Psychodynamics and Safety: A Quickstart Guide to Understanding Past Influences on Present Behavior

This podcast episode, hosted by Dr. Dawn Elise Snipes, delves into the psychodynamic perspective of creating safety, emphasizing how unconscious and subconscious motives, alongside childhood experiences—particularly attachment—profoundly shape adult behaviors and feelings. A core tenet is that all behavior has a cause and a function, often serving a protective role based on antiquated schemas formed in the past. The episode aims to help listeners understand these underlying dynamics to foster a greater sense of safety and well-being.

The discussion highlights key distinctions, such as the dichotomous thinking prevalent in childhood (all good or all bad) which can lead to rigid schemas, contrasting it with the cognitive flexibility expected in adulthood. Dr. Snipes outlines various threat responses—fight, flee, freeze, and 'forget about it'—and illustrates how these manifest in problematic behaviors like addictions, social withdrawal, self-sabotage, hyper-vigilance, or even creating chaos. The concept of "phenomenological reality" is introduced, explaining that individuals perceive current situations through a unique lens filtered by their personal and vicarious past experiences, education, media influences, and developmental stage.

Practically, the episode recommends several strategies for individuals and groups. These include identifying current unhelpful behaviors and backward-chaining to explore their underlying causes and functions, such as stress eating or non-suicidal self-injury. The PACER method (Physical, Affective, Cognitive, Environmental, and Relational) is presented as a framework for creating safety, alongside the practice of mindfulness. For therapeutic interventions, activities like using symptom cards to discuss how behaviors serve a survival function are suggested, as is the crucial need to replace unhealthy coping mechanisms with healthy, functionally equivalent alternatives.

Broader implications extend to understanding common adult struggles, such as distrust of counselors, clinginess in relationships, or intense anger at rejection, as echoes of past vulnerabilities and unmet needs. The episode advocates for cultivating behaviors indicative of safety, including assertiveness, confidence, perseverance, self-esteem, relaxation, and healthy interpersonal connectedness. The "anchored autobiography" is introduced as a powerful tool for clients to systematically map their life experiences, enabling them to recognize how their past has shaped their current perceptions and ultimately empowering them to adjust outdated schemas for a more adaptive and secure phenomenological reality.

"behavior and feelings are significantly impacted by unconscious and subconscious motives"

"our behavior and feelings as adults are rooted in our childhood experiences including our attachment experiences"

"all behavior has a cause and a function"

"the majority of actions and reactions that we identify as problematic behaviors or symptoms are often antiquated schema based on prior learning experiences that are currently serving a protective function"

"when people start understanding why they're doing something what the benefit is then they can start finding other ways to achieve that same end or they can adjust their schema appropriately"

"recognizing the traumas of the past that are influencing the perceptions of the present and the future"

"rejection as a child is hugely devastating because we can't take care of ourselves if we're rejected by our caregivers that's a huge thing"

"when people are in that threat reaction place that HPA axis gets turned up our threat response system and people either want to fight or flee but sometimes they feel so overwhelmed they're paralyzed and they freeze"

"when a client starts to feel vulnerable sometimes they will create chaos"

"phenomenological reality situations in the present are perceived through a lens of the past"

"we don't just want to take away unhealthy behaviors you also have to add healthy replacements"

"when people feel safe they're more likely to be assertive when they feel threatened they're more likely to either be aggressive or passive"