The Biology of Trauma® With Dr. Aimie

Latest Episodes:

EP 180: Is Your Acid Reflux a Nervous System Problem? | Molly Pelletier Jun 30, 2026

Show notes

An early read on your nervous system explains why reflux holds on. This episode covers reflux hypersensitivity, lost hunger and fullness cues, and the somatic tools that calm the gut, including diaphragmatic breathing after meals.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/nervoussystemandacidreflux-thegut-brainconnection

In This Episode You'll Learn:

01:10 — Why Molly Pelletier chose to focus on reflux and gut health
02:15 — How is acid reflux linked to the nervous system?
07:30 — Why is somatic work the missing link with reflux?
09:18 — What nutrition shifts actually help relieve reflux?
13:31 — What childhood patterns show up in stomach and reflux issues?
17:16 — Why can't some people feel when they are hungry or full?
22:12 — Which somatic tools help calm reflux?
26:52 — Which foods can trigger reflux during a healing phase?
30:32 — How do you know if reflux is affecting your sleep?
32:22 — What's the most important first step to calm reflux?

Resources/Guides:

Stress or Trauma? Read What Your Body Is Running (free): a Biology of Trauma® guide to tell whether your nervous system is running a stress response or a trauma response, and the sequence it needs next.

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/nervoussystemandacidreflux-thegut-brainconnection

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

EP 179: Why Do Adoptees Struggle With Addiction? | Lisa Coppola Jun 23, 2026

Show notes

This is where adoption, attachment, and addiction meet. An early attachment rupture leaves the nervous system braced and hypervigilant. A substance can feel like the first relief from that noise. Drawing on her own recovery, Lisa Coppola names the four hidden losses adoptees carry. She shares why recovery asks for more than abstinence. It asks for safe connection.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/adoption-attachment-and-addiction-why-adoptees-struggle-and-what-recovery-really-ask

In This Episode You'll Learn:

01:27 — What is the connection between attachment rupture and addiction?
07:28 — What do adoptees describe when a substance finally quiets the noise?
09:51 — The first loss: what is the loss of history?
11:34 — The second loss: why does the loss of trust live in the body?
14:07 — The third loss: how does early separation affect physical health?
16:24 — Is adoption at birth really a "safe window" for the baby?
20:20 — The fourth loss: what is the loss of self through disenfranchised grief?
22:37— Why does healing in recovery come from connection?
29:55 — What can happen when an adoptee reunites with biological family?
33:42 — What safeguards an adoptee from relapse in the hardest moments?
37:00 — What final message matters most for adoptees and attachment trauma?

Resources/Guides:

Stress or Trauma? Read What Your Body Is Running (free): a Biology of Trauma® guide to recognize whether your nervous system is running a stress response or a trauma response, and the sequence it needs next.

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/adoption-attachment-and-addiction-why-adoptees-struggle-and-what-recovery-really-ask

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

EP 178: What Your Eyes Reveal About Your Attachment & Stress | Dr. Bryce Appelbaum Jun 16, 2026

Show notes

Vision is one of the primary signals your nervous system reads for safety or danger. Under stress, peripheral vision collapses and the body locks into central focus. Dr. Bryce Appelbaum walks through three eye exercises that begin retraining the eye-brain connection and the felt sense of safety.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/vagus-nerve-and-vision-how-your-eyes-signal-safety-to-your-nervous-system

In This Episode You'll Learn:

01:21 — What is neuro-optometry, and how is it different from a regular eye exam
03:46 — How do your eyes shape how you move through the world?
14:05 — Can an old concussion still be affecting you years later?
23:09 — How does early caregiving shape vision development?
33:31 — Eye exercise 1: How do you do peripheral pointing?
41:24 — Eye exercise 2: How do you do eye push-ups?
46:26 — Eye exercise 3: How do you do eye stretches and the 20-20-20 rule?
50:06 — What foods support eye and brain health?

Resources/Guides:

The Biology of Trauma® Professional Certificate Training trains health and helping practitioners in the same framework Lacey works from. If this episode resonated with how you want to work with clients, this is the path.

