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The Trauma Recovery School

The Trauma Recovery School

Hosted by: Bonita Ackerman du Preez

The Trauma Recovery School Podcasts examines everyday anxiety that can affect most of us at some point in our lives, but did you realise your anxiety may have been caused by a specific traumatic event in the past?...

All Episodes
All Episodes Season 1 Season 2 Season 3

Episodes

#114 Why You Overthink & Self-Sabotage | Trauma & Shame

Season #3

In this episode, we explore how shame differs from guilt, how it becomes identity-based, and how it can quietly influence behaviour over time. You’ll learn how unprocessed experiences can lead the brain to internalise...
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#113 Why Trauma Is Draining Your Body | Nervous System Survival Mode

Season #3

In this episode, we explore how trauma keeps the body in survival mode, leading to ongoing stress hormone activation. You’ll learn how this can affect the immune system, increase physical tension, disrupt sleep and...
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#112 Why Trauma Affects Sleep | Nervous System Survival Mode

Season #3

In this episode, we explore how trauma can keep the brain in survival mode, causing it to remain alert even at night. You’ll learn how stress hormones can continue to activate the body, why the brain scans for danger...
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#111 Why Trauma Affects Your Gut | Nervous System & Digestion

Season #3

In this episode, we explore how the brain and digestive system communicate, and why digestion is disrupted when the body shifts into survival mode. You’ll learn how stress hormones can reduce digestive function, how...
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#110 Why You Feel Wired But Exhausted | Trauma & Stress Hormones

Season #3

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#109 Why Your Body Feels Constantly On Edge | Trauma & Stress Hormones

Season #3

In this Episode, we explore how the brain’s protection system releases stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol when it senses danger. While this response is designed to keep us safe in threatening situations,...
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#108 Why Talk Therapy Isn’t Enough for Trauma Recovery

Season #3

Trauma stored in the nervous system can keep you in survival mode, even when you’re trying to heal. This video explains why analysing your thoughts alone may not resolve anxiety, anger, or shutdown.
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#107 Why You React So Strongly | Trauma & Survival Mode

Season #3

In this Episode, we explore how trauma and early unpredictability condition the brain’s stress response. You’ll learn how the amygdala activates before logical thinking, why survival pathways become automatic over...
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#106 When trauma strikes your brain lets you down - here’s why!

Season #3

In this Episode, I explain what happens when the trauma brain takes over. Under stress, the thinking brain (prefrontal cortex) goes offline and the survival brain (amygdala) steps in. Insight stays present—but control...
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#105 The Link Behind Identity, Trauma, and PTSD

Season #3

If anxiety, people-pleasing, shutdown, or overthinking feel like who you are, this may explain why. This episode explores trauma identity—not your personality, but who your nervous system learned to become to stay...
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#103 WHY THE BAD FEELS BIGGER THAN THE GOOD, AND WHAT PTSD HAS TO DO WITH IT

Season #3

Have you noticed how one critical comment can outweigh a hundred positive ones? That’s not pessimism. It’s negative bias—and trauma makes it louder. In this video, I explain why trauma-trained brains stay on high...
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#102 Why your trauma and PTSD brain works against you.

Season #3

In this video, I explain why trauma-trained brains cling to familiar patterns, even when they hurt and why willpower alone can’t create real change. You’ll learn how survival responses override your intentions and...
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