E88: A Gentler Way to Heal Trauma and Attachment Wounds Through Play: Exploring safety, repair, and nervous system healing

What if healing your attachment wounds didn’t require more insight or effort—but simply giving your nervous system new experiences of safety and repair?

If you’ve been recognizing yourself in more than one attachment pattern—or noticing that your responses shift depending on the relationship—this episode speaks directly to you. Rather than labeling or fixing, this conversation explores what comes after awareness: how to gently support a nervous system shaped by complex trauma and survival, without forcing vulnerability or reliving the past.

1. Understand how play therapy can support anxious, avoidant, and mixed attachment patterns in a body-based, compassionate way
2. Learn what safety, protection, and repair actually feel like in the body—not just in theory
3. Discover gentle, doable practices that honor your pace while building more moments of self-trust and connection

Press play to experience a softer, more forgiving approach to attachment healing that helps you stay connected to yourself without having to abandon who you are.

Diane’s Bio: Diane Boehm is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Play Therapist. She specializes in supporting young children and teenagers diagnosed with ADHD, autism & learning disorders. Much of her work focuses on helping parents better understand and support their children. Diane is married to her college sweetheart and together, they have three small children.

To connect with Diane: https://www.insightstherapy.com/therapists/diane-boehm

Amanda’s Bio: Amanda Sherman is also a Licensed Professional Counselor. She has nearly 10 years of counseling experience in the school setting ranging from lower elementary school to higher education. Amanda specializes in supporting teenagers and adults facing anxiety, depression, life transitions, self esteem issues, and child-parent relational concerns. Additionally, Amanda is a licensed supervisor, mentoring aspiring therapists after graduate school. Outside of work Amanda is married and a mother to two little girls.

To connect with Amanda: https://www.insightstherapy.com/therapists/amanda-sherman

Resource: The Whole Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

Is this podcast for you?

Are you a woman who has done years of healing work on your attachment trauma, yet still feel unable to let go of people-pleasing and perfectionism?

This trauma-informed podcast helps women with complex PTSD heal the lasting impact of childhood attachment wounds from parents and caregivers so you can finally release survival patterns, rebuild self-trust, and create relationships rooted in authenticity, confidence, and emotional safety.

Listen each week to learn how to:

• Understand how trauma, attachment patterns, and overthinking fuel anxiety, stress, and burnout.

• Release perfectionism, people-pleasing, and outdated identities that keep you playing small.

• Build healthy boundaries, embodied self-trust, and a grounded sense of purpose and worth.

Your host, Cindy Payne—a licensed professional counselor, certified yoga teacher, and C-PTSD survivor—offers a new episode each Monday, and a Wednesday Midweek Reframe teaching a practical skill or concept, so you can reduce the impact of C-PTSD symptoms and improve relationships.

Work With Cindy

Ready for deeper support? Explore therapy or book a consultation here: cindypayne.com

Connect With Me

Send me a message directly on Instagram: @cindypaynerooted or via email: cindy@cindypaynelpc.com

**Ready to begin your healing? Start with the rebrand episode of Reclaiming Me: E66: Why You Can’t Heal Your Attachment Style Without Trauma Work (The Truth Behind the Rebrand of Reclaiming Me). **