135: Inspire Health Podcast with Dr Jason Loken & guest trauma researcher and author Dr. Ruth Lanius135: Inspire Health Podcast with Dr Jason Loken & guest trauma researcher and author Dr. Ruth Lanius
UK Health Radio Podcast
Dr Jason Loken talks with trauma researcher Dr Ruth Lanius about how different types of trauma affect the brain, body and emotions. They discuss safety, flashbacks, attachment, and practical approaches to healing that can support people on a recovery journey.
49:47•12 Jul 2026
Trauma, Safety and Healing: Dr Ruth Lanius on Re-Living the Past
Episode Overview
- Trauma includes both major events and ongoing "small t" experiences such as emotional abuse and attachment disruption.
- Feeling safe with even one person can significantly change long-term outcomes, including risk of substance use disorder.
- Flashbacks involve re-living trauma with altered sense of time and different brain activation compared to normal memory recall.
- Body-based approaches, like careful body scans and grounding, help reconnect people to their bodies in a tolerable way.
- Integrative treatment combining psychotherapy, body work and neurofeedback may restore key brain networks affected by trauma.
“"We really need to understand both types of traumatic events, and how they interact, and how they've really developed to help form the person's life trajectory."”
What insights can experts and survivors share about addiction? This conversation with trauma researcher and author Dr Ruth Lanius speaks directly to anyone wondering why intense emotions, chronic pain or dissociation keep showing up in life and recovery. Host Dr Jason Loken chats with Dr Lanius, professor of psychiatry and director of the PTSD research unit at the University of Western Ontario, about how trauma shapes the mind, brain and body.
She breaks trauma down into "large T" events, like assault, war and severe accidents, and "small t" experiences such as ongoing emotional abuse and disrupted attachment. Her point is clear: "We really need to understand both types of traumatic events, and how they interact." You’ll hear how early attachment and feeling safe with even one person can change a person's trajectory, including their risk for depression, dissociation and substance use.
Dr Lanius explains why some people relive trauma instead of simply remembering it, describing how flashbacks feel like "it's happening now" and how brain imaging shows different regions firing when memories are relived rather than recalled. The episode walks through her five dimensions of consciousness — time, thought, body, emotion and intersubjectivity — and how each is affected by trauma.
She talks about voice hearing linked to trauma, somatosensory flashbacks, and why many people no longer feel their body is their own. On the practical side, there’s plenty for anyone in recovery: titrated body scans, grounding exercises, using anger safely as healing energy, and integrative therapies ranging from neurofeedback to body-based approaches. Throughout, safety is emphasised as the foundation for any real change.
If trauma, intense feelings or chronic pain have tangled up your sobriety journey, could understanding your nervous system and sense of safety be the missing piece?
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