A Defense of The Fawn Response

What the Somatic and Trauma Fields are Missing

Photo by Gabriel on Unsplash

In the somatic, trauma and nervous system regulation field, practitioners are taught that fight, flight and freeze are the three fundamental, hardwired human stress responses. Fight and flight are sympathetic and movement-oriented, self-protective motor programs designed to do things and get us places. Parasympathetic freeze causes stillness, hiding, waiting…