Fawning is the trauma response that hides in plain sight. It’s the instinct to please, appease, and stay agreeable, even at the cost of your own needs or identity. Often praised as kindness or professionalism, fawning can become a lifelong survival strategy that disconnects us from who we really are. In this blog, we explore how fawning develops, how it shows up in everyday life, and how therapy can help you reclaim your voice and boundaries, without shame.

When your body feels stuck, your mind goes blank, or you retreat into numbness, you may be experiencing the freeze trauma response. Often misunderstood as a passive or last-resort reaction, freeze is actually a sophisticated, protective strategy of the nervous system. This blog unpacks freeze not as a failure, but as an intelligent adaptation, especially common in those with complex or early trauma. Learn how freeze shows up, why it’s not just a step after fight or flight, and how we can work with it in therapy.

The flight response is more than just running away, it’s what happens when our nervous system believes we can only survive by staying busy, staying ahead, or staying gone. In this blog, we explore how the flight trauma response shows up in everyday life: through restlessness, perfectionism, chronic busyness, and the fear of slowing down. We'll dive into the neuroscience behind why rest can feel unsafe, how these patterns are shaped by early experiences, and what healing might look like. This is for anyone who’s ever been praised for their productivity but secretly felt like they were running on fumes. Therapy doesn’t ask you to stop; it helps you feel safe enough to slow down.

What if your reactivity isn’t rage but protection? Explore the fight trauma response and how strength, control, and survival often come at a hidden cost.

None of these behaviours make us broken. They make us human. They are survival stories… sometimes inherited, sometimes rehearsed, sometimes so deeply entrenched we confuse them with our personality. Fight. Flight. Freeze. Fawn.

You don’t have to have a diagnosis to relate, you just have to have lived in a world where approval, safety, and belonging sometimes came at the cost of your Self.