Heal First Then Pick Your Life Partner: Help With Healing CPTSD
Heal First Then Pick Your Life Partner: Help With Healing CPTSD

Heal First Then Pick Your Life Partner: Help With Healing CPTSD

Dr. Tanner Wallace | CPTSD, IFS, Anxiety & Attachment

Overview
Episodes

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You're living a life full of ordinary moments — weddings, holidays, hard conversations, going through old photographs — that nobody warned you would feel like this. Years of therapy didn't prepare you for what these moments actually are: the lived experience of complex trauma showing up inside the rooms of an adult life. I'm Dr. Tanner Wallace, survivor and founder of CPTSD Medicine. I left academia to build what I couldn't find anywhere else: a sophisticated, applied path through complex trauma that takes the intelligence of survivors seriously. Each week, I share my take on the lived experience of CPTSD so you can recognize what's actually happening to you and stop mistaking it for a personal failure. CPTSD can be resolved. This is where you start to see why. Visit cptsdmedicine.com to explore working together.

Recent Episodes

050. Starting Over: Perspectives for the CPTSD CycleBreaker
MAY 15, 2026
050. Starting Over: Perspectives for the CPTSD CycleBreaker
You are ending something, and the ending is not going the way endings are supposed to go. The other person has disappeared, or reframed you to mutual friends before you could speak, or treated avoidance as a boundary and called it growth, and you are trying to logistic your way through what is actually a threshold. In this episode I name why Starting Over inside a trauma ecosystem cannot produce grace, why the cruelty and the distortion are structural rather than personal, and what the HouseHolder CycleBreaker's actual job is at the threshold, which is not correcting the narrative externally and not hero-parenting through guilt, but reinstating reality as it is, not as others have needed you to believe it was. This episode is for you if you have said to yourself, "I don't understand how this became the story." Step Closer If this episode resonated, join my email list. I send about two emails a week. https://cptsdmedicine.com/email When You're Ready CPTSD Resolution 101 Weekend Workshop Three days, seven people, live on Zoom. You'll leave with a clear, personalized map for your CPTSD Resolution. Offered twice a year in February and September. https://cptsdmedicine.com/weekendworkshop Happily Ever After — The All-Inclusive CPTSD Resolution Experience Six months of close-proximity training with me. Application required. https://cptsdmedicine.com/services About Dr. Tanner Wallace Tanner Wallace, PhD and Level 3 IFS Practitioner, is the founder of CPTSD Medicine and the author of the CPTSD Medicine Healing Protocol, a proprietary applied mental health training curriculum that teaches HouseHolder CycleBreakers to resolve complex relational trauma at the root. A former tenured professor of health and human development, she left academia to build the services she could not find as a childhood trauma survivor diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder: a structured six-month container that trains humans to become their own best intervention scientists. Inside her signature container, Happily Ever After, she works with a small number of students to resolve, not manage, their CPTSD. About the Podcast _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Heal First, Then Pick Your Life Partner is for high-functioning adults with complex trauma who are tired of repeating painful relationship patterns. If you perform well professionally but struggle intensely in your closest relationships, this podcast helps you see why. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Each episode takes an ordinary moment of adult life — attending a family wedding, going through old photographs, ending a relationship, writing a holiday card, having a hard conversation with someone you love — and shows you what's actually happening underneath it through the lens of complex trauma. You'll hear my take on the lived experience of CPTSD, drawn from five years of building a proprietary trauma resolution curriculum and from my own work as a survivor who no longer qualifies for the diagnoses I once did. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> This is diagnostic, declarative, and unlike anything else in the CPTSD space. Hosted by Dr. Tanner Wallace, PhD, founder of CPTSD Medicine.
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25 MIN
049. Ending A Relationship: CPTSD Help For The Survivor Of Childhood Trauma
MAY 7, 2026
049. Ending A Relationship: CPTSD Help For The Survivor Of Childhood Trauma
You can know a relationship is over and still feel like the ground underneath you has nowhere to land. For survivors of childhood trauma, the ending of an adult relationship is not just a loss — it is one of the most consequential windows for CPTSD Resolution you will ever be inside, and most women rush past it without realizing what was available to them. In this episode, I introduce The Reset Period: three obligations a HouseHolder CycleBreaker owes herself after an ending — Stabilize, Distill, Discern. I draw on the science of memory reconsolidation to name why the weeks after a rupture are structurally different from any other time, and I walk through what it looks like to honor the diversity of your Parts when one is devastated, one is relieved, and one is already drafting the reconciliation text. This episode is for you if you have ever caught yourself saying I just want to move on and felt, somewhere underneath, that something important was about to be skipped. Step Closer If this episode resonated, join my email list. I send about two emails a week. https://cptsdmedicine.com/email When You're Ready CPTSD Resolution 101 Weekend Workshop Three days, seven people, live on Zoom. You'll leave with a clear, personalized map for your CPTSD Resolution. Offered twice a year in February and September. https://cptsdmedicine.com/weekendworkshop Happily Ever After — The All-Inclusive CPTSD Resolution Experience Six months of close-proximity training with me. Application required. https://cptsdmedicine.com/services About Dr. Tanner Wallace Tanner Wallace, PhD