Sounds True: Insights at the Edge

What if the parts of you that feel the most "broken" in relationships are actually superpowers in disguise? Tami Simon speaks with psychologist and attachment expert Dr. Diane Poole Heller about her new book, The Attachment Workbook, and why insecure attachment patterns aren't flaws to fix, but adaptive responses to understand—and heal.
Dr. Diane Poole Heller is an internationally recognized expert, author, and speaker specializing in adult attachment theory and trauma resolution. A former senior faculty member for Somatic Experiencing International, she studied for decades alongside trauma pioneer Dr. Peter Levine before developing DARE (Dynamic Attachment Re-patterning Experience), a somatic framework for healing insecure attachment. She is the author of The Power of Attachment and, most recently, The Attachment Workbook: Practical Exercises to Understand Your Patterns, Strengthen Connection, and Build Secure Relationships, part of Sounds True's Inner Workbook series.
In this conversation, Tami and Diane explore:
Why secure attachment is biological—something we're all wired for, not something only some people get
The hidden "superpowers" of avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized attachment styles
How attachment wounds get physically trapped in the nervous system, and how the body completes what it couldn't finish
The near-death experience that redirected Diane's life's work toward love and connection
Why healing attachment doesn't require a partner, and how your relationship with yourself can be the starting point
The research-backed power of repair in relationships, and why learning to apologize well may matter more than never rupturing at all
Practical visualization exercises from The Attachment Workbook, including inviting in an imagined protector and healing the "attachment gaze"
This episode is for anyone who has wondered why connection feels so hard—whether you're a therapist, a partner, a parent, or simply someone ready to understand your own relational patterns with more compassion.
Listen now to discover why secure attachment isn't a fixed trait—it's a skill, and it's never too late to learn it.
This interview originally aired on Sounds True One, where you can enjoy early, ad-free access to episodes of Insights at the Edge: https://join.soundstrue.com/
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Ever notice how a tiny criticism can send you into a full-blown spiral, and then you spend the rest of the day furious at yourself for spiraling? Dr. Jeffrey Rutstein has a theory about why that happens, and it starts before you ever had a say in the matter: with the nervous system you were born with.
Rutstein, a clinical psychologist, Hakomi-certified somatic psychotherapist, and host of Sounds True's Healing Trauma Program, talks with Tami Simon about inheriting his own mother's fight-or-flight wiring, and how a childhood encounter with Indra Devi's Yoga for Americans sent him down a decades-long path through pranayama, Hatha yoga, and Zen practice.
In this conversation, Tami and Jeffrey explore:
Why your baseline nervous system state is more inheritance than character flaw
How naming that inheritance can interrupt years of self-blame and shame
The difference between a fixed nervous system and one you can learn to shift

This one's for anyone who's ever hated themselves for "overreacting.” So…pretty much everyone.
Taken from the full Insights at the Edge conversation with Jeffrey Rutstein titled “Not Being a Prisoner To Your Nervous System.”
Find the complete interview: https://bit.ly/iate-jeffrey-rutstein
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What if the type you've been typing yourself as isn't the whole story? Tami Simon sits down with Enneagram pioneer Beatrice Chestnut to mark the re-release of her classic guide, The Complete Enneagram, and to ask why facing our shadow, not avoiding it, is the real path to waking up.
Beatrice Chestnut, PhD, is a global expert, researcher, and educator on the Enneagram. She holds a PhD in communication studies and a master's degree in clinical psychology, and is a licensed psychotherapist, coach, and business consultant based in San Francisco. She is the author of several acclaimed books on the Enneagram, including the newly re-released edition of The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge, widely considered a classic in Enneagram literature.
In this conversation, Tami and Beatrice explore:
The difference between personality (the protective "false self" formed in childhood) and our essential, true nature
Why each of the nine Enneagram types has its own distinct shadow challenge to confront and integrate
The 27 subtypes, and why Beatrice believes they matter far more than Enneagram "wings"
How the connecting lines, or arrows, reveal each type's specific growth pathway — and why the order matters
What each type looks like at its highest, most evolved expression
Why more people may be ready to "wake up" to who they really are now than ever before

This episode is for anyone who's taken an Enneagram test and wondered what to do next, as well as therapists, coaches, and longtime students of the system looking to go deeper with the subtypes.
Listen now to discover your own path to greater self-knowledge. →
This conversation offers genuine transmission, not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together, and it originally aired on Sounds True One.
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Why do some of the most hardened people—lifers on death row, people who've killed—turn out to be, underneath it all, remarkably sensitive? Physician and trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté has spent decades working with addicts and prisoners, and he's found a pattern that upends how we usually think about cruelty and compassion.
Dr. Gabor Maté is a physician and bestselling author whose work on trauma and addiction has shaped how millions understand pain, illness, and healing. He's the author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, When the Body Says No, Scattered Minds, and, with his son Daniel, The Myth of Normal.
In this conversation, Tami and Gabor explore:
Why compassion is wired into us from birth — and what shuts it down
The neuroscience of care, drawing on affective neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp's research on emotional systems
What Gabor has witnessed firsthand working with lifers and people on death row
The difference between "orchid" and "dandelion" temperaments, and why high sensitivity can become either a liability or a gift
Why genes linked to addiction may really be genes for sensitivity
This one's for anyone trying to understand the roots of cruelty, or working through their own compassion fatigue—toward others, or toward themselves.
Taken from the full Insights at the Edge conversation with Gabor Maté titled “Gabor Maté: Healing Principles to Embody in a Traumatized World”: https://bit.ly/insights-gabor-mate
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Tami Simon speaks with author, mystic, and racial equity educator Michelle Cassandra Johnson about her new book, You Are Protected. Together they explore malevolent energies, calling on ancestors and archetypes for spiritual support, the practice of spiritual hygiene, and how spells work, sigils, and simple rituals like salt can help us stay grounded, protected, and connected to our own energy amid a turbulent time.
This conversation offers genuine transmission, not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together, and it originally aired on Sounds True One.
Get a FREE month of membership at https://bit.ly/STOne-Free-Month.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.