“Unlearning trauma also means unlearning the behaviours you adopted and inherited as survival tactics.”

Most of us have heard of fight, flight and freeze as typical responses to experiencing a trauma.

However, there’s a fourth response which is much less discussed, despite the fact that it’s also very common. This is what’s known as the fawn trauma response. Essentially, it’s a people-pleasing response, and one that’s been described in the following way[1]:

“Fawn types seek safety by merging with the wishes, needs and demands of others. They act as if they unconsciously believe that the price of admission to any relationship is the forfeiture of all their needs, rights, preferences and boundaries.”

Symptoms of this fawn, or people-pleasing, trauma response are:

– Desperately trying to figure how you should “be” in order to fit in, or please a person who’s significant to you. What is the…