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If you've been searching for how to get over a toxic interaction that keeps replaying in your head no matter how many times you've talked it out, this episode is for you. I see this constantly with clients — they've processed something out loud with a trusted friend, sometimes more than once, and it should feel done. And yet weeks later, it's still there, still living in the body.

In this episode, I break down why getting over a toxic interaction takes more than talking about it. Your nervous system doesn't decide something is finished based on whether you've narrated it — it decides based on whether the activation in your body got to complete. This is somatic healing at its core: I bring in Peter Levine's work on nervous system regulation to explain the mechanism — animals discharge survival energy physically after a threat and move on fully, while humans are taught to stay calm and hold it together, which leaves that energy stuck in the body instead of released.

I also walk through the four things a toxic interaction usually touches — abandonment, not being enough, being unseen, and safety through appeasement — and how to spot the real clue: when an emotional trigger feels bigger than the moment that caused it. That gap is where the real work is.

Knowing how to get over a toxic interaction isn't about talking yourself out of ever getting triggered again. I share a personal story about a friendship that changed permanently after one interaction I didn't handle well, and how self-compassion — not resolution — is what actually helps.

If a toxic interaction is on repeat in your head right now, I have a free resource: "A Toxic Interaction in 15 Minutes" is in the shop, built specifically to interrupt the spinning and bring your nervous system back to neutral. If something deeper is still there after that — anger, shame, loneliness, betrayal — the Trigger Toolkit is the next step.

And if you're ready to go deeper than any single interaction — into what's actually running underneath all of them — that's the work we do together in the Intuitive Circle. Doors are open now at lesleyturner.ca/theintuitivecircle.

Book 1:1 www.lesleyturner.ca/services

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