights in our content are reserved
Transcribe →From Complex Trauma to Post-Traumatic Growth: A New Way to Understand CPTSD
Apr 2700:45:42Tap to summarizeYou could not think your way out of the pattern. That is not a failure of insight. That is the nature of complex trauma. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof return to one of the most resonant threads in Trauma Rewired's history: complex post-traumatic stress. Several years ago they recorded a series on CPT that changed how thousands of listeners understood themselves. This is the revision. Not a replacement of what came before, but a deepening, one shaped by advances in trauma research, neuroscience, and by the hosts' own continued growth. The reframe at the center of this episode is one that matters: complex trauma is not a disorder. It is not something wrong with you. It is a predictive nervous system pattern, an intelligent set of adaptations shaped by prolonged relational stress, often beginning in childhood, that made complete sense in the environment they were formed in. The question is not what is wrong with you. The question is what did your nervous system learn and how can it learn something new? Elisabeth and Jennifer trace the history of CPT as a clinical concept, from Judith Hermann's early naming of what PTSD could not capture, through Pete Walker's lived experience framework, into the current neuroscience of predictive patterning, interoception, and the body as the site of both the wound and the healing. They explain why complex trauma has no single memory to point to, why it often lives in sensation and state rather than narrative, and why that means healing looks different here than it does for single-event trauma. The episode also goes deep on something that does not get named enough in healing spaces: the trap of the healing vortex. The way that understanding complex trauma can become its own form of nervous system activation, another thing to fix, another layer to excavate, another reason the system cannot rest. Real growth, they argue, requires repetition and safety and time, but it also requires rest, play, and the gradual experience of being okay in the present moment without urgency. This episode opens the new CPT series and previews what is coming: the inner critic, toxic shame, social anxiety, emotional flashbacks, and self-abandonment, each explored not as pathology but as nervous system strategies that once served a purpose and can now be worked with differently. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why complex trauma is better understood as a predictive nervous system pattern than a disorder The difference between CPT and PTSD and why that distinction matters for healing Why there is often no single memory in complex trauma, and why the experience lives in the body instead How interoception becomes disrupted in the context of chronic relational stress Why the nervous system seeks familiar environments, even harmful ones, and how that perpetuates the cycle How systemic and cultural trauma shapes the nervous system in the same way interpersonal trauma does What neuroplasticity actually requires: repetition, safety, and time, not insight alone Why pushing too hard into somatic work can backfire, and what pacing actually looks like How the healing vortex keeps people stuck and what stepping out of it makes possible What observer capacity is, why it is one of the most important markers of growth, and how it develops A preview of the five distinguishing characteristics of CPT that will be explored throughout the series Chapter Markers 0:00 - CPT Shows Up Most Clearly in Relationships 1:13 - Welcome: Revisiting the Complex Trauma Series 2:04 - Why We Are Updating This Framework Now 4:25 - What Complex Trauma Is and Where the Term Came From 6:19 - Judith Hermann, Pete Walker, and Why This Language Matters 7:15 - Why We Use CPT Instead of CPTSD 8:07 - The Distinguishing Patterns: How Complex Trauma Shows Up 10:16 - DSM vs ICD-11: The Diagnosis Question 11:38 - CPT vs PTSD: Different Patterns, Different Healing 13:08 - When There Is No Memory: Implicit Patterning and the Developing Brain 15:20 - CPT as a Predictive Nervous System Pattern 17:09 - The Five Distinguishing Characteristics of CPT 18:07 - Trauma Lives in the Body, Not Just the Story 20:56 - Complex Trauma Is Fundamentally Relational 22:21 - Re-Patterning Secure Attachment Through Somatics 26:35 - Embodied Presence as the Foundation 29:55 - Systemic and Cultural Trauma: This Is Not Only Individual 34:24 - Pacing, Rest, and the Healing Vortex 37:24 - The Role of Play and Pleasure in Nervous System Re-Patterning 41:18 - Building Observer Capacity: The Shift From This Is Who I Am to This Is Happening in Me 43:22 - What Is Coming in the Rest of the CPT Series Resources and Links NSI Foundations Bundle for coaches and practitioners: neurosomaticintelligence.com/foundations Two week Rewire Trial of guided neuro somatic training: rewiretrial.com Learn more about Elisabeth's work at brainbased.com Learn more about Jennifer's work at her YouTube channel: Sacred Synapse https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and Rewiretrail.