Ever feel like you're chasing love—or running from it? Your attachment style isn't a personality flaw; it's a survival strategy shaped by early experiences. In this episode of Beyond Survival: A Pathway to Peace, trauma-informed coach Naomi Stanchfield breaks down the 4 attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant, disorganized), how trauma amplifies them, and why the "4 S's of Security" (Safe, Seen, Soothed, Secure) matter.

Discover practical somatic tools like the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding method, pendulation, and boundary-setting movements—plus CBT techniques like cognitive restructuring and the XYZ communication formula—to rewire toward earned secure attachment. Learn how to shift from reactive survival to conscious connection in relationships.

If you're ready to understand your patterns and build inner safety, this episode is your gentle first step. These are educational tools, not therapy—reach out to a professional if needed.

Connect: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook @beyondsurvivalpathway
Join: Beyond Survival: Healing through Stories (Facebook book club); Beyond Survival: Healing Together (Facebook Support Group); and our 6-Week Journaling Challenge to get printable weekly journaling worksheets (each week has 7 journal prompts to coincide with our weekly love, relationship and connection topics)
Subscribe for weekly trauma healing tools. Let's walk this path together. 💚

Self-love can feel cringy, confusing, or completely out of reach after trauma. Maybe you've heard "you just need to love yourself" and felt your whole body tense up. In this episode, we explore why self-love feels so hard when you have a trauma history—and how to start making it feel safer and more possible.

We talk about how trauma implants deep negative beliefs, shatters self-trust, and fuels shame, guilt, and self-criticism that keep you stuck in survival mode. You'll learn how these patterns show up in your nervous system and relationships, and why "performative self-care" (bubble baths, face masks, and vibes) often isn't enough on its own.

We'll break down the difference between aesthetic self-care and true, embodied self-love—self-love as a felt sense of safety in your body. You'll also hear the brain science behind self-criticism and self-compassion, including how practices of kindness toward yourself can reduce threat responses and support regulation over time.

This episode includes practical, trauma-informed ways to begin practicing self-love when it doesn't come naturally, including:

• Allowing emotions without judgment

• Using self-compassion instead of self-attack

• Gently reshaping your self-talk

• Practicing real, nervous-system-friendly self-care

• Setting boundaries, creating joy, and celebrating small wins

If you've ever thought, "I hate the way self-love sounds, but I know I need it," this conversation is for you. Self-love isn't a reward you earn once you're healed—it's one of the pathways that helps you get there.

In this episode of Beyond Survival: A Pathway to Peace, we explore a deeply human habit: complaining. Rather than labeling it as "negative," we look at complaining through a trauma‑informed lens as a coping mechanism — a way your nervous system tries to communicate fear, overwhelm, or unmet needs.

You'll learn how constant complaining can reinforce negativity bias, confirmation bias, and low‑level stress in the body, and how neuroplasticity turns occasional venting into a default thought pattern. More importantly, you'll walk away with a simple four‑step shift to turn complaining into conscious, needs‑based communication — plus a "Mindful Complaint Challenge" you can try in your own life.

This episode is for anyone who's noticed themselves stuck in complaint loops, felt guilty about it, and wants to understand what's really going on — and how to heal with compassion instead of shame.

We've all heard the sayings — "Time heals all wounds." "You just have to get over it." "You can't love someone until you love yourself." But what if these common beliefs about trauma and healing are doing more harm than good?

In this episode of Beyond Survival: A Pathway to Peace, trauma-informed life coach Naomi Stanchfield takes a gentle, informative deep dive into 14 of the most common myths about trauma and recovery. She explores where these ideas came from, why they persist, and what modern psychology and somatic science reveal instead.

You'll learn how trauma actually affects the mind and body, why healing looks different for everyone, and how you can begin to rebuild safety, self-trust, and connection at your own pace. This episode is here to bring clarity, compassion, and empowerment to your healing journey—one truth at a time.

If you've ever questioned your healing process or felt like you're "doing it wrong," this conversation will help you understand why that's not true—and show you a more peaceful path forward.

Topics Covered:

• Why time alone doesn't heal trauma

• What it really means to "love yourself first"

• The body's role in trauma and recovery

• Why healing looks different for everyone

• How trauma can lead to growth and resilience

You are not broken—you're healing. Tune in and take another step toward peace.

#TraumaHealing #BeyondSurvivalPodcast #SomaticHealing #MindBodyConnection #TraumaInformed #HealingJourney

Do you say "yes" when your body screams "no"? Discover why people-pleasing isn't a flaw—it's the fawn response, a little-known trauma survival mechanism that kept you safe but now traps you in exhaustion, resentment, and lost identity. In this raw, trauma-informed episode of Beyond Survival: A Pathway to Peace, host Naomi Stanchfield shares her personal journey from childhood abuse to reclaiming her voice, breaking down the 7 interconnected people-pleasing patterns (like boundary struggles, excessive apologizing, and over-functioning), and delivering 9 practical somatic + CBT strategies to escape fawn mode.

