Beyond Skin Picking & Hair Pulling – Details, episodes & analysis

The version of you that is free from chronic skin picking, hair pulling, or nail biting is one that feels confident, creative, compassionate, and calm.

These are not just pretty words; this is who you are at your core (as research has discovered)!

Now the question is, how do we connect more to this part of ourselves?
And how does picking, pulling, and biting both hold you back and help you get there?

This is where we turn our greatest struggle into our greatest teacher, and we don't do it through guesswork but through using well-researched therapeutic models (that actually help).

Listen in to learn:

• A powerful therapeutic model for chronic picking, pulling and biting that isn't CBT or HRT. 
• How to turn picking/pulling/biting into a tool for healing
• Who you are at your core (as research has discovered) 
• How to connect to these incredible core qualities in a tangible and practical way

Resources:

No Bad Parts by Richard Schwarz (book)

Clarity: Focusing on the 8C's of Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy

IFS Website

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

Did you know there is a specific brain function that is largely responsible for your chronic picking, pulling, and biting?

That's right, you're not broken. You never were. It's your brain over-functioning.

In fact, it's a really common struggle in this modern, overstimulated world.

Look at all the people who are overworking, overeating, overgiving, overexercising, overthinking, overgrooming.

We're all chronically overwhelmed and addicted to it.

And it's because of something called intermittent reinforcement.

In this episode, I share with you how this particular brain function is one of the key drivers behind your BFPA* + tangible steps to rewiring your brain.

These steps don't require force, are backed by science, and will pull on your heartstrings. Not to mention, they will actually help you to move forward towards freedom.

Journaling prompts from the episode

"Needs" list. Which one calls to you?

• Relief
• Escape 
• Comfort
• Stimulation
• Certainty
• Control
• Numbing
• Achievement
• Connection

Whatever stood out to you in the list above, ask yourself these Qs:

1. Why is that need so important to you right now?
2. What would it give you to make the space to meet that need for yourself?
3. How might this impact those around you?
4. What will it cost you to not make the space to meet that need?
5. What are 3 tangibles things you can do to meet that need in your life right now?

References & Resources

• Determinants of Addiction: Neurobiological, Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sociocultural Factors
https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/monograph/9780323905787/determinants-of-addiction

• Intermittent Reinforcement: Why Toxic Relationships Feel Addictive
https://reachlink.com/advice/relations/intermittent-reinforcement/

• Engineered Highs: Reward Variability and Frequency as Potential Prerequisites of Behavioural Addiction
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460323000217

• Wired for Want: How Dopamine Drives the New Epidemic of Everyday Addictions
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zoe-Wyatt/publication/391756047_Wired_for_Want_How_Dopamine_Drives_the_New_Epidemic_of_Everyday_Addictions

• Stuck in a Toxic Cycle? This Psychological Pattern Might Be Why
https://www.catharticspacecounseling.com/blog/stuck-in-a-toxic-cycle-this-psychological-pattern-might-be-why

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

Chronic skin picking, hair pulling, & nail biting are the result of a disregulated nervous system.

So it only makes sense that part of healing involves learning how to regulate it.

This means learning how to slow down. AKA - Rest.

Easy peasy, right? Right??

Unfortunately, for people like you and me, we didn't really learn how to switch off.

Our system is constantly on go, and so it never feels like the right time to stop, or when you do manage it, it's accompanied with anxiety, restlessness, and guilt.

Don't panic. You're not broken. You just need an actual system and practice that can help you to learn how it's done. 

In this episode, we dive deeper into:

• The science behind why you can't slow down
• Where the real problem lies
• Experience a 5-minute guided somatic practice to help you learn how to switch off, slow down, and rest.

This has allowed me to go from a chronic overworker who has no time for self-care or leisure unless forced, to someone who now has an abundance of time for the things that make her heart sing... And I'm even more successful, efficient, and effective than when I was constantly on "go".

Allowing yourself to rest does not mean you get lazy.

Listen-in to heal xx

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

It's time to pull back the veil of what it's like to have healed from chronic skin picking so that we can set some realistic expectations and allow you to see how truly achievable it is!

Ready to be inspired?

