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The Biology of Trauma — A Best-Seller! Get the Book + Interactive Toolkit →
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700K+ DOWNLOADS | 4.9/5 STAR REVIEW
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WHO THIS PODCAST SERVES
People feel stuck in stress, overwhelm, or shutdown
Traditional therapy helps, but something still feels "off"
There's a need to understand why the body reacts the way it does
Get out of survival mode and into truly living
We all seek trauma tools that actually heal—not just help
THE PODCAST THAT CHANGES THE TRAUMA CONVERSATION
Dr. Aimie Apigian exposes how trauma lives in the body and offers a new, science-backed roadmap for real healing
People are done dancing around the topic of trauma—they’re ready to face it head-on. Traditional systems often miss the root cause: trauma changes biology at the cellular level, creating barriers to the healing work people strive to do.
This Podcast is the missing piece of the puzzle—a practical living manual for navigating the human body in today’s modern, traumatizing world.
Join your host, physician and trauma expert Dr. Aimie Apigian, as she challenges outdated models of trauma and introduces a new, science-backed framework for true healing.
Discover the Science of Trauma Healing with Dr. Aimie Apigian
podcast
Episode 98: Survival Mechanisms: How Early Attachment Trauma Shapes Your Breathing & Behavior Patterns with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Listen to learn how your attachment style created specific bracing patterns in your body and why understanding this connection is essential for releasing chronic tension and breath restriction. Discover which emotions your bracing protects you from. Understand the relationship between bracing, breathing, and freeze response through attachment lens.
Your chronic tension might be protective bracing from attachment trauma rather than just stress or poor posture.
6 min read
Episode 97: A Gut Stuck In Survival Mode: Restoring Gut Microbiome Balance With Nervous System Regulation with Steven Wright
Listen to hear Steven's story from birth defect to health engineer and learn which three nutrients support gut-nervous system healing simultaneously. Discover why your gut can't heal until your nervous system feels safe. Understand visceral hypersensitivity and how early trauma programs gut dysfunction.
Your perfect diet might be failing because your nervous system keeps your gut in survival mode.
6 min read
Episode 96: Pain as Protection: Why Your Body Creates Chronic Pain & The 3 Questions to Ask to Release It with Georgie Oldfield
Listen to learn the three questions that help release chronic pain by revealing its protective purpose and why your body creates pain to protect you from overwhelming emotions rather than solely from tissue damage. Discover how trauma creates vulnerability to chronic pain. Understand neuroplastic pain and how your nervous system learns pain patterns.
Your chronic pain might be protecting you from emotional overwhelm rather than signaling tissue damage.
6 min read
Episode 95: Trauma and Toxins: Methylation & Unblocking Your Body's Detoxification Pathways with Dr. Albert Mensah
Listen to understand how trauma affects your body's detoxification pathways through disrupting methylation and why addressing both toxins and methylation is essential for trauma healing that actually works. Discover which nutrients support methylation and detoxification. Learn to recognize signs of methylation imbalances and toxic burden blocking your healing.
Your trauma might be stuck because toxin accumulation prevents the cellular detoxification required for release.
7 min read
Episode 94: Nutrition for Trauma Recovery: 3 Superfoods To Calm Adrenaline & Anxiety with Luis Mojica
Listen to learn which three specific superfoods calm adrenaline and anxiety through supporting your adrenal system and why your eating habits directly affect your nervous system's ability to heal from trauma. Discover how to identify foods that trigger versus calm your system. Understand the connection between childhood eating patterns and current compulsive behaviors.
Your compulsive eating might be your body's attempt to regulate chronically elevated adrenaline from stored
6 min read
Episode 93: Is Lithium the Answer to a Regulated Nervous System, Depression & Addiction Treatment? with Dr. James Greenblatt
Listen to understand how lithium stabilizes dysregulated nervous systems through multiple mechanisms and why low-dose lithium deserves consideration for depression, addiction, and trauma healing beyond traditional psychiatric approaches. Discover lithium's anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects. Learn the indicators suggesting you might benefit from lithium supplementation.
Your nervous system instability might benefit from lithium's cellular stabilizing effects.