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/vagus-nerve-and-vision-how-your-eyes-signal-safety-to-your-nervous-system

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

EP 177: Beyond Anxious and Avoidant: 6 Attachment Wounds Your Body Learned Before You Had Words Jun 09, 2026

Show notes

Attachment is a survival imprint that lives in the body, encoded before you had language. In this episode, Dr. Aimie Apigian walks through the 6 hidden attachment pains, the adult symptoms each one creates, and why inner work alone cannot reach where the pattern lives.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/episode-177-6-attachment-wounds-chronic-symptoms

In This Episode You'll Learn:

02:54 — How did Dr. Aimie's adopted son become her wake-up call to attachment biology?
10:12 — How does attachment loss connect to chronic fatigue and autoimmunity?
12:27 — Why doesn't awareness or inner work change attachment patterns?
15:24 — What is autoimmunity at the level of attachment biology?
25:06 — What is Hold Me attachment pain and how does it form?
31:36 — How does Hold Me pain become IBS, autoimmunity, and fibromyalgia?
40:11 — What is Support Me attachment pain and how does it shape the brainstem?
46:58 — What is See Me attachment pain and how does it shape self-worth?
47:47 — What is Understand Me attachment pain and which chronic conditions does it create?
50:20 — What is Love Me attachment pain and how does it shape adult relationships?

Resources/Guides:

Attachment Pain Guide — A complete map of all 6 attachment pains, the adult symptoms linked to each, and entry points for repair.

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/episode-177-6-attachment-wounds-chronic-symptoms

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

EP 176: Smart, Strong, and Still Crashing? Why Regulation Matters — 3 Women's Stories Jun 02, 2026

Show notes

Information alone does not resolve nervous system dysregulation. The body comes out of stored trauma in a precise three-step sequence: Safety, Support, Expansion. Skipping the order keeps the system stuck. Three Biology of Trauma® professionals describe the same shifts emerging in the same order, across three different conditions.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/nervous-system-regulation-stories-why-the-sequence-matters

In This Episode You'll Learn:

02:14 — Who are the three women in this episode?
03:08 — How does a teenage body brace lead to three years in bed? Tricia's story
08:10 — What did POTS and thyroid cancer reveal as the missing piece in healing? Alexia's story
10:52 — Why does the cycle of feeling well then crashing keep repeating? Sherry's story
17:05 — What happens when parts work, somatic, and biology come together?
20:50 — What changes when you can name what your nervous system is doing?
25:00 — What three shifts do they each describe in healing?

Resources/Guides:

The Essential Sequence Guide — the same three steps Tricia, Sherry, and Alexia describe, laid out in writing

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/nervous-system-regulation-stories-why-the-sequence-matters

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

EP 175: What Fear Does to Your Immune System: 4 Adaptive Patterns May 26, 2026

Show notes

Metabolic syndrome, long-haul syndromes, hypersensitivity, and autoimmunity are four ways the immune system adapts to a nervous system living in fear.

Each one is the immune system adapting to a fear-driven nervous system. These are adaptations. The body is doing what bodies do.

In this solo episode, Dr. Aimie walks through all four immune adaptive patterns. The fear pattern behind each one. What your diagnosis is actually telling you. And why hope lives in a simple fact: most immune cells turn over every three days.

She also shares her own experience with all four. This is also her own story. Her work in repairing the Biology of Trauma® started here.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/what-fear-does-to-your-immune-system-biology-of-trauma

In This Episode You'll Learn:

[01:00] Why our nervous system always adapts (and our immune system follows)
[03:00] The first immune adaptive pattern: metabolic syndrome
[06:00] What the lab markers actually point to (it lives upstream)
[08:00] The second immune adaptive pattern: long-haul syndromes
[11:00] Pre-existing nervous system state matters more than the exposure
[13:00] Dr. Aimie's college mono-like illness and the decade-long pattern
[15:00] The third immune adaptive pattern: hypersensitivity
[18:00] Why some people don't know they're hypersensitive
[21:00] The three-day window: how fast the immune system can shift
[22:00] What changed in three days with adopted children
[24:00] The fourth immune adaptive pattern: autoimmunity
[27:00] Fear that turned inward as anger (and why)
[29:00] Having all four patterns: Dr. Aimie's own story

Resources/Guides:

Read Chapter 10 of The Biology of Trauma —The Biology of Trauma book goes into all four immune adaptive patterns and the shared root in nervous system dysregulation in chapter 10.