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewired@gmail.com All rights in our content are reserved
Transcribe →Food Freedom: How Your Nervous System Uses Food for Regulation
Apr 2001:04:03Tap to summarizeYou were not failing at your diet. Your nervous system was doing exactly what it learned to do to survive. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof go deep on one of the most personal and most pervasive patterns they have both lived through: the disordered relationship with food and the body. Building on their recent conversation with Luis Mojica, this is the episode where they go further, bringing the neuroscience, the lived experience, and the practical path forward into a single, honest conversation. Both hosts have a long history with binge eating disorder. For decades, food was the primary regulation strategy, the way the nervous system found relief from stress it had no other tools to process, the way the body found pleasure when pleasure felt dangerous, and the way a dysregulated system managed to keep functioning. They are not talking about this from the outside. They are talking about it from the other side. The conversation moves through several layers. First, why food behaviors are regulation strategies, not character flaws, and why disordered eating works, at least until it doesn't. Then into interoception, the brain's ability to sense internal body signals, and how disrupted interoceptive awareness drives everything from not knowing you're full to being unable to feel your own emotional states. They trace how visual processing deficits can distort body image and increase stress load, how the default mode network gets locked into self-referential rumination and body obsession, and how the salience network learns to flag the body itself as a threat. Elisabeth breaks down what is actually happening neurologically when the obsessive loop runs, why insight alone does not stop it, and what actually interrupts it: sensory anchoring, movement, proprioceptive tools, and the slow building of emotional processing capacity over time. Jennifer brings it back to the body and the breath, to shame, to the secret eating and the shame spirals that followed, and to what it actually felt like to slowly, gradually come out of that. The episode closes with one of the most important reframes in the whole conversation: healing your relationship with food and your body is not about getting the food right. It is a portal into self-attunement, emotional processing, and relational capacity that ripples into every area of life. It is post-traumatic growth. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why food behaviors are nervous system regulation strategies, not willpower failures How the absence of early co-regulation leads to using food as a modulation tool Why diets fail without somatic and nervous system support in place How interoceptive deficits drive disordered eating, emotional disconnection, and body image distortion How visual processing issues can compound stress load and body dysmorphia What the default mode network and salience network have to do with food obsession and body rumination Why psychedelics can soften rigid thought loops temporarily but cannot rewire them without nervous system preparation and integration How to interrupt the rumination loop using sensory anchoring, orienting, movement, and proprioception Why shame is harder to metabolize than any food behavior and how to begin working with it somatically How uncoupling pleasure from shame is a critical and often overlooked part of healing the relationship with food and body Why healing the food relationship is one of the deepest portals to relational health and post-traumatic growth Chapter Markers 0:00 - Food as Energy, Rest, and the High Performer Trap 01:08 - Welcome: Moving From Control to Self-Attunement 03:20 - Six Years of Conversations About Food and How Far We Have Come 06:24 - Every Diet Failed. Here Is Why. 08:31 - Food