Feel Good Podcast with Kimberly Snyder Fawning: How We Can Lose Ourselves and How to Come Back with Dr. Ingrid Clayton
Nov 3, 2025
Dr. Ingrid Clayton, a clinical psychologist and author of 'Fawning', delves into the complexities of trauma and the fawn response, an often-overlooked survival strategy. She shares her personal journey of facing self-acceptance and the challenges of developing healthy relationships. Ingrid explains how fawning manifests in child development and discusses its connection to people-pleasing behaviors. She emphasizes the importance of reparenting and inner-child work in healing, reminding listeners that understanding their responses is a key step toward recovery.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Fawning As A Trauma Response
- Fawning is a fourth trauma response alongside fight, flight, and freeze and often hides in plain sight as caretaking or people-pleasing.
- It is an unconscious survival adaptation that leans into the source of harm to stay safe.
Discovery Through Lived Experience
- Ingrid discovered fawning through Pete Walker's work and her lived experience as a childhood trauma survivor.
- Understanding fawning shifted her personal healing and changed how she works with clients.
Childhood Misunderstanding And Shame
- Kimberly describes childhood experiences of unwanted attention and being told not to smile, which left confusion and shame.
- These memories illustrate how fawning and self-abandonment can begin early in response to feeling unsafe.
