Lisa Arrigo

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Your relapse story might not be about “lack of willingness” at all. It might be your nervous system doing its job the only way it learned how: pushing you toward anything that creates a fast hit of safety. I’m joined by Lisa Arrigo, a New York licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, trauma specialist, and recovering addict, for a candid conversation about what changes when we stop treating addiction like a moral problem and start treating it like a trauma-informed, nervous system problem.

We talk about why AA and 12-step recovery can be lifesaving for community and structure, and why it can still fall short for people living with complex PTSD, dissociation, and deep attachment wounds. Lisa breaks down how the brain and body respond to threat, what the window of tolerance looks like in real life, and why “knowing better” isn’t enough when the prefrontal cortex goes offline. We also dig into shame as a physiological experience, how it gets wired early, and why compassionate curiosity paired with radical responsibility can change the relapse loop.

You’ll leave with practical, simple somatic tools you can use immediately: feet-on-the-floor grounding, posture and breath cues, hand-on-heart support, and orienting to present-day safety. We close by naming a truth many of us avoid: healing happens in relationship, and real recovery includes learning how to stop outsourcing safety while still letting safe people in. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find trauma-informed addiction recovery.

For more about Lisa:

https://www.lisaarrigo.com/

To book a FREE discovery call with Dr. Sam:

https://calendly.com/drharte/free-discovery-call-w-dr-harte

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