Behaviors Are Regulation Strategies, Not Character Flaws 11:29 - Safety Has to Come Before Pattern Change 14:19 - Perfectionism, the Inner Critic, and Controlling Appearance as a Stress Response 15:43 - How Vision Training Changed Body Image 19:50 - Interoception: The Missing Piece in Food and Body Healing 23:56 - Physical Hunger vs Emotional Need: Learning to Tell the Difference 28:13 - Interrupting the Pattern in Real Time 30:28 - Building Emotional Processing as a Skill 36:56 - The Default Mode Network and Why the Obsessive Loop Runs 40:05 - The Salience Network: When Your Brain Learns Your Body Is a Threat 41:58 - How to Interrupt the Loop: Sensory Anchoring, Movement, and Proprioception 53:14 - Shame, Secret Eating, and How They Get Woven Together 56:12 - Uncoupling Pleasure From Shame: A Portal Back to the Body 1:01:32 - Food as One of the Deepest Portals to Post-Traumatic Growth Ways to Engage with Neurosomatics Join us inside Rewire: This is where you actually experience the practices Jennifer and Elisabeth talk about on the podcast that brought us freedom, self-attunement, a new relationship with food and our body. rewiretrial.com Explore the neurosomatics of boundaries: boundaryrewire.com Introduction to neurosomatics for practitioners, coaches and therapists - The NSI foundations Bundle: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/workshops/ Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence: https://stan.store/illuminated Join Jennifer on Sacred Synapse to explore the intersection of neurosomatics and Psychedelic neuroscience: https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors: FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Resources and Research Feusner, Jamie D., et al. "Abnormalities of Object Visual Processing in Body Dysmorphic Disorder." Psychological Medicine, vol. 41, no. 11, 2011, pp. 2385–2397. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21557897/ Feusner, Jamie D., et al. "Abnormalities of Visual Processing and Frontostriatal Systems in Body Dysmorphic Disorder." Archives of General Psychiatry, 2010. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2853756/ Madsen, Sarah K., et al. "Visual Processing in Anorexia Nervosa and Body Dysmorphic Disorder: A Review." Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2013. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3786585/ Dhir, S., et al. "Parameters of Visual Processing Abnormalities in Adults with Body Dysmorphic Disorder." PLOS ONE, 2018. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6261110/ Khalsa, Sahib S., et al. "Interoceptive Awareness in Anorexia Nervosa: Disturbances in Body Awareness." Biological Psychiatry, vol. 75, no. 4, 2014, pp. 275–281. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24090776/ Pollatos, Olga, et al. "Reduced Perception of Bodily Signals in Anorexia Nervosa." Eating Behaviors, vol. 9, no. 4, 2008, pp. 381–388. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18928907/ Jenkinson, Paul M., et al. "Interoceptive Sensitivity and Eating Disorder Psychopathology: A Meta-Analysis." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 92, 2018, pp. 387–397. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29935263/ Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your h...
Transcribe →The Hidden Link Between Trauma, Food, and Your Stress Response
Apr 1300:47:01Tap to summarizeFood is not just fuel. It is one of the most powerful ways your nervous system regulates stress, emotion, and survival. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are joined by somatic practitioner and author Luis Mojica to explore the hidden relationship between trauma, cravings, and the nervous system. Together, they unpack why food can become a coping strategy for unprocessed emotion, how certain foods can increase or decrease your stress response, and why cravings are not a lack of discipline—but a signal from the body. This conversation breaks down how stimulants like sugar and caffeine can drive anxiety through adrenaline and blood sugar spikes, while heavier, processed foods can temporarily numb overwhelming emotional states—creating a cycle of activation and shutdown that many people mistake for "addiction." You'll learn how food impacts your nervous system 24/7—often more than any therapy session—and why true healing is not about restriction, but about understanding what your body is trying to regulate. This episode also introduces a new way of relating to food through a nervous system lens—moving beyond "healthy vs. unhealthy" into understanding foods as