5 min read
Episode 92: How Chaos of Early Childhood Trauma Affects Our Adult Nervous System with Dr. Tian Dayton
Listen to understand how childhood chaos shapes your adult nervous system through creating baseline activation and collapse patterns. Discover why Dr. Tian Dayton's integration of movement, psychodrama, and body work helps heal what talk therapy alone cannot reach. Learn why giving voice to silenced parts matters for complete trauma healing.
Your adult patterns of chaos-seeking or hypervigilance reflect childhood nervous system adaptations to unpredictable environments.
6 min read
Episode 91: The Neuroscience of Chronic Pain: How Our Brain Predicts And Creates A Biology of Pain with Dr. Howard Schubiner
Listen to understand the two neuroscience features that make pain habitual including predictive processing and conditioned responses. Discover why treating your brain like a child through gentle graded exposure can help you unlearn chronic pain patterns. Learn how emotional injuries create neural circuit pain and why IFS helps address the parts maintaining pain.
Your chronic pain might be your brain's learned protective response rather than structural damage.
6 min read
Episode 90: Beyond Talk Therapy: The Biochemical Basis of Behavior & Changing Our Responses with Dr. Robert Lustig
Listen to understand how biochemistry creates thoughts and behaviors at the cellular level and why changing your metabolism can change your trauma responses beyond what talk therapy alone achieves. Discover the four brakes of the amygdala and the cortisol-insulin-depression triangle. Learn practical interventions for biochemical change.
Your trauma responses have biochemical roots that need addressing alongside psychological processing.
5 min read
Episode 89: Tapping, EFT and Energetic Boundaries For Inner Child and Trauma Recovery with Jennifer Partridge
Listen to hear Jennifer's colitis recovery story and learn how tapping on meridian points can both calm your nervous system and help you access buried trauma safely. Discover how to use tapping for inner child work and energetic boundary setting. Understand why tapping works for both physical symptoms and emotional healing.
Your chronic symptoms might resolve when you address the autonomic dysregulation underneath them through tapping.
5 min read
Episode 88: Authenticity & Somatic Experiencing: How to Access Deeper Intimacy After Trauma with Dr. Peter Levine
Listen to hear Dr. Peter Levine explain how trauma disrupts authenticity at the nervous system level and why somatic healing is essential for restoring genuine intimacy and presence in relationships. Discover how dysregulation blocks both authenticity and goal achievement. Learn the connection between authenticity, self-awareness, and flow states.
Your intimacy struggles might stem from trauma's disconnection from your authentic self rather than relationship skills.
5 min read
Episode 87: Hidden Triggers For Insomnia & Solutions For a Stressed Subconscious Nervous System with Dr. Michael Breus
Listen to understand how trauma creates hidden sleep triggers through nervous system dysregulation and what practical solutions work for calming a stressed subconscious nervous system. Discover why nightmares block rather than facilitate processing. Learn your chronotype and two specific calming techniques for trauma-based insomnia.
Your insomnia might be your nervous system's inability to feel safe enough for sleep's vulnerability.
6 min read
Episode 86: Is Trauma Genetic or Epigenetic? Insights with Dr. Bruce Lipton
Listen to understand how epigenetics proves genes aren't destiny and why your environment and consciousness can reshape your biological trauma responses. Discover how identical cells behave completely differently based on environment. Learn practical tools for promoting healthy gene expression through changing the signals your cells receive.
Your genes provide possibilities but your environment and consciousness determine which possibilities become reality.
5 min read
Episode 85: Stress & Freeze Response: How to Achieve & Sustain High Performance with Olympian Louise Tjernqvist
Listen to learn how Olympians use stress and freeze response for sustained high performance and why recovery capacity matters as much as activation capacity. Discover why managing stress might not be your goal if you're pursuing high performance. Understand how to treat trauma work like Olympic training including the recovery protocols that work demands.
Sustained high performance requires mastering both activation and recovery rather than just pushing harder.
