The Biology of Trauma® With Dr. Aimie – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Biology of Trauma® With Dr. Aimie

Dr. Aimie Apigian

Health & Fitness

Education

Frequency: 1 episode/6d. Total Eps: 232

People are done dancing around the topic of trauma. They're ready to face this square-on. None of the current systems are getting to the root of the issue in the current model. Their biology has been affected on a cellular level, and that is now what's preventing the important work that they're trying to do. The Biology of Trauma® podcast is the missing piece to that puzzle. It's a practical living manual for the human body in a modern, traumatizing world. Join your host, Dr. Aimie Apigian—a medical physician and expert in attachment, trauma, and addiction—as she challenges outdated trauma paradigms and introduces a new model for healing.

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Why Fixing Someone You Love Is Destroying Your Nervous System

Episode 162

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 • Duration 41:42

➡️ Get the full episode breakdown at Biology of Trauma® Podcast — Episode 162: Why Fixing Someone You Love Is Destroying Your Nervous System

When someone you love is struggling with addiction, your nervous system absorbs what theirs numbs out. Relational trauma repair therapist Karen Moser joins Dr. Aimie Apigian to explain why the families of substance users often carry deeper nervous system dysregulation than the users themselves. This episode reveals the biological cost of trying to control another person's healing and what it takes to reclaim the parts of yourself that got lost along the way.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

(00:00) Why helping someone you love may be destroying your nervous system
(02:00) What Relational Trauma Repair (RTR) is and how it works with the body
(06:30) How Karen Moser brought Relational Trauma Repair (RTR) into addiction treatment and family work
(08:00) Why the family's nervous system is often more dysregulated than the user's
(11:00) Why sobriety alone does not resolve the family's nervous system patterns
(15:00) Where relational trauma repair starts with families and self-relationship
(19:00) How floor checks help name and locate emotions in the body
(22:30) Why anger, shame, and even joy are emotions people learn to avoid
(28:00) How childhood survival roles create adult role fatigue and burnout
(38:00) A practical exercise to reconnect with the alive, strong parts of yourself

Resources/Guides:

The Biology of Trauma book — Get your copy here
Songs of the Inner World — Dr. Aimie’s YouTube channel for real, raw, honest words for your inner world.
Nervous System Journal — Download at biologyoftrauma.com/book. Track how often you are in a survival state.

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How Mast Cell Activation, Histamines & Mold Toxicity Place You in a High-Risk Trauma Category with Beth O'Hara

Episode 107

Tuesday, January 21, 2025 • Duration 23:20

Have you ever wondered why you are so reactive - to people, foods, smells, sounds and stress - while other people around you seem completely fine?

You are going in overdrive or even going into overwhelm, and think you just must be having a bad day or looking for what triggered you.

The answer might surprise you. A specific cell of your immune system, mast cells, could be actually causing trauma responses in your body, putting you into emotional states, that have less to do with the people around you and more with a compound those cells release, histamine.

Today we're tackling a commonly overlooked underlying reason for anxiety. We will be answering the question, How do mast cell activation and mold toxicity keep us stuck in our responses and triggers to trauma?

Before we dive in, I want to dedicate this episode to the loving memory of our guest Beth O'Hara, who passed away in July 2024.

Beth was a pioneering functional naturopath who transformed countless lives through her work with Mast Cell 360, helping people understand and heal from complex cases of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), mold toxicity, and related conditions. She was a friend to me and I am sad to not have more time and conversations with her.

In this episode, you'll discover:

How to recognize if histamine is driving your anxiety
Why mold exposure can keep your body stuck in trauma responses long after exposure
How mast cells bridge your immune system and emotional overwhelm
Why and how mast cells will block your ability to create inner safety
Practical tools to decrease reactivity and build resilience

For more information and show notes, please visit our website: https://biologyoftrauma.com/biology-of-trauma-podcast/

How Anxiety, Depression & Trauma Reactions May Be From Mold and Heavy Metals with Kirkland Newman

Episode 106

Tuesday, January 14, 2025 • Duration 29:16

How does mold and stored trauma in the body create a feedback cycle that makes us susceptible to the other?