What you'll learn:

• How fawning develops from fight/flight/freeze and shows up in daily life

• The nervous system roots of guilt, codependency, and self-abandonment

• Naomi's story: From hating Star Wars to adopting her ex's hobbies (and how she rediscovered herself)

• Actionable tools: Body scans, micro-boundaries, self-compassion practices, and more

Perfect for trauma survivors, empaths, and anyone tired of putting others first. Join the healing conversation in our Facebook group: Beyond Survival: Healing Together.

Subscribe for weekly tools to move beyond survival into peace. Connect @beyondsurvivalpathway on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. New episodes drop every week—your path to peace starts here.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to find "proof" that you're unlovable, unsafe, or destined to be abandoned—while your brain somehow overlooks all the moments you were actually cared for and supported? That's not you being dramatic or broken. That's confirmation bias, and after trauma, it becomes a powerful filter that keeps you stuck in old pain.

In this episode of Beyond Survival: A Pathway to Peace, Naomi unpacks how confirmation bias works in a trauma-impacted brain, how it feeds beliefs like "Everyone always leaves me," and why your nervous system clings to those stories as a form of protection. You'll hear a personal example from Naomi's own life, plus relatable everyday scenarios in relationships, work, and friendships where this bias quietly shapes how you see yourself and others.

Most importantly, you'll learn gentle, practical tools to start shifting it. Naomi walks you through:

• A simple CBT "proof list" journaling exercise to test your painful beliefs and collect evidence for new, truer ones

• Compassionate ways to honor how those beliefs once kept you safe, without letting them run your adult life

• Somatic practices like progressive muscle relaxation, resourcing (creating an internal safe place), and grounding movement to help your body feel the safety your mind is relearning

This episode is for you if you:

• Feel stuck in cycles of "I knew this would happen" and worst-case thinking

• Struggle to trust others, even when they've shown up for you

• Want to understand why your brain does this and how to gently retrain it without shaming yourself

By the end, you'll have both language and tools to notice your confirmation bias in real time, question whether it's telling the whole truth, and slowly teach your brain and body to look for evidence of safety, love, and support. One thought, one breath, one list at a time, you can move from surviving old stories to living in a fuller, kinder reality.

Tired of affirmations that feel like lies? In this episode of Beyond Survival: A Pathway to Peace, trauma-informed coach Naomi Stanchfield reveals Stepping Stone Thoughts—her gentle, body-honoring adaptation of CBT's thought ladder.

Discover why trauma-wired thoughts like "I don't deserve love" trigger anxiety spirals, how your body reveals believable next steps, and practical ways to build from pain to self-worth—one micro-shift at a time. Through personal stories, somatic check-ins, and examples like Sarah's relationship breakthrough, you'll learn to:

• Spot the CBT triangle in real life

• Test thoughts for body-truth

• Create your own stepping stones (with free worksheet link!)

• Embrace neuroplasticity without perfectionism

Perfect for anyone healing self-doubt, relationship wounds, or negativity bias. No leaps required—just compassionate steps forward.

Download the Stepping Stone Thoughts worksheet and start today.
New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen.

Do you struggle to remember the good times but replay every argument, mistake, or potential disaster on repeat? You're not broken—this is negativity bias at work, your brain's evolutionary survival tool that prioritizes threats over joy. In this expanded episode of Beyond Survival: A Pathway to Peace, we explore why negativity bias feels especially intense after trauma, how it fuels anxiety, depression, poor sleep, and even physical health strain—and most importantly, gentle ways to retrain your brain toward balance.​

From caveman survival instincts to modern-day spirals (like scanning for rejection in every text), hear personal stories of mistaking hypervigilance for a "superpower," plus research on how trauma heightens threat detection and PTSD symptoms. You'll get trauma-informed tools including Stepping Stone Thoughts (CBT bridges to kinder self-talk), somatic grounding, mindful movement, body scans, and realistic gratitude practices that honor your pain without toxic positivity.​

Discover neuroplasticity's hope: small, consistent shifts create new pathways for safety, resilience, and noticing goodness again. Perfect for trauma survivors ready for compassion over perfection—no tiger-chasing required.​

Key takeaways: Awareness as step one, why your body signals bias first, health impacts from amygdala overdrive to weakened immunity, and proof your brain can heal.​

Listen if you're tired of "Negative Nancy" loops and want embodied skills for peace. Share with someone scanning for danger today.

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