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Triggered and True — Health & Fitness
Triggered and True

If you feel emotionally overwhelmed, stuck in cycles of shame, blame, and judgment, or just exhausted from trying to fix yourself, this is a place to breathe.

Triggered & True® is a podcast about emotional healing, grief, and self-compassion with Laura Duncan, creator of the Compassion Method™, and co-host Brian Freise. Each episode Laura and Brian get honest about shame, anger, anxiety, and the triggers that run our lives — and walk through healing that begins with compassion instead of self-improvement.

For over 14 years, Laura has helped people through trauma, loss, and grief. The grief that doesn’t follow a timeline and comes in waves. Brian is living proof it works: after years of debilitating panic attacks, he found actual relief through the Compassion Method.

The method is three words: Awareness, Comfort, Discovery. Or put simply: Feel your pain. Get comfort. Go play. Because healing isn’t becoming someone new — it’s returning to who you’ve always been. New episodes monthly on the third Saturday.

Get your free Weekly Dose of Compassion: https://www.lauraduncan.com/pl/2148814868

Copyright: © 2024 Triggered and True

Latest Episodes:

You're Not Broken. You Were Never Broken. (Ep. 3) – Extended Edition with Laura Duncan Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

What if the part of you that feels broken isn’t who you really are?
In this Extended Edition of Winning the War for Your Heart, Laura Duncan highlights something important to listen for in Brian Freise’s story: how early in life we can begin believing there’s something wrong with us—and how that belief can shape the way we see ourselves years later.
Brian, author of Above All Else, goes deeper into his own experience of feeling broken and what began to change when he learned to understand his emotional pain differently.
Then Laura returns at the end to unpack why we can mistake our triggered self for our true self—and what it can look like to begin separating who we are from the ways we learned to respond to pain.

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

Why Do I Do Stupid Things? (Ep. 2) – Extended Edition with Laura Duncan Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

Why do we react in ways we regret when we’re triggered—and why can it feel so impossible to stop in the moment?
In this Extended Edition of Winning the War for Your Heart, Laura Duncan highlights what to listen for as Brian Freise, author of Above All Else, shares the brain science behind our emotional reactions and how understanding the primal brain changed the way he saw his own triggers.
Then Laura returns at the end to unpack the four common trauma responses—fight, flight, freeze, and fawn—and how each can show up when we’re emotionally triggered.

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

Your Anxiety Is Trying To Tell You Something (Ep. 1) — Extended Edition with Laura Duncan Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

What if your anxiety, panic, or depression isn't something you need to get rid of—but something you need to learn to listen to?
In this Extended Edition of Winning the War for Your Heart, Laura Duncan shares what to listen for in Brian story as he recounts the night panic entered his life and the four words— “It’s as bad as it feels” —that became his first experience with real compassion.
Laura returns at the end to go deeper into what it means to process emotional pain instead of pushing it away and how we can begin listening to what our pain is trying to tell us.

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

God Wants to Love You—So Why Do You Keep Pushing Him Away? | Winning The War For Your Heart (Ep. 7) Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

What if emotional healing isn’t about fixing your pain — but discovering who you were created to be?
In this episode of Winning the War for Your Heart, Brian Freise — author of Above All Else — sits down with Laura Duncan, creator of the Compassion Method and the person who walked Brian through his own healing journey. Together, they explore what happens when we stop trying to fix, suppress, or shame our pain and instead learn to bring compassion, comfort, and connection to what’s happening inside us.
Brian shares how emotional healing changed his relationship with himself, his family, his faith, and even the way he sees other people's differences. He opens up about the vulnerability of writing Above All Else, why men and leaders often feel pressure to hide their emotions, and how learning to feel his pain helped him become more connected to his true self.
At the heart of the conversation is a powerful question: What if healing isn't the final destination? What if healing is the doorway to becoming fully who you were created to be?

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

How to Be Okay When Everything Around You Isn’t | Winning The War For Your Heart (Ep. 6) Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

Your greatest superpower is learning to be okay when it's not okay all around you.

In Episode 6 of Winning the War for Your Heart, Brian Freise — author of Above All Else — gives you the most practical tool in the Compassion Method arsenal: the Remote Control Exercise. Brian walks through the exact 5-step process he uses every time a trigger fires, the 3 tender emotions hiding underneath every reaction, and the moment he realized his rice-picking-up reflex was the same pattern running his entire life.

If you've ever felt like you can't be okay until your external world is fixed — this is the episode that gives you back your power.