6 min read
Episode 84: Cellular Resilience And Post-Traumatic Growth with Ari Whitten
Listen to understand how trauma affects your cells and mitochondria and why building physiological resilience matters as much as psychological healing for post-traumatic growth. Discover how the right amount of stress actually builds cellular resilience. Learn practical strategies for supporting your mitochondria during trauma recovery.
Your cells are holding trauma too and need healing alongside your nervous system and psyche.
5 min read
Episode 83: Breaking Free: How to Get Out of the Stress-Trauma Cycle by Using the Science of Anxiety with Emma McAdams
Listen to understand the difference between stress and anxiety and why your anxiety is trying to help you rather than hurt you. Discover what's actually causing your anxiety beneath the surface triggers. Learn how to work with anxiety as communication from your nervous system instead of treating it as an enemy to eliminate.
Your anxiety carries messages your nervous system needs you to hear.
6 min read
Episode 82: Using Biological Rhythms to Recover From Trauma with Dr. Leslie Korn
Listen to understand how trauma disrupts your body's natural rhythms across multiple systems and why aligning with them accelerates nervous system healing and recovery. Discover which rhythm beats antidepressants for many people. Learn practical ways to work with your biological patterns intentionally for trauma healing.
Your body's disrupted rhythms might be keeping you stuck in trauma more than unprocessed memories.
7 min read
Episode 81: Trauma, Toxins and Autoimmunity: Simple Solutions To Prevent Or Reverse with Dr. Tom O'Bryan
Listen to learn what people with trauma should know about increased autoimmune risk and the practical steps Dr. O'Bryan recommends for prevention or reversal. Discover how environmental toxins interact with trauma history to trigger autoimmunity. Understand the importance of predictive testing and early intervention before significant tissue destruction occurs.
Your trauma history increases autoimmune risk through measurable biological mechanisms you can address.
6 min read
Episode 80: Why We Choose and Stay in Unhealthy Relationships After Complex Trauma with Dr. Frank Anderson
Listen to understand how early relational trauma shapes your capacity for love and why healthy relationships can actually feel more dangerous than unhealthy ones to your nervous system. Discover the two reasons feeling good feels dangerous after complex trauma. Learn why attachment and connection aren't the same thing and how this distinction matters for healing.
Your relationship patterns reflect what your nervous system learned about love during early development.
7 min read
Episode 79: How Chronic Health Challenges and Your Work Impact Each Other with Sally Riggs
Listen to understand how chronic health and work impact each other bidirectionally and what strategies help you keep going when your body is struggling. Discover the most common mistake people make working with their nervous system while managing health. Learn specific approaches for working with long COVID or other chronic conditions that affect your capacity.
Your health and your work constantly influence each other rather than existing as separate domains.
6 min read
Episode 78: How to Transform Yourself During Grief by Empowering Others with Melissa Dlugolecki
Listen to hear Melissa's story and understand how commitment to the grief process rather than fighting it supports moving through unbearable loss. Discover the hidden relationship challenges that grief creates and why family members grieve so differently. Learn how empowering others who face similar losses can transform your pain into purpose without diminishing your grief.
Grief doesn't end but you can learn to carry it while creating meaningful life forward.
6 min read
Episode 77: The Effects of Relational Adaptations From Insecure Attachment Styles with Dr. Diane Poole-Heller
Learn why a "good childhood" doesn't guarantee nervous system safety. How Jess's busyness and exhaustion were signs of stored trauma. Why stillness feels unsafe when body equates pausing with overwhelm. How living in your head blocks somatic trauma healing completely. The real definition of trauma as overwhelm inside body, not just events. The trauma response sequence from startle to stress to freeze to shutdown. How the vagus nerve turns overwhelm into whole-body shutdown re
6 min read
Episode 76: Polyvagal Theory: Become an Active Operator of Your Nervous System During Grief with Deb Dana
Listen to understand how your nervous system processes grief through polyvagal pathways and why becoming an active operator of your responses helps you create life after loss. Discover what Dorsal Days are and how to work with them compassionately. Learn about glimmers and why these micro-moments of regulation matter enormously during grief.
Your grief responses reflect your nervous system's biology rather than how much you loved the person you lost.
