Trauma Rewired

Latest Episodes:

Trauma Informed Police Care Nov 10, 2023

Show notes

Is it possible to work through trauma and improve nervous system health when your job requires you to disconnect from your body in order to survive?

In this episode, you'll learn how trauma-informed training can transform the lives of police officers and their communities by addressing issues of trauma and chronic stress within and outside of the organization. Host Elisabeth Kristoff, along with NSI practitioners Victor Jones and Janine Harris Elisabeth, recently trained police officers and first responders in neurosomatic intelligence as part of the Columbus CARE Coalition's trauma-informed initiative, and they were moved by the growth and understanding they witnessed from the attendees.

Among their takeaways from their experience is the critical need for support and tools that address the nervous system's role in managing anxiety and conflict, especially in high-stakes professions. Today's conversation highlights how NSI work can lead to profound changes in how these professionals handle daily stressors, show empathy, and heal their communities.

Tune in to learn more about the powerful impact nervous system work can have on our communities!

Topics discussed in this episode:

Janine's work and the Columbus CARE Coalition framework
How NSI can improve the health of police officers
NSI's impact on police and community relations
Integrating the body in conflict resolution
The effect of historical trauma on emotional expression
Columbus CARE Coalition's plan for a trauma-informed city
The potential of NSI work in law enforcement

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program and sign up for the spring cohort now! https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

You can also sign up for our free Holiday Stress Resilience Workshop here: https://neurosomaticintelligence.com/holidayselfcare

Get started training your nervous system with offer for TWO FREE weeks on Brain Based:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

OR!

Check out our free video series with no commitment to the membership follow:

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

FREE 1 Year Supply of Vitamin D + 5 Travel Packs from Athletic Greens when you use my exclusive offer: https://www.drinkag1.com/rewired This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com

Historical Trauma and Attachment Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

What role does our ancestral history play in our attachment styles, and mental health as a whole? Joining us on the show to help answer this question is Dr. Jennifer Mullen, a psychologist, educator, and author of "Decolonizing Therapy!"

Traditional therapy focuses on the individual, but decolonizing therapy puts forth the concept that understanding one's historical trauma and the current socio-political context can lead to deeper healing. And without a safe place to explore these traumas, affected populations don't have the same opportunity to heal themselves and their relationships.

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Mullen dives into the impact colonization and our ancestral wounds have on our attachment, sense of belonging, and emotional expression. She covers topics like migration trauma, separation from your ancestral lands (referred to as the original attachment wound), and how our current culture perpetuates deep-seated intergenerational traumas that have a profound effect on the body and nervous system.

Curious to learn more? Tune into our full conversation on decolonizing therapy now!

Topics discussed in this episode:

The trauma of separation from family and land
How societal and cultural beliefs shape our attachment
What drove her work in decolonizing therapy
Sacred rage and how to safely process it
The importance of emotional expression
Migration trauma and attachment wounding
Colonization and its emotional components

Connect with Dr. Jennifer Mullen:

https://www.instagram.com/decolonizingtherapy/ https://linktr.ee/decolonizingtherapy

Books mentioned in this episode:

Native American Postcolonial Psychology by Eduardo Duran and Bonnie Duran

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy a Degruy

Breaking the Chains of Psychological Slavery by Na'im Akbar

The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave by Willie Lynch

Healing Rage: Women Making Inner Peace Possible by Ruth King

Get started training your nervous system with our FREE 2-week offer:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program here: https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

Head to https://brainbased-wellness.com/rewire-private-neuro-somatic-coaching/ for a consultation to identify trauma responses in your own life and learn how to train your nervous system to move out of behaviors that aren't serving you!

Shame Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

Shame

Season 03, Episode 19

If you listened to our episode on toxic shame last season, then you know that shame is a debilitating emotional response that keeps us from full self-expression. It represses other emotions and inhibits our verbal and non-verbal communication, becoming a barrier to our connection with others.

In this episode, hosts Jennifer and Elisabeth dive even deeper into the neurology of shame and how it impacts our health and relationships. They cover the link between shame and the trauma responses freeze and dissociation, the immunological effects of shame and guilt, and how shame keeps us isolated and drives protective behaviors in those with complex trauma.

Jennifer and Elisbeth also share their own experiences with shame, going into detail with the practices and tools they use to build the capacity in their nervous system and move shame through the body.

It's incredibly difficult to feel secure and connected when you're living life with an undercurrent of shame, but acceptance is the first step to addressing these issues. So tune in now to learn how you can start safely processing shame!

Topics discussed in this episode:

Why shame is a necessary emotion
How shame impacts self-expression
The body's somatic experience of shame
The over coupling of shame during childhood sexual trauma
How shame drives maladaptive survival behaviors
The trauma of dissociation
Working shame through the body
How nervous system work has helped us work through shame

Listen to this episode on Toxic Shame from season 2 here: https://illuminatedwithjennifer.libsyn.com/toxic-shame-cptsd-component

https://pod.link/traumarewired

Get started training your nervous system with our FREE 2-week offer:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program here: https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

Birthing and Medical Trauma Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

Earlier this season in episode 3, Trauma Rewired explored the impact of a mother's nervous system on their child even before birth. But let's take a step back and focus on the overwhelming experience of birth to discuss the layers of trauma in the birth process and the importance of trauma-informed care.

