Brain Partnership: Working with the brain | Kate Truitt | #052 Mastering Change

For people living with trauma or chronic stress, the brain can feel like it’s working against them.

In this episode of Mastering Change, Dr Kate Truitt introduces brain partnership – a trauma-informed approach that reframes the brain as a protector rather than a problem. She explains how fast threat pathways in the amygdala and hippocampus form to keep us safe, and why those same pathways can later drive hypervigilance, dissociation or shutdown.

Kate explores how chronic stress reduces access to the thinking brain, reinforces survival responses, and fuels shame when symptoms don’t resolve. Rather than forcing change, she describes how compassionate inquiry and body-based regulation help bring systems back into the present – creating the conditions for neuroplastic change.

This episode offers a practical and deeply human lens on trauma, anxiety and nervous system dysregulation, especially for those who feel stuck despite insight or effort. 

We discuss

• Brain partnership as an alternative to “fixing” the brain
• How threat pathways develop and persist
• Why judgment increases dysregulation
• The role of the body in calming fear responses
• Supporting safety as a foundation for change

Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and potential distressing experiences. If you feel triggered at any point, please take a moment to check in with yourself and seek support.

See Kate Truitt at Transform Trauma Oxford 2026 – Get your Super Early Bird Tickets here.

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