6 min read
Episode 75: Fear, Attachment & Relational Trauma: Solutions For The Hyper-Sensitive Gut with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Listen to understand how early attachment trauma creates IBS through wiring your gut for hypervigilance and reactivity. Discover why addressing your nervous system's hypersensitivity matters more than just managing gut symptoms. Learn about global high intensity activation and how it makes your gut hyperreactive to everything.
Your IBS might be your gut expressing the fear and hypervigilance your nervous system learned in early attachment.
5 min read
Episode 74: Why Stored Traumas Become Syndromes & Somatic Solutions with Peter Levine
Listen to hear Dr. Peter Levine explain why stored trauma becomes syndromes through autonomic dysregulation and what somatic solutions address the root dysfunction driving multiple conditions. Discover the one foundational element underneath all syndromes. Learn why syndromes cluster together and how working somatically changes the entire picture.
Your multiple syndromes might all stem from one autonomic dysfunction that stored trauma created.
5 min read
Episode 73: Early Attachment Shocks: How Unexpected Stressors Can Cause Developmental Trauma & What To Do
Listen to understand what heart shocks are and why early attachment disruptions create lasting impacts on your nervous system, your relationships, and your physical health. Discover how to recognize when a part of you holds an early shock. Learn why becoming the hero of your story means addressing these early wounds rather than remaining defined by them.
Your relationship struggles and health problems might connect to heart shocks you don't consciously remember.
6 min read
Episode 72: Gaps In Trauma-Informed Care: Boundaries, Attachment and Generational Impact with Thomas Hübl
Listen to understand why doing your own trauma work alongside understanding collective trauma is essential for creating attuned, co-regulated relationships. Discover how ancestral and intergenerational trauma shapes your attachment capacity now. Learn practical strategies for staying regulated while holding space for others and moving from distancing to genuine embodied presence.
Being truly trauma-informed requires integrating personal healing with collective trauma awarene
5 min read
Episode 71: Understanding the Trauma Connection Between Attachment, Autoimmunity, and Fatigue with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Listen to understand how freeze response connects attachment wounds to autoimmunity and chronic fatigue through nervous system dysregulation. Discover why addressing freeze works on all three conditions simultaneously. Learn to recognize your freeze patterns and what strategies support your nervous system's capacity to move out of chronic immobilization.
Your autoimmunity and fatigue might be freeze response from attachment trauma expressing itself through your body.
5 min read
Episode 70: A Blueprint for Healing: Lessons from a Pioneer in Mind-Body Medicine with Dr. James Gordon
Listen to learn the three P's of trauma healing from Dr. James Gordon and why finding self-care strategies that work for YOUR body and nervous system matters more than following any single blueprint. Discover how individual work and community support complement each other. Understand the devastating cost of untreated trauma and the power of actually doing healing work.
Your healing path needs to fit your unique biology rather than following someone else's blueprint exactly.
6 min read
Episode 69: How Attachment Shapes Our Biology and Behavior with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Listen to understand the three attachment styles and how they develop in childhood through nervous system learning. Discover why secure attachment is rare and why that's okay because earned secure attachment is possible. Learn how to work toward secure attachment by addressing your nervous system and biology rather than just understanding your childhood cognitively.
Your relationship patterns reflect nervous system adaptations you can change through healing work.
5 min read
Episode 68: Struggling with Sleep? How to Regain Restful Nights with Suzie Sink
Listen to understand how to create the nervous system safety required for restful sleep when trauma has taught your body that vulnerability is dangerous. Discover why your sleeping environment matters more than you think for trauma survivors. Learn the one most important factor for better sleep that changes your entire approach.
Your sleep problems might be your nervous system's inability to feel safe rather than poor sleep hygiene.
5 min read
Episode 67: Gabor Maté: Healing Trauma and Chronic Illness Through Connection (Part 2)
Listen to Part 2 to understand how trauma's disconnection drives disease and why reconnection and regulation are the path to healing chronic illness. Discover Gabor's personal practices for staying connected. Learn why autoimmune disease disproportionately affects women through socialization patterns that require self-disconnection.
Your chronic illness might be your body's rebellion against the disconnection trauma required you to create.
