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Polyvagal theory, nonviolent communication, codependency, breaking cycles, cultural context, somatic experiencing, secure functioning, and self-relationship
Stephen Porges' theory of the autonomic nervous system: ventral vagal (safe, social), sympathetic (fight/flight), dorsal vagal (shutdown). How your nervous system state determines your relational capacity.
Marshall Rosenberg's NVC framework: observation, feeling, need, request. How to express needs without blame and hear criticism without defensiveness. The communication technology for genuine connection.
Codependency isn't love — it's enmeshment. The spectrum from isolation to codependency, with interdependence as the healthy middle. How to need people without losing yourself.
The patterns you repeat are often the patterns you inherited. Intergenerational trauma transmission, family scripts, and the deliberate work of choosing which patterns to keep and which to break.
Relationship norms are cultural constructs, not universal truths. Individualism vs collectivism, cultural scripts for love and family, and why relationship advice that ignores culture is incomplete.
The body keeps the score. How trauma lives in the nervous system, not just the mind. Peter Levine's framework for completing incomplete stress responses and restoring nervous system regulation.
Stan Tatkin's PACT model: how couples can create a system that's more secure than either individual. The neurobiology of partnership, threat detection, and building a couple bubble.
Internal Family Systems, self-compassion research, and the relationship that determines all others. Kristin Neff's three components and why self-criticism doesn't produce better outcomes.