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

(Ep. 75) Is Any Condition Too Broken to Heal? OCD, Bipolar & Faith Questions Sep 19, 2026

Show notes

What if even the conditions that feel most hopeless, the ones you've been told no one can help, aren't the end of your story?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise open the mailbag for a wide-ranging round of listener questions, from mental health to matters of faith. It's an honest, compassionate conversation that meets people right where they're stuck and offers real hope without ever over-promising.

They begin with a tender one: does the Compassion Method help someone with OCD; the "doubting disease" where hope can feel scarce?

Laura responds with deep empathy and reframes obsessive thinking as a protector, a survival strategy a child built to counter a world that felt too out of control, and explains how bringing in love and unmet needs can help the brain rewire and let those thoughts go.

She extends the same hope to bipolar and other conditions she's encountered across 15 years of clients, always alongside, never in place of, the medical care people need.

Then two faith questions: first, a listener worried that "using God as medicine" meant they shouldn't bring their pain to Him.

Laura clarifies that it's the opposite, that medicating with God meant not actually bringing Him her pain.

The second, whether the method is built on universalism, which Laura answers plainly (it isn't), while sharing her belief in Jesus and her wonder at the free will God preserves in us.

In this episode:

🔹 Can the Compassion Method help with OCD? Reframing obsessive thinking as a protector the brain can rewire

🔹 Why the same hope extends to bipolar and other conditions — always alongside, never replacing, medical care

🔹 "Using God as medicine," clarified: why it means bringing Him your pain, not staying away from Him

🔹 Is the method based on universalism? Laura answers directly — and on free will and the Garden

🔹 Why separation from God can come through unhealed pain, not just obvious sin

Dive deeper with these two great resources! 👇

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

📩 Get your free Weekly Dose of Compassion

Two quick notes in your inbox every week. One to speak over yourself. One from Laura: https://www.lauraduncan.com/pl/2148814868

The Most Powerful Force In The Universe | Winning The War For Your Heart (Ep. 5) Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Compassion is what love feels like in the trenches.

In Episode 5 of Winning the War for Your Heart, Brian Freise — author of Above All Else — exposes the most misunderstood force in the universe. Brian breaks down the difference between pity and compassion, the brutal truth that enablement is not compassion (it's selfishness in disguise), and the Jesus story that wrecked his entire view of what it means to be tender. If you've ever dismissed compassion as soft, weak, or "not for real men" — Episode 5 is your wake-up call.

If you've ever felt like love is just a feeling, this is the episode that turns it into a force.

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

You're Not The Horrible Person You Might Think You Are (Like I Did). | Winning The War For Your Heart (Ep. 4) Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

You're not the horrible person you think you are.

In Episode 4 of Winning the War for Your Heart, Brian Freise — author of Above All Else — exposes the origins of shame and the prison it builds inside every human heart. Brian walks through the Genesis 3 moment when Adam and Eve's eyes were opened to a story of deficiency God never intended, the cosmic blame game that's been echoing through every family argument since, and the inside-out reframe that broke his own shame cycle: "No one or nothing shames us from the outside. We do it to ourselves."

If you've ever felt like your failures define you — this is where you start to untangle who you are from what you do.

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

You're Not Broken. You Were Never Broken. | Winning The War For Your Heart (Ep. 3) Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

You're not broken. You were never broken.

In Episode 3 of Winning the War for Your Heart, Brian Freise — author of Above All Else — shares the first words Laura Duncan said to him when he walked into her office asking to be fixed. Brian opens up about the 8-year-old photo exercise that cracked his heart open, the four core deficiencies he discovered in his own childhood, and the orphanage analogy that explains why so many Christians feel stuck despite knowing the truth of their new identity in Christ.

If you've ever felt like the Bible's promises don't match your reality — this is where the disconnect starts to make sense.

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

Why Do I Do Stupid Things? The Brain Science Behind Your Triggers | Winning The War For Your Heart (Ep. 2) Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

Why do we do the stupid things we do? And why, in the moment, does it feel so impossible to stop?

In Episode 2 of Winning the War for Your Heart, Brian Freise shares the story of a Starbucks fight that he was afraid would end his marriage—and the surprising conversation with Laura that helped him understand what was really happening beneath his reaction.

Brian explores what happens when your primal brain takes over, how to recognize when you're triggered, and why understanding your reactions can change the way you respond.

He also shares the “fun sucker” nickname his family had given him, and how that uncomfortable realization helped him discover that he wasn't simply a grumpy person—he was hurting.

If you've ever looked back after a reaction and thought, Why did I just do that? this episode will help you understand where that reaction may have come from.

📕 Get your copy of Brian's book Above All Else: Winning the War for Your Heart Click here to get the book!

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