stimulants, depressants, or balancers that shape your emotional and physiological state. If you've ever felt stuck, ashamed, or confused in your relationship with food, this episode will help you see your patterns through a completely new lens—one rooted in compassion, biology, and nervous system awareness. What You'll Learn: • Why cravings are signals for unmet emotional, relational, or physical needs • How food can activate or calm your stress response • The connection between trauma, emotional repression, and eating patterns • Why willpower fails and nervous system support works • How to begin shifting your relationship with food without restriction This is not about fixing your relationship with food. It's about understanding the nervous system underneath it. #traumarewired #nervoussystem #emotionaleating #traumahealing #mentalhealth Chapter Markers 00:00 - Food Is Not About Eating Less. It Is About Eating Differently. 00:43 - Welcome: Food as a Portal Into the Nervous System 01:56 - Introducing Luis Mojica and the Chocolate at 4 p.m. Story 04:36 - Why Food Belongs in the Trauma Conversation 06:46 - Cravings as a Compass: The Three Unmet Needs Behind Every Food Behavior 08:07 - Why Diets Fail Without Somatics 09:21 - What Happens When You Understand What Your Cravings Actually Mean 14:33 - Food Induced Stress: How What You Eat Can Keep You in Fight or Flight 16:28 - Stimulants, Depressants, and Balancers: The Three Categories 21:55 - Seesaw Regulation: How the Body Unconsciously Alchemizes With Food 28:35 - It Is a Loop. It Was Always a Loop. 32:00 - Food Sobriety and Why Balancers Make You Feel More, Not Less 37:26 - How to Weave Balancers In Without Taking Anything Away 43:18 - The Quiet Diet: Creating Space to Actually Feel Connect with Luis: Get Luis Mojica's new book Food Therapy: A powerful deep dive into how food, trauma, and the nervous system are all connected—and how to work with your body instead of against it. https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holistic.life.navigation/ Ways to Engage with Neurosomatics: Join us inside Rewire: This is where you actually experience the practices Jennifer and Elisabeth talk about on the podcast that brought us freedom, self-attunement, a new relationship with food and our body. rewiretrial.com Introduction to neurosomatics for practitioners, coaches and therapists - The NSI foundations Bundle: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/workshops/ Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence: https://stan.store/illuminated Join Jennifer on Sacred Synapse to explore the intersection of neurosomatics and Psychedelic neuroscience: https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Support the podcast by supporting our sponsors: FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Disclaimer: Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and RewireTrial.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewired@gmail.com. All rights in our content are reserved.
Transcribe →The Mother Wound: How It Shapes Your Relationships, Voice, and Emotional Expression
Apr 601:10:55Tap to summarizeThe mother wound is not just about your mother. It is about the first nervous system that shaped yours—the earliest relational field that told you whether you were safe, wanted, and free to take up space. And it lives in the body long before it lives in the story. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are joined by Brooke Wolfe, somatic voice activation coach, musician of 20 years, and a dear friend of both hosts. Brooke's work lives at the intersection of nervous system safety, vocal expression, and the parts of the feminine that have been suppressed, exiled, and told they are too much. Together, they explore the mother wound as an attachment and nervous system imprint—one that shows up not just in relationships, but in how you breathe, how you move, whether you feel permission to make noise, and whether you have ever truly learned to receive. Brooke brings a perspective that is both poetic and grounded. She shares the pelvis–throat connection as a place where early disconnection shows up physically, how the voice becomes a tool for masking rather than connecting, and how her lifelong asthma reflected a nervous system that never felt safe to exhale. She also speaks to how heroin use in her teenage years neurologically mirrored the flooding and crashing of disorganized attachment. Elisabeth shares how emotional neglect and a mother's absence shaped a deep sense of childhood loneliness, and why co-regulation with