Studies are confirming that common mental health symptoms, like depression and anxiety, are associated with brain inflammation. I want to share with you some two often overlooked sources of brain inflammation and emotional fragility, toxins from mold exposure and Lyme infection. More importantly, the feedback cycle that they create with stored trauma in the body.

This is important because we have a mental health crisis with unprecedented numbers of anxiety, depression and related effects like, burnout. While we usually assume a person, place or situation is causing us stress, we want to consider the increasing amount of mold exposure and undetected chronic Lyme disease. Many are unaware of the association between the two and without knowing to investigate, get on a recommended mood and sleep medications that cause problems and are difficult to get off of later, and are addressing the real problem.

My good friend Kirkland Newman, is my guest for this episode. She is a journalist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, who faced postpartum depression and couldn't find answers in the traditional healthcare approach. So she did her own research and created Mindhealth 360 an integrative Mental Health website to be a resource on information for others also trying to find mental health solutions.

In this episode, you'll learn:

How trauma responses from adverse childhood events cause brain inflammation
How brain inflammation can pre-dispose you to a long-haul syndrome with mold or Lyme
What mold does to our nervous system to lead to anxiety and depression
How we might know if we have mold or Lyme toxins
How to approach our trauma work or therapy when we also have mold or Lyme
The different modalities we want to integrate for therapy

For more information and show notes, please visit our website: https://biologyoftrauma.com/biology-of-trauma-podcast/

How Trauma Fuels Addiction & The 4 Pillars for Recovery with Joe Polish

Episode 105

Tuesday, January 7, 2025 • Duration 39:29

Have you ever wondered if you have an addiction? Maybe you have openly struggled with one or know someone with one?

As an addiction medicine physician, there are more people than the studies estimate who live with an addiction, either because they don't know yet or because no one is asking them the questions to have it be documented.

People pull me aside at social events and want to ask me if they have an addiction to their prescription pills for sleep, anxiety or pain or to things like work, exercise and adrenaline.

I wanted to share this specific episode on addiction and its antidote connection because the risk for addictions is higher than ever.

Our modern world - with increased isolation, social media dependency, and decreased authentic community - creates conditions that make addiction more likely. The increasing rates of anxiety, depression, and overwhelm in our society mean more people are vulnerable to using addictive behaviors as coping mechanisms. In fact, it is a hidden epidemic. Many people are "functional addicts" without recognizing it because society normalizes various addictive behaviors. This makes it critical for each of us to understand the underlying patterns that drive addiction. Whether it is to be mindful of our own vulnerability or to navigate recovery with better success than the traditional approaches, addiction is something we all need to understand now.

I'm honored to share a powerful conversation with Joe Polish, founder of Genius Network® and Genius Recovery. Joe's journey from nearly losing everything to addiction to becoming one of the world's most connected entrepreneurs offers hope and practical wisdom for anyone touched by addiction - whether personally or through loved ones. We will be answering the question, "How does creating genuine connection and safety accelerate healing from addiction?"

In this episode, you'll discover:

How addiction is a survival strategy to disconnect from the pain of stored trauma in the body
The four essential pillars for sustainable recovery: community, biochemistry, environment, and trauma work

Addiction & 6-Step Felt Sense Polyvagal Plan to Revolutionize Traditional Treatment with Janet Winhall

Episode 104

Tuesday, December 31, 2024 • Duration 34:56

What does it mean that our behaviors, conscious and unconscious, serve as state propellers, actually giving us exactly what we need in the moment, whether energy or numbing and disconnecting?

By answering this question in this episode, you will not only come to understand yourself better, and why you reach for that second or third cup of coffee or binge watch T.V. shows, but it will give you new eyes to understand addictions and their recovery. It will be a window into your own inner world and felt sense of safety or danger.

We will explore emotional regulation and the states of the nervous system through the lens of addictions. One of the reasons I chose to become an addiction medicine physician was because of what I would be able to learn about trauma and the nervous system, and how the body adapts to survive and function despite inner pain.