Mandy Irby, founder of The Birth Nurse, is on the show today to share her own traumatic birth experience that transformed her approach to the birth process as a labor and delivery nurse. Since discovering the power of nervous system regulation, she's shifted her career to educate nurses on trauma-informed care and how to build resilience within themselves so they can reduce harm and support patients during the birthing process.

In this episode, Mandy helps us explore the coregulation of mothers and medical professionals, the history of harm in the birth process, how trauma plays out in the birth space and the impact on the nervous system.

Tune in to find out how Mandy is bridging her experience as a nurse and neurosomatic intelligence certified practitioner to promote trauma-informed care in the birthing process!

Topics discussed in this episode:

The impact of Mandy's own birth experience
Why medical professionals detach from their patients
How Mandy uses NSI to help nurses support their patients
The history of oppression and harm in perinatal care
The layers of trauma in the birth experience
Using NSI tools to overcome the challenges of being a nurse
How NSI training can change birth outcomes and birth culture

Connect with Mandy Irby:

https://mandyirby.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandyirby/ https://www.instagram.com/thebirthnurse/ https://www.youtube.com/thebirthnurseofficial https://www.tiktok.com/@thebirthnurse

Get started training your nervous system with our FREE 2-week offer:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program here: https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

Head to https://www.brainbased-wellness.comfor a consultation to identify trauma responses in your own life and learn how to train your nervous system to move out of behaviors that aren't serving you!

Chronic Pain & Emotions Oct 16, 2023

Show notes

As we dive deeper into applied neurology and the immune system, we're joined by the founder of Stop Chasing Pain, Dr. Bruce Perry. He helps us explore the link between emotion, pain and its impact on the immune system.

In this episode, Dr. Perry shares his personal experience with polyautoimmunity as he discusses his experience treating his own shame surrounding his body image. With his expertise, we explore the subconscious and conscious role of emotions, as well as the body's natural response to threats, including how we can fight inflammation even when it's an unintentional effect of our emotional responses.

Dr. Perry, along with hosts Jennifer and Elisabeth, provide insights on how you can work with the nervous system to create long-lasting change that impacts the health of your immune system. You'll learn how trauma can dysregulate the nervous system, the importance of self-awareness, and what you can do to nurture social connection and introspection.

Tune in as we explore the consequences of trauma on our body, as well as inflammation from a neurosomatic perspective!

Topics discussed in this episode:

How Dr. Perry got into this work
The way in which we process sensory input
Self-awareness and its role in lasting change
Understanding the nervous system and its reaction to stimuli
Shame and how it leads to inflammation
Pain as a protective response
Allostatic load and alleviating stress
What happens in the body during shame/inflammatory response
Where to learn more about lymphatic work

Connect with Dr. Bruce Perry:

@stopchasingpain

https://www.stopchasingpain.com/

Get started training your nervous system with our FREE 2-week offer:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program here: https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

Head to https://calendly.com/traumarewired/consultation for a consultation to identify trauma responses in your own life and learn how to train your nervous system to move out of behaviors that aren't serving you!

Misattunement & Co-regulation Oct 09, 2023

Show notes

One thing you've probably heard over and over again on this season of Trauma Rewired is that nervous systems affect one another. In fact, our nervous systems are continuously responding and adapting to each other's signals — a process called coregulation.

Coregulation is important for maintaining safe, healthy relationships but can have a negative impact on the nervous system when someone is dysregulated or experiencing misattunement. A lack of connection through coregulation also impacts our ability for emotional self-regulation, which can lead to maladaptive behaviors like drinking, binge eating and codependency.

During this episode, Elisabeth and Jennifer define coregulation and attunement, and explain their role in self-regulation and emotional expression. They dive deeper into the importance of coregulation and the development of self-regulating behaviors in childhood, as well as the impact mothers, and even fathers, have on an infant's stress response. Finally, you'll hear how you can create change in your nervous system, and the positive results Elizabeth has noticed in her own life because of her own nervous system work.

As Jennifer says in this episode, "knowledge is power when you put it into action." So give this episode a listen now!

Topics discussed in this episode:

What it looks like to have a regulated nervous system
Our definition of coregulation
How nervous systems impact each other and our ability to regulate
Coregulating with pets or nature
When we learn how to be self-regulators
The role of attunement for regulation
The effects of misattunement in childhood
Can your children inherit your trauma response?
How the body responds to stress and the HPA axis
Creating change and repatterning your nervous system
The influence of fathers on infant's development

Get started training your nervous system with our FREE 2-week offer:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program here: https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

Empathy and the Nervous System Oct 02, 2023

Show notes

Last week, Trauma Rewired explored the neurology of narcissism, so this week we're focusing on empathy. Matt Bush, co-lead educator of the Neuro Somatic Intelligence Training, is back on the show to help us dive deeper into why some people are highly empathic and how they can protect themselves from its overwhelming effects.