➡️ Full show notes for resources and links: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/what-fear-does-to-your-immune-system-biology-of-trauma

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

EP 174: Grief Is a Verb: Seven Principles I'm Living After Losing Amada May 19, 2026

Show notes

Grieving without getting stuck is possible. But most people don't know what that actually looks like from the inside. In this personal episode, Dr. Aimie shares seven principles she is living right now — attachment grief, heart shock, body holding, and toxic positivity. Not the theory of grief. The actual practice from inside it.

If you have ever wondered how to grieve without shutting down — or why grief and the nervous system are inseparable — this episode is the most personal answer Dr. Aimie has given.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/episode-174-7-principles-for-feeling-grief-in-your-body-after-loss

In This Episode You'll Learn:

04:45 — What is the difference between grief and heart shock?
07:40 — Principle 1: Why does your grieving style depend on your attachment style?
15:00 — Principle 2: What does it mean to let your body be held during grief?
21:50 — Principle 3: How do you anchor to life when the shock wears off?
27:36 — Principle 4: What is the difference between feeling grief and feeding grief?
36:00 — Principle 5: Why does choosing not to numb matter in grief?
39:40 — Principle 6: How do you move from your thoughts into your body during grief?
45:40 — Principle 7: Why does riding the biggest waves require the right person?

Resources/Guides:

Read The Biology of Trauma, Chapter 5: The Whole-Body Experience of Overwhelm. Goes deeper into the vagus nerve, diaphragm, breath, and gut shutdown referenced in this episode. This is the biology underneath every principle Dr. Aimie shares.

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/episode-174-7-principles-for-feeling-grief-in-your-body-after-loss

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

EP 173: What Sugar, Bread, and Salt Reveal About Your Nervous System in Menopause May 12, 2026

Show notes

Food cravings are not a willpower problem. They are messages from a nervous system trying to survive. In this episode, Dr. Aimie Apigian maps the cortisol, blood sugar, and inflammation patterns behind cravings, why menopause makes them louder, and how stored trauma in the body keeps the loop running.

➡️ Full show notes: EP 173: What Sugar, Bread, and Salt Reveal About Your Nervous System in Menopause

In This Episode You'll Learn:

01:00 — What does it mean that cravings are a survival strategy?
02:30 — Why do hormone shifts in menopause make cravings louder?
03:30 — How does blood sugar trigger the nervous system's danger response?
05:30 — What is actually happening at 3 PM when sugar cravings hit?
07:30 — Why does cortisol stop following its normal rhythm?
10:00 — Why does gluten bind the same receptors as opiates?
12:30 — How did Dr. Aimie's own bread cravings reveal childhood programming?
16:30 — How does gut inflammation reach the brain through the vagus nerve?
18:30 — What do salt cravings reveal about adrenal function?
22:30 — Why did Maria's grandmother's cookies become a craving in midlife?
27:00 — What is the neural pathway behind comfort foods?
28:30 — Why does food become emotional regulation when other tools are missing?
30:30 — Why does everything biological get louder in menopause?
34:00 — Why is chronic stress different from a chronic trauma response?
36:30 — How do leptin, ghrelin, and sleep loss feed the craving cycle?
38:00 — What is the path forward when cravings are running the show?

Resources/Guides:

Read The Biology of Trauma, Chapter 14: Support: Building Regulation Through Repair. Goes deeper into the neurotransmitter, blood sugar, and gluten science discussed in this episode.
Program: Foundational Journey — A six-week online process working directly with the nervous system. Where course members practice the exact survival-strategy awareness, somatic tools, and pacing skills that have to come first before the deeper work with stored trauma can hold.
Steps to Identify and Heal Trauma — A Roadmap for Healing. A 23-page guide and assessment quiz to help you recognize whether your body is carrying stored trauma. Use cravings as one of the windows. Download the guide

Related Podcast Episodes:

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

Mother Hunger: The 3 Qualities of Maternal Love with Kelly McDaniel May 07, 2026

Show notes

Mother hunger is what the body carries when it missed one of three essential elements of maternal care: nurture, protection, or guidance.

On this Mother's Day Bonus Episode, Dr. Aimie sits down with Kelly McDaniel — author of Mother Hunger — to map the biology underneath. They walk through how unmet nurture shapes adult eating patterns, how unmet protection leaves a nervous system that never learned to settle, and how unmet guidance can leave a daughter inheriting the wound her mother could not heal.

