Trauma Rewired

Nervous system regulation has become part of the everyday conversation, from therapy and coaching to wellness culture and social media. But as the language spreads, it gets simplified. Regulation gets framed as staying calm all the time, activation becomes a sign that something is wrong, and "reset your nervous system" promises a quick return to some original setting. Living systems don't work tha...

What if your brain isn't divided into separate systems for survival, emotion, and rational thought? And what if understanding how the brain actually works could change the way you think about your patterns, your identity, and your capacity for change? For decades, the triune brain model shaped how we understood human behavior, suggesting that our reptilian, emotional, and thinking brains operate a...

Co-regulation has become almost synonymous with calm: the steady voice, the safe person, the nervous system that helps another nervous system settle. But what if that definition is far too small? We are always co-regulating. The question is: what are we organizing around? In the Season 6 premiere of Trauma Rewired , Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof welcome back applied neurology expert Matt...

Peak somatic experiences can create profound shifts in awareness, emotion, and perception—but intensity alone does not create healing. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof explore why preparation, nervous system capacity, and integration matter far more than the intensity of any psychedelic or peak somatic experience. Through the lens of Neurosomatic Intelligen...

Post-traumatic growth is often described as finding meaning after adversity, but insight alone does not reorganize a nervous system that is still predicting threat. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are joined by Matt Bush, lead educator for Neurosomatic Intelligence, to explore post-traumatic growth through the lens of neuroplasticity, sensory processing, relational healing...

Success can become a survival strategy when the nervous system learns that achievement equals safety. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are joined by entrepreneur and Brain Based partner Margy Feldhun to explore how unresolved trauma can drive perfectionism, relentless productivity, emotional repression, and eventual burnout. Together, they unpack why so man...

Trauma doesn't just shape your memories. It changes how your brain predicts, interprets, and responds to the world. In this episode, Jennifer and Elisabeth sit down with clinical neuroscientist Dr. Mbemba Jabbi to explore the biology of complex trauma through the lens of neurogenetics, affective neuroscience, inflammation, and neuroplasticity. Together they unpack how early adversity reshapes emot...

Traumatic brain injuries are incredibly common, yet many mild TBIs and concussions go unrecognized. And when the symptoms of a brain injury overlap with the effects of complex trauma, it can become difficult to understand what is actually driving changes in cognition, emotional regulation, behavior, energy, and capacity. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are...

Episode Summary Why do you know you're safe logically, but your body still reacts as though you're in danger? Emotional regulation isn't about staying calm, avoiding difficult emotions, or suppressing how you feel. It's about your brain and nervous system working together to accurately interpret what's happening inside and around you so you can respond with flexibility instead of survival. In this...

Most people think boundaries are about saying "no," protecting themselves, or keeping others at a distance. But from a nervous system perspective, boundaries are something much deeper. They are not walls that separate us from connection—they are the foundation that makes authentic connection possible. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace, Elisabeth Kristof, and returning guest Margie Faltin explore b...

Why do so many trauma survivors say "yes" when every part of their body is saying "no"? In this deeply compassionate episode of Trauma Rewired , Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are joined by somatic educator Luis Mojica to explore one of the least understood trauma adaptations: sexual fawning . While many people recognize fawning as people-pleasing, sexual fawning often remains hidden benea...

The fawn response is one of the most common—and most misunderstood—trauma adaptations. While many people recognize it as people-pleasing, saying yes too often, or avoiding conflict, fawning is far more than a personality trait. It is a deeply wired survival response designed to preserve attachment, reduce threat, and maintain connection when the nervous system believes belonging is at risk. In thi...

What if authenticity isn't a personality trait—but a sign of nervous system capacity? Many people believe they struggle to be themselves because they lack confidence, boundaries, or self-awareness. But after trauma, authenticity can feel physiologically dangerous. When the nervous system has learned that honesty risks rejection, conflict, or abandonment, masking, performing, people-pleasing, perfe...

Grief is often thought of as an emotional response to death, but grief is much more than that. It is a full-body physiological process that accompanies every meaningful loss, transition, and transformation we experience throughout life. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace, Elisabeth Kristof, and NSI Director of Operations and Continuing Education Piper Rose explore grief through the lens of neurosci...

Childhood sexual trauma doesn't end when the event is over. It can shape the nervous system for decades, influencing boundaries, shame, relationships, chronic pain, dissociation, and the way we experience safety in our own bodies. In this deeply personal episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof are joined by NSI practitioner Lovee Bradley to explore the lasting neurophysiological effects of...

Shame is one of the most powerful forces shaping the nervous system. It can quietly influence how we think, relate, perform, heal, and even how we experience ourselves. Yet most approaches treat shame as something to challenge cognitively rather than something that has become embodied through years of protective adaptations. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof...

S5 E48 – Why You Shut Down: Freeze, Flop, and Tonic Immobility Explained Have you ever found yourself unable to speak during an important conversation? Staring at your computer for hours without being able to begin? Feeling emotionally numb, disconnected, or frozen even though you desperately want to move forward? These experiences are often misunderstood as laziness, burnout, or a lack of motivat...

In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof explore the flight response through the lens of trauma, nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and Neurosomatic Intelligence. The flight response doesn't always look like physically running away. More often, it shows up as chronic busyness, overworking, overtraining, perfectionism, emotional avoidance, and the inab...

Fight response isn't just anger or "being reactive." It's a nervous system adaptation shaped by experiences where safety, protection, repair, or authenticity were missing. In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof explore the neuroscience of the fight response, how suppressed anger turns inward as a harsh inner critic or outward as criticism and control, and why the...

What if your chronic stress, emotional triggers, anxiety, or exhaustion are not a mindset problem, but signs that your nervous system has learned protective survival patterns? In this episode of Trauma Rewired, Elisabeth Kristof and Jennifer Wallace explore the science of nervous system regulation and unpack a common phrase in trauma spaces: "trauma lives in the body."  While the body plays a cent...

You are not overreacting. Your nervous system is not broken. It is doing exactly what it learned to do in environments where threat was the norm. In this episode, Jennifer Wallace and Elisabeth Kristof close out Season Five with one of the most important and least understood concepts in complex trauma: emotional flashbacks. Not the cinematic kind, not a sudden memory of a specific event, but the q...

Social 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 socia...

There 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 sha...

Everyone 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 ong...

The 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 t...