other humans became genuinely difficult. Jennifer names the fear of her own power, the experience of moving through life in a quiet tiptoe, and the inner critic that still carries someone else's voice. This conversation expands the mother wound beyond the personal and into the collective—naming how disconnection from the body, voice, and feminine expression is not just individual, but patterned across generations. The episode closes on something both honest and hopeful: healing the mother wound does not always require repairing the external relationship. It requires taking your sovereignty back, learning to mother yourself, and finding the safe spaces and relationships that can hold your depth. What was ruptured in relationship must be repaired in relationship—and sometimes that begins with the earth. In This Episode, You Will Learn: How the mother wound forms as an attachment and nervous system imprint, not a single event but a pattern How prenatal maternal stress can shape fetal stress system development through cortisol and epigenetic mechanisms Why birth is the first moment of separation and how birth trauma shapes early nervous system patterns How rupture in the feminine shows up in the body, the breath, the pelvis, the throat, and the voice Why the voice so often becomes a tool for masking rather than connecting, and how somatic voice work can change that How disorganized attachment patterns in childhood can drive substance use and self-regulation strategies in adolescence and adulthood Why co-regulation with other humans can feel deeply threatening and how to begin building that skill incrementally How the inner critic often carries the voice of a primary caregiver, and what that means neurologically What it looks like to heal the mother wound internally without requiring external repair of the relationship Why the fertile void, the emptiness left by the wound, can become a creative source rather than something to fill Chapter Markers 0:00 - Sending Healing Back Down the Mother Line 1:45 - Welcome: The Mother Wound as Nervous System Imprint 4:00 - Introducing Brooke Wolfe and Why This Work Called Her 7:45 - How Rupture in the Feminine Shows Up in the Body and Voice 13:00 - Birth as the First Separation and the Roots of the Wound 18:00 - Prenatal Stress, Cortisol, and How the Stress System Is Shaped Before Birth 20:00 - The Pelvis, Throat, and Diaphragm: Where Bracing Patterns Live 27:00 - Don't Take Up Space, Don't Be Too Much: The Feminine Conditioning 33:00 - Attachment, Addiction, and the Nervous System Logic Behind It All 49:00 - The Void: What Brooke's Mother Wound Actually Is, and What She Found There 55:00 - The Inner Critic as Internalized Mother Voice 1:01:00 - Healing the Mother Wound From the Inside Out Explore Neurosomatic Voice Activation: Liberate your voice and create somatic safety and self-attunement in the Neurosomatic Voice Activation Course with Brooke and Elisabeth: https://www.brookewolfe.com/trauma-rewired Get 15% off with code: TRAUMAREWIRED Brooke on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookewolfe_/ Ways to Engage with Neurosomatics: Capacity Gap: Free BrainBased workshop for entrepreneurs, leaders and high-performers: rewirecapacity.com Two week trail of BrainBased membership for neurosomatic practices and nervous system rehabilitation and health: rewiretrial.com Introduction to NSI for practitioners, coaches and therapists - The NSI foundations Bundle: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/workshops/ Watch Trauma Rewired on YouTube - Subscribe here Learn more about psychedelic neuroscience and neurosomatics on Sacred Synapse with Jennifer Wallace https://www.youtube.com/@sacredsynapse-23 Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence. FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Resources and Links Oberlander, T. F., et al. (2008). Prenatal depression, NR3C1 methylation, and infant cortisol response. Epigenetics. Weaver, I. C. G., et al. (2004). Maternal care and epigenetic regulation of stress response (animal study). Nature Neuroscience. Seckl, J. R., & Holmes, M. C. (2007). Placental cortisol buffering and fetal stress system development. Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism. Yehuda, R., et al. (2016). Intergenerational effects of trauma on FKBP5 methylation. Biological Psychiatry. O'Donnell, K. J., & Meaney, M. J. (2017). Fetal origins of mental health and stress regulation. American Journal of Psychiatry. Sapolsky, R. M., et al. (2000). How stress hormones influence the body and brain. Endocrine Reviews.