PS: There's a new function available to you 🥳 Above, you'll notice there's a "send us a text message" button. By clicking on this button you will be able to send a message straight to Raffaela's podcast account!

This is a really easy and simple way to share your thoughts on how you enjoyed this episode or this podcast as a whole or even ask questions! Raffaela is looking forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy🧡

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

If you're struggling post picking, pulling, or biting session this episode is for you 💜.

In this episode, Raffaela guides you through a powerful, healing meditation to move through the frustration, sadness, shame, disappointment, embarrassment, and exhaustion we so often experience after a BFRB* session.

Here, the foundation will be laid for a transformative perspective shift that will allow you to move through these heavy moments with more ease and grace.

If you've already listened to this episode and you'd like to skip to the meditation here are the time markers:
Meditation start - 7:00 mins
Meditation end - 20:45 mins

If this is the first time you're listening, make sure you listen from start to finish! There are many golden nuggets that surround this meditation that will make it even more impactful.

Let Raffaela know what your experience was! She's patiently awaiting your mail 🧡 Send your experience here: connect@raffaelamarie.com

*BFRB: Body Focused Repetitive Behaviour

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

If you've ever noticed that the urge to pick, pull, or bite at your body increases when you're "under the weather" and you'd like that NOT to be the case - then this episode is for you!

As always, Raffaela has a simple yet effective strategy to share with you on how you can navigate being sick so that you can reduce the frequency and severity of picking, pulling, or biting sessions.

Because we don't have to be at our best to make progress!

This is a real, honest, human approach that is easy to understand and sheds light on what might be going on in your mind when it comes to being sick and self-care.

This episode is deep, gentle, and practical.

Perfect for when you're not at your best.

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

This episode is for those of us who struggle to say "no"...

Those of us who feel over-committed to others and under-committed to themselves...

Who feel like their life is chaotic and overwhelming...

If you're about ready to "put your foot down" and make some changes then listen-in to this episode!

Raffaela shares how incredibly essential strong boundaries are if you want to break free from a BFRB* PLUS she shares a simple yet deeply impactful strategy to identify WHERE you need boundaries and WHAT that boundary should look like.

It's time to put your foot down!

Here's the link to check out the survey mentioned in this episode:
https://thrivingcenterofpsych.com/blog/setting-healthy-boundaries/

*BFRB = Body Focused Repetitive Behaviour

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

WARNING: If you're looking for a "quick fix" this episode is not for you.

Let's be real, if preventing falling into yet another picking, pulling, or biting session were easy... this episode wouldn't be necessary.

If we could "just stop" we would.

Most information and support you'll find on managing and healing from a BFRB are simply a collection of creative ways to AVOID your BFRB which only works for so long... until we snap and relapse back into the behaviour we have been avoiding.

There's a far more effective path that will give you back your power and help you to gradually reduce the length, severity, and frequency of BFRB* sessions until it is no longer a part of your life.

All is revealed in this episode!

*BFRB - Body Focused Repetitive Behaviour

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

Find out on this episode how your attachment style has EVERYTHING to do with how you will heal from your body focused repetitive behaviour...

And get some solid advice on using this mind-blowing information to your advantage so you can make genuine progress in finding your freedom from this behaviour!

The answers you're looking for go so much deeper than the surface of your skin...

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.

Are you feeling lost, frustrated, disappointed? 

Knowing what to do after a picking or pulling session can be hard.

In this episode, let Raffaela guide you through the real-time process of caring for yourself after a picking or pulling session so that you can move through it with more ease.

This process will help you to reduce the severity and frequency of sessions in the long term.

💌Share your story - Book your FREE BFPA* Support Call with me

🌟Download your FREE Guide to Stop Skin Picking Using Somatics

📝FREE Holistic Skin Picking & Hair Pulling Assessment - Join the waitlist

🎯Join the 7-Day Skin Picking Recovery Challenge

🙋‍♀️Send me a message here

My name is Raffaela Marie. I'm a holistic BFRB coach who has healed from 15 years of chronic skin picking myself and dedicated my life to helping driven women do the same. Through my podcast, free resources, and programs, I teach strategies to overcome urges, build emotional safety, and expand into authenticity. My approach goes beyond quick fixes, focusing on root causes and long-term recovery.