Trauma Responses: Understanding The Fight Response

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen continue their trauma response series with a deep dive into the fight response: what it is, why it develops, and how it shows up in everyday life. Often misunderstood and heavily judged, the fight response is a nervous system survival strategy rooted in mobilization, power, and protection. They explore how fight can look like anger, defensiveness, control, irritability, or needing to win, especially for people who learned early on that being loud or strong was the only way to be heard. Em shares how fight shows up in her own body, why it’s often reinforced by systems that reward dominance, and how neglecting basic needs can lower the threshold for activation. Listener questions focus on recognizing when you’re in a fight state, coming down from it in real time, and unlearning the belief that conflict is the only path to safety. Em and Jen offer practical tools for regulating the body, slowing conversations, and building new relational pathways without shaming a response that once served a purpose. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 4:30 to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content. ⁠ Get Matched With One of Our Therapists ⁠ at The Therapy Group! ⁠ShrinkChicks on Instagram⁠ Our ⁠Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal⁠ !! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! ⁠ A special thank you to this week's sponsors for supporting ShrinkChicks! We have these exclusive offers for our listeners: AG1: Go to DRINKAG1.com/SHRINKCHICKS to get their best offer, and for a limited time only, get a FREE AG1 duffel bag and FREE AG1 Welcome Kit with your first subscription order Bobbie: If you want to feed with confidence too, head to hibobbie.com to find the formula trusted by parents and loved by their babies Quince : Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠quince.com/shrinkchicks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping and 365-day returns on your next order GreenChef: Right now, go to GreenChef.com/shrinkchicksgraza and use code shrinkchicksgraza to get started with 50% off Green Chef + FREE Graza Olive Oil Set in your 2nd and 3rd boxes David Protein: David is offering our listeners a special deal: buy 4 cartons and get the 5th free when you go to davidprotein.com/SHRINKCHICKS Olive & June: Visit OliveandJune.com/SHRINKCHICKS for 20% off your first System Pique Life: Secure 20% off your order and begin your intentional wellness journey today at Piquelife.com/shrinkchicks See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at .

You can listen to Trauma Responses: Understanding The Fight Response online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Trauma Responses: Understanding The Fight Response is an episode from ShrinkChicks by Jennifer Chaiken, LMFT and Emmalee Bierly, LMFT.

This episode is 00:46:17 long.

This episode was published on Feb 16, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from ShrinkChicks when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.