This is not about blaming any mother. It is about giving language to what the body has been holding so the work of repair can begin.

➡️ Full show notes: Mother Hunger: What the Body Carries When Nurture, Protection, and Guidance Are Missing

In This Episode You'll Learn:

[00:00] Why a high-functioning life can still carry a hunger for maternal love
[02:00] Why is the biological mother described as your 'first home'?
[09:00] What are the three essential elements of maternal love?
[15:00] How does unmet nurture show up in adult eating patterns?
[22:00] What does protection actually mean for an infant nervous system?
[28:00] Why does the embodiment of rejection persist into adult life?
[32:00] What is guidance, and why does it look different for daughters than for sons?
[36:00] What happens when a daughter becomes her mother's confidant?
[41:00] What does it mean to reclaim the tender parts of yourself?
[44:00] Why mother hunger requires relational repair to heal

Resources/Guides:

Mother Hunger: How Adult Daughters Can Understand and Heal from Lost Nurturance, Protection, and Guidance — by Kelly McDaniel
Free Guide: Attachment Trauma Roadmap — Dr. Aimie's free guide on how the nervous system shapes attachment and where repair begins ·
The Biology of Trauma by Dr. Aimie Apigian — the underlying science of how attachment patterns become biology
Kelly McDaniel's website

Related Podcast Episodes:

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

The 3 Hidden Costs of Being the Strong One - Burnout's Real Biology May 05, 2026

Show notes

➡️ Get the full show notes and episode breakdown at Biology of Trauma® Podcast - The 3 Hidden Costs of Being the Strong One - Burnout's Real Biology

You've been the strong one. The one who keeps everything running. The one others lean on when things fall apart.

Your body has been keeping score. And the bill has three items.

There is a specific biology behind the pattern of holding everything together. It is not a personality trait. It is a nervous system response — and it carries three hidden costs most people never connect to the same source.

In this episode of The Biology of Trauma® Podcast, Dr. Aimie Apigian — double board-certified physician and author of The Biology of Trauma — takes you inside the biology of what actually happens when a nervous system crosses from stress into overwhelm, and names the three hidden costs of a body that never resets back to safety.

One is the reason you cannot rest, even when you are exhausted. One is the reason you no longer recognize yourself. And one is the reason your body has stopped repairing the way it is built to repair.

The episode ends with a map. Three phases. A sequence. And the reason the sequence matters more than any single tool.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

[01:00] What happens inside the body when a lifetime of holding everything together becomes the default setting?
[02:22] What is the body's full response to danger — from startle to stress to the critical line of overwhelm?
[04:31] What is the specific threshold where the body shifts from stress into shutdown — and why is that line so important?
[06:56] Why does the body lock into a survival loop when no full reset to safety occurs?
[08:49] How does the body signal that it is stuck in the Body-Trauma Loop — and what does that feel like from the inside?
[13:00] What is the first hidden cost — and why can't the body access real rest in survival mode?
[23:20] What is the second hidden cost — the survival strategies that quietly replace who you really are?
[29:23] What is the third hidden cost — and why do survival mode and repair mode block each other at the biological level?
[37:57] What would actually happen if you stopped holding everything together — and what is the body protecting against?
[42:12] How does the Recognize → Reasons → Repair framework apply to the pattern of over-functioning?
[46:00] What are the three phases of the healing journey — Safety → Support → Expansion — and why does the sequence matter?

Resources/Guides:

Free Guide: Steps to Identify and Heal Trauma by Dr. Aimie Apigian — This 23-page guide includes the quiz Dr. Aimie references in the closing of this episode. A starting place for recognizing stored trauma in the body.
Book: The Biology of Trauma by Dr. Aimie Apigian — Chapter 9 covers neuroception. Chapter 11 covers how attachment and early life shape neuroception. Chapter 12 lays out the Safety → Support → Expansion sequence referenced in this episode.
Program: Foundational Journey — A six-week online process working directly with the nervous system. Where course members practice the exact exercises and sequence that establish a biology of safety that has to come first before anything else can hold.

Related Podcast Episodes:

Grab your copy of The Biology of Trauma

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