6 min read
Episode 66: Gabor Maté: The Biology Piece We Have Missed In Trauma & Depression (Part 1)
Listen to hear Part 1 of my conversation with Dr. Gabor Maté about the missing biology link between trauma and chronic illness. Discover why starting with nervous system regulation matters before other treatments. Understand the biochemical connections like copper dysregulation that medicine overlooks in trauma-driven disease.
Your chronic illness might have roots in trauma that medicine never asked about or addressed.
6 min read
Episode 65: Betrayal Trauma Recovery: How To Heal From The Hurt with Debi Silber
Listen to understand the five stages of betrayal trauma and why trauma work is essential for healing the hurt your body is holding. Discover how betrayal affects your physical health alongside emotional wellbeing. Learn the signs that indicate you're stuck and what steps lead toward transformation rather than just recovery.
Your body is holding the shock of betrayal in ways that affect your health until you address the trauma.
6 min read
Episode 64: Are The Trauma Parts Of You Making You Sick? with Dr. Richard Schwartz
Listen to hear IFS founder Dr. Richard Schwartz explain how trauma parts create physical illness through internal battles and protective strategies. Discover why connecting to Self is essential for both mental and physical health. Learn how parts conflicts manifest as chronic symptoms and disease that medicine alone cannot resolve.
Your chronic health issues might stem from internal parts battles rather than purely physical causes.
6 min read
Episode 63: How to Apply Energy Psychology to the 7 Stages of Addiction Recovery with Dr. David Feinstein
Listen to understand the seven stages of addiction recovery and how energy psychology supports each stage by working with your body's energy systems. Discover practical techniques for managing cravings and processing trauma through energy work. Learn why addressing both addiction and underlying trauma creates more sustainable recovery.
Your addiction recovery might need energy psychology tools that work with your body's systems directly.
5 min read
Episode 62: Energy Medicine: A New Tool in Autoimmunity & Trauma Work with Donna Eden
Listen to learn which meridian to balance first when autoimmunity and trauma intersect and why this specific sequence supports immune system healing. Discover the emotional patterns that accompany autoimmune conditions. Understand how energy medicine integrates with trauma healing and immune system support for comprehensive treatment.
Your autoimmune condition might need energy system balancing alongside your trauma healing work.
5 min read
Episode 61: What It Takes to Safely Guide Another Through Trauma Work with Licia Sky
Listen to understand what qualities you need within yourself to safely guide trauma healing and why embodiment comes before technique in this work. Discover how movement, voice, theater, and writing support embodied healing. Learn what makes someone qualified to hold space beyond credentials and training.
Your embodied presence matters more than your techniques when guiding trauma healing.
5 min read
Episode 60: Is False Anxiety Causing You Stress? with Dr. Ellen Vora
Listen to learn what false anxiety is and why addressing physical causes might eliminate anxiety you thought required psychological treatment. Discover how to distinguish between true and false anxiety in your own experience. Understand why trauma makes you more vulnerable to false anxiety and what to do about it.
Your anxiety might be your body's response to physical imbalances rather than unresolved psychological issues.
5 min read
Episode 59: How to Parent Adopted Children with Early Life Trauma with Robin Karr-Morse
Listen to understand what adoption trauma looks like in your child's biology and how relationship repair helps them overcome early life experiences. Discover why common adoption myths harm children and families. Learn how to recognize trauma responses beneath challenging behaviors and respond in ways that support healing.
Your adopted child's difficult behaviors make sense when you understand the trauma biology driving them.
6 min read
Episode 58: Parenting in a Traumatizing World: The Answer Our Children Need with Dr. Gordon Neufeld
Listen to hear Dr. Gordon Neufeld explain what children actually need from parents in a traumatizing world and why secure attachment is their best protection. Discover how to parent without passing your trauma forward through awareness and healing. Understand why your regulated presence matters more than perfect parenting techniques or strategies.
Your children need your secure attachment more than they need a perfect world or perfect parents.