and Level 3 IFS Practitioner, is the founder of CPTSD Medicine and the author of the CPTSD Medicine Healing Protocol, a proprietary applied mental health training curriculum that teaches HouseHolder CycleBreakers to resolve complex relational trauma at the root. A former tenured professor of health and human development, she left academia to build the services she could not find as a childhood trauma survivor diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder: a structured six-month container that trains humans to become their own best intervention scientists. Inside her signature container, Happily Ever After, she works with a small number of students to resolve, not manage, their CPTSD. About the Podcast _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Heal First, Then Pick Your Life Partner is for high-functioning adults with complex trauma who are tired of repeating painful relationship patterns. If you perform well professionally but struggle intensely in your closest relationships, this podcast helps you see why. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Each episode takes an ordinary moment of adult life — attending a family wedding, going through old photographs, ending a relationship, writing a holiday card, having a hard conversation with someone you love — and shows you what's actually happening underneath it through the lens of complex trauma. You'll hear my take on the lived experience of CPTSD, drawn from five years of building a proprietary trauma resolution curriculum and from my own work as a survivor who no longer qualifies for the diagnoses I once did. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> This is diagnostic, declarative, and unlike anything else in the CPTSD space. Hosted by Dr. Tanner Wallace, PhD, founder of CPTSD Medicine.
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31 MIN
048. Keeping Up With Life: A CPTSD Guide to Building Self Trust
MAY 1, 2026
048. Keeping Up With Life: A CPTSD Guide to Building Self Trust
You can run a life that looks competent from the outside while the private functional domain — taxes, invoicing, paperwork, the relationship with yourself — quietly falls apart behind closed doors. That split is not a discipline problem. It is an audience problem. In this episode, I introduce a single discerning question I want you carrying with you — Is there an audience for this task? — and walk through what it reveals about the Part of you that has learned to perform competence outwardly while leaving the unwitnessed loops open. We work through the backstage of the Broadway show your life has become, why mainstream priority advice has it backwards, and the difference between priorities and the systems that hold them. If you have ever said I can keep up with everyone else's expectations but I cannot keep up with my own life, this episode was made for you. Step Closer If this episode resonated, join my email list. I send about two emails a week. https://cptsdmedicine.com/email When You're Ready CPTSD Resolution 101 Weekend Workshop Three days, seven people, live on Zoom. You'll leave with a clear, personalized map for your CPTSD Resolution. Offered twice a year in February and September. https://cptsdmedicine.com/weekendworkshop Happily Ever After — The All-Inclusive CPTSD Resolution Experience Six months of close-proximity training with me. Application required. https://cptsdmedicine.com/services About Dr. Tanner Wallace Tanner Wallace, PhD and Level 3 IFS Practitioner, is the founder of CPTSD Medicine and the author of the CPTSD Medicine Healing Protocol, a proprietary applied mental health training curriculum that teaches HouseHolder CycleBreakers to resolve complex relational trauma at the root. A former tenured professor of health and human development, she left academia to build the services she could not find as a childhood trauma survivor diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder: a structured six-month container that trains humans to become their own best intervention scientists. Inside her signature container, Happily Ever After, she works with a small number of students to resolve, not manage, their CPTSD. About the Podcast _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Heal First, Then Pick Your Life Partner is for high-functioning adults with complex trauma who are tired of repeating painful relationship patterns. If you perform well professionally but struggle intensely in your closest relationships, this podcast helps you see why. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Each episode takes an ordinary moment of adult life — attending a family wedding, going through old photographs, ending a relationship, writing a holiday card, having a hard conversation with someone you love — and shows you what's actually happening underneath it through the lens of complex trauma. You'll hear my take on the lived experience of CPTSD, drawn from five years of building a proprietary trauma resolution curriculum and from my own work as a survivor who no longer qualifies for the diagnoses I once did. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> This is diagnostic, declarative, and unlike anything else in the CPTSD space. Hosted by Dr. Tanner Wallace, PhD, founder of CPTSD Medicine.
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41 MIN
047. Being A Girls' Girl: Relational Manipulation As A CPTSD Survivor
APR 24, 2026
047. Being A Girls' Girl: Relational Manipulation As A CPTSD Survivor