That is why it was important for me to bring you this episode with my friend and guest, Dr. Janet Winhall, an author, teacher and psychotherapist. Author of 'Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why current pathologizing model for treating trauma and addiction is failing
The important distinction between neuroception and interoception
How behaviors and substances can be state regulation strategies
Why it's important to include body-mind connection in addiction recovery treatment
How to connect with your body and allow yourself to feel without numbing or disassociating
How chronic conditions may be treated with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model
Practical strategies on how to apply the Felt Sense practice in everyday life

For more information and show notes, please visit our website: https://biologyoftrauma.com/biology-of-trauma-podcast/

Strategies for Empaths: How to Navigate Sensory Overload, Shame & Trauma with Dr. Judith Orloff

Episode 103

Tuesday, December 17, 2024 • Duration 38:31

Why are empaths more susceptible to experiencing trauma than most?

Are you a sensitive person? Are you an empath with a more sensitive and perceptive system?

What is happening is that our nervous system is more sensitive, receiving information that others don't, feeling things that others don't, which means having an uncontrollable body response to imperceptible changes in the environment.

Like being in a noisy crowd and not able to turn it off, our sensitivity can lead to overwhelm. Which leads to the hard truth, while being sensitive may be a superpower sometimes, it more often than not is overwhelming for our system and causes a trauma response in our body. Pretty soon we can be having emotional meltdowns, or physical health symptoms that are embarrassing or ones that we think are random.

In this episode, I chat with Dr. Judith Orloff to explore the ways in which this can lead to a greater susceptibility to trauma, as well as how to embrace the unique gifts that heightened sensitivity brings.

Dr. Orloff is a UCLA trained psychiatrist and has been called "the godmother of the empath movement". She synthesizes traditional medicine with cutting-edge knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality, and believes in the power of integrating this wisdom.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why highly sensitive people are more prone to trauma
The different types of overwhelming situations an empath might encounter
The hidden needs of empaths
Why empaths are more vulnerable to physical health symptoms
How this level of sensitivity can actually be a superpower
Practical strategies for empaths, like sensory inventories and boundary setting, to not just survive but thrive

For more information and show notes, please visit our website: https://biologyoftrauma.com/biology-of-trauma-podcast/

Brain Inflammation: Addressing The Overlooked Gatekeeper To Trauma Release with. Dr Austin Perlmutter

Episode 102

Tuesday, December 10, 2024 • Duration 36:35

What can we do about the brain inflammation that holds us back in fog, fatigue and trauma responses?

To help answer that question and share brain inflammation with you is my guest, Dr. Austin Perlmutter, is a board-certified internal medicine physician, New York Times bestselling author, published researcher, and the executive director for Big Bold Health, a food-as-medicine company focused on helping people rejuvenate health through better immune function.

In the evolving field of trauma therapy, we're increasingly recognizing that healing isn't just about processing memories or changing thought patterns. The application of The Biology of Trauma lens is that it is just as much about addressing the impact trauma has had on our biology, which now keeps us stuck in our trauma responses.

One crucial aspect of this biological impact is brain inflammation. It is one of the most common yet most overlooked gatekeepers of trauma healing. Brain inflammation creates many of the symptoms that people attach to their trauma responses, yet often is what is triggering those trauma responses. Yes, you heard me right. It is not just people, places that can trigger our trauma response. It is also a specific immune cell in our brain - microglia.

In this episode, you'll learn why:

Good insights from therapy seem to fade by the next day
Small stresses feel overwhelming to your brain
What you eat affects how well you can process emotions
Relationship conflicts leave you mentally exhausted
Your diet can dysregulate you just as much as your partner
Your mind feels clearer in nature than in therapy

For more information and show notes, please visit our website: https://biologyoftrauma.com/biology-of-trauma-podcast/

The Biology of Trauma® With Dr. Aimie – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Biology of Trauma® With Dr. Aimie – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

Amazon5

Youtube24

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

Amazon5

Youtube24