Transcribe →Creativity, Trauma, and the Nervous System: Why Healing Expands What's Possible
Mar 2900:56:46Tap to summarizeWhat if healing from trauma is not just a psychological process, but a fundamentally creative one? In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are joined by Laura Dawn, a psychedelic-informed author, researcher, and mentor who has spent more than two decades exploring how altered states can open creative pathways, support trauma recovery, and reconnect people with vision and possibility. Laura opens by naming something most people carry but rarely say out loud: the moment someone told them they were not creative. Research by Brené Brown suggests that around 80% of people had an experience in childhood that planted a limiting belief about themselves—and for half of them, it was about creativity. From there, the conversation expands into something much bigger: a reframing of creativity itself. Not as a talent or personality trait, but as a fundamental function of being human. Drawing on her graduate research and the Five P's of creativity framework, Laura maps creativity onto the arc of healing. She shows how psychological flexibility—one of the strongest predictors of post-traumatic growth—is also directly linked to creative capacity. The connection between trauma, recovery, psychedelics, and creativity is not metaphorical. It is neurological. Together, they explore how trauma narrows perception into rigid patterns, and how healing—through nervous system regulation, somatic work, and in some cases psychedelic-assisted therapy—reopens the mind to new ideas, new narratives, and new ways of being. The conversation also challenges the culture of speed and optimization, reframing slow living as a deep psychological restructuring rather than an aesthetic. And it asks a larger question: what becomes possible, individually and collectively, when we begin to value creativity and beauty as much as we value productivity and output? In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why creativity is not a personality trait but a fundamental dimension of what it means to be human How the industrial education system planted limiting beliefs about creativity that still shape adults today The five P's of creativity framework and how it maps onto psychedelic preparation and integration Why psychological flexibility is a predictor of both post-traumatic growth and creative achievement How the default mode network drives self-referential rumination in trauma and addiction, and how psychedelics disrupt that loop Why nervous system preparation before a psychedelic journey changes what becomes possible in and after the experience The surprising connection between compassion, forgiveness, and creative capacity Why slow living is actually a profound re-patterning of how we relate to time, not a lifestyle trend What creativity looks like as a mechanism for healing complex trauma, not just as an outcome of it Chapters 0:00 - The Healing Journey as a Creative Act 01:32 - Welcome and Introducing Laura Dawn 03:07 - What Is Creativity? A Word Association Game and the Limiting Beliefs We Carry 07:59 - The Five P's of Creativity and How They Map Onto the Healing Arc 17:45 - What Would the World Look Like If Artists Believed in Themselves? 21:30 - Collective Creativity, North Stars, and What We Are Actually Building Toward 26:37 - Survival Culture, Speed, and Why Slow Living Is Harder Than It Looks 33:36 - Complex Trauma, Neurodivergence, and the Creative Gifts Within the Wound 38:55 - Psychological Flexibility: The Bridge Between Trauma, Psychedelics, and Creativity 43:08 - The Hamster Wheel, the Default Mode Network, and Psychedelics as Pattern Disruptors 50:36 - Preparation, Embodiment, and Why One Good Rep Has to Be Whole-System 51:36 - Compassion, Forgiveness, and Why That Is Where Creativity Actually Comes Online Ways to Engage with Neurosomatics FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired Wayfinder Journal: Track nervous system patterns and support preparation and integration through Neurosomatic Intelligence. Two week trail of BrainBased membership for neurosomatic practices and nervous system rehabilitation and health: rewiretrial.com Introduction to NSI for practitioners, coaches and therapists - The NSI foundations Bundle: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/workshops/ Connect with Laura Dawn: livefreelaurad.com Watch Trauma Rewired on YouTube - Subscribe here Learn more about psychedelic neuroscience and neurosomatics on Sacred Synapse with Jennifer Wallace Capacity Gap: Free BrainBased workshop for entrepreneurs, leaders and high-performers: rewirecapacity.com
Transcribe →The Nervous System of Leadership: Why Strategy Isn't Enough