You've had the experience — someone tells you what's being said about you in the group chat you're not part of, or you overhear it, or it lands in a comment section, and suddenly you're defending a version of yourself you don't recognize. The spiral is immediate, the shame is disproportionate, and you can't tell whether to retaliate or apologize. In this episode, I teach the Embodiment Equation: why leaving the body in childhood sets up an implicit contract that invites relational manipulation, why women under patriarchy reach for character attacks as a counterfeit source of power, and what being a Girls' Girl actually means when you define it structurally instead of reflexively. Drawing on a detailed business-team scenario, I walk through the honesty audit that lets you hold accountability and self-protection at the same time. If you've ever thought "why is this always happening to me" or "why did I just stoop to that," this episode was made for you Step Closer If this episode resonated, join my email list. I send about two emails a week. https://cptsdmedicine.com/email When You're Ready CPTSD Resolution 101 Weekend Workshop Three days, seven people, live on Zoom. You'll leave with a clear, personalized map for your CPTSD Resolution. Offered twice a year in February and September. https://cptsdmedicine.com/weekendworkshop Happily Ever After — The All-Inclusive CPTSD Resolution Experience Six months of close-proximity training with me. Application required. https://cptsdmedicine.com/services About Dr. Tanner Wallace Tanner Wallace, PhD and Level 3 IFS Practitioner, is the founder of CPTSD Medicine and the author of the CPTSD Medicine Healing Protocol, a proprietary applied mental health training curriculum that teaches HouseHolder CycleBreakers to resolve complex relational trauma at the root. A former tenured professor of health and human development, she left academia to build the services she could not find as a childhood trauma survivor diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder: a structured six-month container that trains humans to become their own best intervention scientists. Inside her signature container, Happily Ever After, she works with a small number of students to resolve, not manage, their CPTSD. About the Podcast _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Heal First, Then Pick Your Life Partner is for high-functioning adults with complex trauma who are tired of repeating painful relationship patterns. If you perform well professionally but struggle intensely in your closest relationships, this podcast helps you see why. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Each episode takes an ordinary moment of adult life — attending a family wedding, going through old photographs, ending a relationship, writing a holiday card, having a hard conversation with someone you love — and shows you what's actually happening underneath it through the lens of complex trauma. You'll hear my take on the lived experience of CPTSD, drawn from five years of building a proprietary trauma resolution curriculum and from my own work as a survivor who no longer qualifies for the diagnoses I once did. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> This is diagnostic, declarative, and unlike anything else in the CPTSD space. Hosted by Dr. Tanner Wallace, PhD, founder of CPTSD Medicine.
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35 MIN
046. Feeling Unseen At Work: A CPTSD Guide To The Appreciation Wound
APR 17, 2026
046. Feeling Unseen At Work: A CPTSD Guide To The Appreciation Wound
You've done excellent work. You know it. And yet you find yourself scanning the room for confirmation that someone else knows it too. That quiet ache of feeling unseen at your job isn't a professional development problem. It's one of the most common places a CPTSD wound shows up uninvited. In this episode, I introduce The Appreciation Audit, a four-question self-inquiry practice designed to help you trace what you're actually asking for when you say you feel "underappreciated," and who you're really asking. We look at how childhood emotional neglect wires the nervous system to experience a missing "good job" as something closer to a survival threat, and why the workplace becomes a stand-in stage for recognition that was never delivered in the original production. Drawing on research in rejection sensitivity, attachment disruption, and real-life examples from professional and family life, we explore the difference between wanting appreciation and needing it to feel real. If you've ever thought "Why does this bother me so much? It's just work," this episode is for yo Step Closer If this episode resonated, join my email list. I send about two emails a week. https://cptsdmedicine.com/email When You're Ready CPTSD Resolution 101 Weekend Workshop Three days, seven people, live on Zoom. You'll leave with a clear, personalized map for your CPTSD Resolution. Offered twice a year in February and September. https://cptsdmedicine.com/weekendworkshop Happily Ever After — The All-Inclusive CPTSD Resolution Experience Six months of close-proximity training with me. Application required. https://cptsdmedicine.com/services About Dr. Tanner Wallace Tanner Wallace, PhD and Level 3 IFS Practitioner, is the founder of CPTSD Medicine and the author of the CPTSD Medicine Healing Protocol, a proprietary applied mental health training curriculum that teaches HouseHolder CycleBreakers to resolve complex relational trauma at the root. A former tenured professor of health and human development, she left academia to build the services she could not find as a childhood trauma survivor diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder: a structured six-month container that trains humans to become their own best intervention scientists. Inside her signature container, Happily Ever After, she works with a small number of students to resolve, not manage, their CPTSD. About the Podcast _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Heal First, Then Pick Your Life Partner is for high-functioning adults with complex trauma who are tired of repeating painful relationship patterns. If you perform well professionally but struggle intensely in your closest relationships, this podcast helps you see why. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Each episode takes an ordinary moment of adult life — attending a family wedding, going through old photographs, ending a relationship, writing a holiday card, having a hard conversation with someone you love — and shows you what's actually happening underneath it through the lens of complex trauma. You'll hear my take on the lived experience of CPTSD, drawn from five years of building a proprietary trauma resolution curriculum and from my own work as a survivor who no longer qualifies for the diagnoses I once did. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> This is diagnostic, declarative, and unlike anything else in the CPTSD space. Hosted by Dr. Tanner Wallace, PhD, founder of CPTSD Medicine.
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36 MIN