5 min read
Episode 57: ACEs: How the Body Holds and Hides Pain with Dr. Vincent Felitti
Listen to hear Dr. Vincent Felitti explain what the landmark ACE Study revealed about how childhood trauma becomes adult disease decades later. Discover why coping mechanisms that once protected you often become your biggest health problems. Understand the biological pathways connecting adverse childhood experiences to chronic illness in adulthood.
Your chronic diseases might be your body's response to childhood trauma that never got processed or healed.
5 min read
Episode 56: Hormones: A Portal Into Our Stored Trauma with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Listen to understand how trauma affects your hormones and why the two hormones that matter most for trauma healing aren't the ones doctors focus on. Discover why certain life stages create opportunities for trauma healing through hormonal shifts. Learn how to read your hormonal patterns as communication about stored trauma.
Your hormonal imbalances are your body trying to tell you about trauma it's still holding.
5 min read
Episode 55: 3 Food Groups That Affect Autoimmunity with Palmer Kippola
Listen to understand trauma's role in autoimmunity and learn which three food groups and six environmental factors you can control for prevention or recovery. Discover how emotional trauma, food toxins, and environmental exposures all contribute to immune dysfunction. Learn why addressing trauma at multiple levels creates better outcomes than single interventions.
Your autoimmune condition might be more reversible than you've been told when you address the trauma underneath.
5 min read
Episode 54: Mirroring in Trauma: Mastering How You Hold and Guide Others with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Listen to learn the specific skill of mirroring and how to hold safe space when someone enters freeze response during trauma healing work. Discover how your nervous system communicates safety to others through mirroring. Understand what freeze needs from you as a container holder and what makes space truly safe for healing.
Your regulated presence is the most powerful tool you have when holding space for trauma healing.
4 min read
Episode 53: Sexual Grief: More Than Just Sexual Trauma with Edy Nathan
Listen to understand what sexual grief is and why addressing it separately from sexual trauma matters for complete healing and embodied recovery. Discover how to work with the parts holding different aspects of sexual grief. Learn why grieving what was lost is essential alongside processing what happened.
Sexual trauma creates losses that need their own grieving process beyond trauma processing.
5 min read
Episode 52: The Trauma Behind Chronic Pain with Dr. Les Aria
Listen to understand the autonomic nervous system's role in chronic pain and why addressing the trauma underneath is essential for recovery. Discover how Polyvagal Theory explains why pain persists after healing. Learn why nervous system regulation matters more than structural fixes for chronic pain rooted in dysregulation.
Your chronic pain might be your nervous system stuck in a protective pattern from unresolved trauma.
5 min read
Episode 51: Is Neuroplasticity Good or Bad in Trauma? with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Listen to understand how neuroplasticity can work for or against you in trauma healing depending on which patterns you're reinforcing. Discover how to intentionally direct neuroplasticity toward healthier nervous system patterns. Learn why consistency matters more than intensity when rewiring your brain from trauma patterns.
Your brain has been using neuroplasticity to perfect your trauma responses, but you can redirect it toward healing.
5 min read
Episode 50: 5 Supplements That Support Trauma Healing with Dr. Aimie Apigian
Listen to learn which five supplements support trauma healing most effectively and how to match them to your specific symptoms and conditions. Discover why nutritional support matters for the Biology of Trauma® healing. Understand the difference between trying to supplement away trauma versus supporting your body during actual trauma work.
Your body needs specific nutrients to do the healing work you're asking of it.
4 min read
Episode 49: How Unresolved Anger Affects Autoimmune Conditions with Dr. Keesha Ewers
Listen to Episode 49 with Dr. Keesha Ewers → When Your Body Attacks Itself You've been diagnosed with an autoimmune condition and told your immune system is attacking your own tissues. Doctors prescribe medication to suppress your immune response. But nobody asks why your body turned against itself in the first place. What if the answer lies in stored trauma, chronic freeze response, and anger that had nowhere safe to go? Autoimmunity isn't just about your immune system malfu
4 min read
WHAT LISTENERS ARE SAYING
I was struggling with clients who weren't responding to traditional trauma therapy. Dr. Aimie's podcast completely shifted my approach. Now I understand why we need to establish safety before processing. The Biology of Trauma framework has become essential in my practice. My clients are finally making progress.
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