Mar 2300:59:45Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are joined by Oren Shai, organizational psychologist, somatic executive coach, and NSI-certified practitioner, for a conversation about what happens when nervous system literacy meets the corporate world. After years working inside large organizations, including LinkedIn, Oren kept seeing the same pattern: all the right strategies, all the right tactics, and none of the essential human work getting done. What if the quality of your leadership isn't determined by your intelligence, experience, or decision-making frameworks—but by your nervous system's capacity to feel? In this conversation, we explore how emotional repression, trauma patterns, and chronic stress shape leadership, team dynamics, and organizational culture—and why so many high performers are operating at a hidden cost to their health, relationships, and sense of self. This episode is for leaders, entrepreneurs, practitioners, and anyone who has ever found themselves doing everything "right" professionally, while feeling depleted, disconnected, or like they're holding it all together behind the scenes. Because leadership isn't just about what you do. It's about what your nervous system can hold. In This Episode, You Will Learn: Why the quality of leadership is tied directly to nervous system capacity Why high performers are often high performers because of trauma, not despite it The difference between nervous system regulation as coping versus as a foundation for aligned action Why leaders are emotionally contagious, and what that means for organizational health What embodied leadership looks like, and why it changes everything for teams Chapters 0:00 - The Doorway Into the Real Conversation: Co-Founders and What Goes Unnamed 1:08 - Welcome: What Leadership Capacity Actually Requires 2:51 - Introducing Oren Shai: From the Tech World to Somatic Executive Coaching 7:10 - What Elisabeth Hears from Women Executives When No One Else Is Listening 11:43 - Organizations Have a Nervous System Too 13:31 - Leaders Are Emotionally Contagious: The Ripple Effect of Embodied Leadership 22:39 - How Oren Opens the Conversation with Leadership Teams 30:14 - Most Careers Are Fueled by Coffee and Trauma 37:25 - Why Individual Work Alone Cannot Create Organizational Change 43:45 - Slowing Down Enough to Remember What Aliveness Feels Like 51:35 - Moving From Nervous System Regulation as Coping to Capacity as a Daily Practice 57:50 - Closing Reflection: Start Close In Ways to Engage with Neurosomatics Capacity Gap: Free BrainBased workshop for entrepreneurs, leaders and high-performers: rewirecapacity.com Two week trail of BrainBased membership for neurosomatic practices and nervous system rehabilitation and health: rewiretrial.com Introduction to NSI for practitioners, coaches and therapists - The NSI foundations Bundle: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/workshops/ Connect with Oren Shai: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oshai/ Watch Trauma Rewired on YouTube - Subscribe here Learn more about psychedelic neuroscience and neurosomatics on Sacred Synapse with Jennifer Wallace Disclaimer: Trauma Rewired podcast is intended to educate and inform but does not constitute medical, psychological or other professional advice or services. Always consult a qualified medical professional about your specific circumstances before making any decisions based on what you hear. We share our experiences, explore trauma, physical reactions, mental health and disease. If you become distressed by our content, please stop listening and seek professional support when needed. Do not continue to listen if the conversations are having a negative impact on your health and well-being. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, or in mental health crisis and you are in the United States you can 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. If someone's life is in danger, immediately call 911. We do our best to stay current in research, but older episodes are always available. We don't warrant or guarantee that this podcast contains complete, accurate or up-to-date information. It's very important to talk to a medical professional about your individual needs, as we aren't responsible for any actions you take based on the information you hear in this podcast. We invite guests onto the podcast. Please note that we don't verify the accuracy of their statements. Our organization does not endorse third-party content and the views of our guests do not necessarily represent the views of our organization. We talk about general neuro-science and nervous system health, but you are unique. These are conversations for a wide audience. They are general recommendations and you are always advised to seek personal care for your unique outputs, trauma and needs. We are not doctors or licensed medical professionals. We are certified neuro-somatic practitioners and nervous system health/embodiment coaches. We are not your doctor or medical professional and do not know you and your unique nervous system. This podcast is not a replacement for working with a professional. The BrainBased.com site and RewireTrial.com is a membership site for general nervous system health, somatic processing and stress processing. It is not a substitute for medical care or the appropriate solution for anyone in mental health crisis. Any examples mentioned in this podcast are for illustration purposes only. If they are based on real events, names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. We've done our best to ensure our podcast respects the intellectual property rights of others, however if you have an issue with our content, please let us know by emailing us at traumarewired@gmail.com. All rights in our content are reserved.
Transcribe →