Survival Mechanisms: Early Trauma & Breathing—What to Do | Dr. Aimie Apigian

"What we cannot feel, we cannot heal. And so our adaptations both protect us from the pain and keep us from healing that pain" - Dr. Aimie Apigian

In this episode, I teach on an important topic that is widely misunderstood or often just overlooked altogether; the muscle bracing patterns that have origins in our attachment style.

You’ll learn how to recognize your own ACB’s and to answer the one question:

How does our attachment create bracing patterns in our body to protect us from pain?

Whatever the environment, physical and emotional we are born into, we adapt. We either adapt to attachment that feels safe, predictable and nurturing, or we adapt to attachment that feels hurtful, confusing and unsafe.

If you thought attachment was only your psychology, this will be fascinating to you. The body adapts to our attachment - whether secure or insecure. Our posture, muscle tension and bracing patterns are a reflection of our attachment as well.

Bracing in our muscle groups is one way our nervous system protects us from having to feel just how afraid, lost and alone we feel inside. It protects us from the intensity of that shame and pain, because it would be too much.

While they helped us survive, they stay with us even as we grow. We may leave our home and family of origin, we may be completely safe and independent and successful now, but that by itself won’t relax these bracing patterns. And now they hold us back. They keep us from growing, opening up to authenticity and love because it still does not feel safe. It’s not safe to express our needs, to connect with another or reach out to someone to ask for what we need.

The good news is that we can always adapt. Our nervous system is the best at adapting to our environment and we can learn to create new experiences for ourselves and adapt to love, life and safety.


KEY MOMENTS
[07:55] How early childhood adaptations and bracing patterns develop from attachment pain
[10:16] Types of behaviors you should observe when working with adaptations and bracing
[12:25] Types of physical patterns that indicate towards existing bracing patterns
[14:50] How back bracing patterns help to protect our physiology from stored emotions
[23:27] How hip bracing patterns help to protect our physiology from stored emotions
[26:35] This is how bracing patterns affect our breathing patterns
[28:36] The relationship between bracing patterns and the freeze response