Believe it or not, empaths and narcissists have foundational similarities. Not only does the brain chemistry look the same, but empaths and narcissists both struggle with nervous system regulation and look to others to help them regulate their emotions. But whereas the narcissist avoids the emotions of others, empaths are deeply affected and have a physiological experience to the emotions of others on a subconscious level. This can lead to emotional fatigue, chronic stress, poor sense of self and more.

So what's the difference between having empathy and being an empath, and how can you change subconscious behavior? In this episode, Elisabeth, Jennifer and Matt cover the signs of being an empath, the causes of elevated empathy, such as deficits in the interoceptive system, and how it impacts our overall health.

If you identify as an empath, tune in to learn about the power of nervous system regulation for changing harmful empath behavior!

Topics discussed in this episode:

What it means to be an empath
Empathy from a neurosomatic perspective
Causes of high empathy
Why being an empath isn't always a good thing
How deficits in the interoceptive system lead to empath behavior
The correlation between sensory mismatch and empathy
How to retain your empathic gifts and also prioritize yourself
Nervous system regulation as a tool for change

Get started training your nervous system with our FREE 2-week offer:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program here: https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

Connect with Matt Bush:

https://www.nextlevelneuro.com/a/2147666262/2U4AvzLR

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

Narcissism Sep 25, 2023

Show notes

What's the difference between possessing narcissistic traits and being a narcissist? Can we say narcissistic personality disorder is real when we don't believe in personalities? How does narcissism develop, and what does it look like in the brain? Tune in as your hosts answer all these questions and more with Matt Bush of Neuro-Somatic Intelligence.

This episode explores the neurology of narcissism, the spectrum of narcissism, and how narcissism can evolve as a survival response when it seems so counterintuitive to our social need for connection. Matt is an expert in applied neurology, so he shares the science of what narcissism looks like in the brain, such as where deficits exist in the brain and how they reflect in a narcissist's emotional skills and empathy towards others.

Jennifer, Elisabeth and Matt also discuss malignant narcissism, narcissistic attachment, and the allure of a codependent or empathic person for a narcissist. Most importantly, they discuss if change is possible for narcissists and how you can protect yourself from a narcissist.

Listen to this episode to gain a better understanding of narcissism through the lens of neurosomatic intelligence!

Topics discussed in this episode:

Definition of narcissistic personality disorder
How narcissism develops from an NSI perspective
What narcissism looks like in the brain
The reward circuit in the narcissistic brain
Why narcissists lack empathy
How narcissists experience emotions
Can narcissists change?
What you should do if you have a narcissist in your life

Get started training your nervous system with our FREE 2-week offer:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program here: https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

Fawn & Sexual Fawn Sep 18, 2023

Show notes

The four trauma responses are the brain's way of protecting us from threat, real or perceived. They are noncognitive, reflexive outputs that are deeply ingrained in those that have experienced trauma, which makes them incredibly difficult responses to rewire. In this episode, we explore the most dangerous F: fawn and sexual fawn response.

To help us dive deeper into fawn response, we're joined by Luis Mojica, somatics practitioner and the founder of Holistic Life Navigation. Hosts Jennifer and Elisabeth have personally learned a lot from his teachings, including how the nervous system responds to fawn and the body boundary violations that occur with sexual fawning.

During this episode, Luis goes over the concept of over coupling, specifically how fear merges with intimacy and threat with arousal because of developmental sexual trauma. Luis also touches on the difference between threat and trigger, how the body can be traumatized sexually without the presence of assault, and MORE.

Tune in to learn how you can let go of shame attached to fawn response, recognize your fawn patterns, and start to heal!

Topics discussed in this episode:

The development of over coupling after developmental sexual trauma
Fawn response from a neurosomatic perspective
Shame as a protective mechanism and how to reframe it
How to become self-aware of your fawning
Trigger versus threat
Differentiation between sexual fawning and arousal
Fawning and freeze as a hybrid response
Lying as a trauma response
Finding compassion during healing
Body boundary violations in sexual fawning

Get started training your nervous system with our FREE 2-week offer:

https://www.rewiretrial.com

Learn more about the Neuro-Somatic Intelligence Coaching program here: https://www.neurosomaticintelligence.com/?utm_medium=aff-traumarewired&utm_content&utm_source

Connect with us on social media:

@trauma.rewired

Join the Trauma Rewired Facebook Group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/761101225132846

Follow Luis Mojica on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holistic.life.navigation/

Codependency Sep 11, 2023

Show notes

If you have a pattern of staying in unbalanced, chaotic relationships, this episode is for you. If it's hard for you to set boundaries with friends, family or romantic partners, this episode is for you. If you fixate on the emotions of others rather than your own, this episode is for you.

These are all signs of codependency, which is the topic of this episode. Hosts Jennifer and Elisabeth discuss its negative effects on your emotional and physical health, the behaviors associated with codependency, and how they're formed starting in childhood, diving deep into the attachment wound, our relationship with caregivers, and emotional self-regulation.

Jennifer and Elisabeth also share examples of their own codependent relationships, and how they started to recognize their codependent tendencies and learn to change them.

Tune in to gain a deep understanding of codependency and how you can break your codependency patterns!

Topics discussed in this episode: