Held Together: Healing Childhood Trauma Episode 3– Trauma, Shame, and the False Self
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
Release Date: 03/24/2026
The Art of Becoming More Fully Yourself
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
Subscribe for free reflection journals and deeper resources: Listen & subscribe to Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace: Who are you underneath the roles you carry, the expectations you've inherited, and the versions of yourself you've learned to perform? In this episode of Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace, Dr. Malorie explores what it means to become more fully yourself—not by becoming someone new, but by rediscovering the person God created you to be. Many of us spend years adapting to the expectations around us. We learn what earns approval, what helps us belong, and what...
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Becoming Someone You Trust: Rebuilding Confidence From the Inside Out
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
What if confidence isn't something you find—but something you build? Many of us spend years wondering why we don't feel more confident, more certain, or more secure in ourselves. We assume confidence arrives first and then we take action. But what if confidence is actually the result of something deeper? In this episode of Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace, we explore the foundation beneath confidence: self-trust. Together, we'll examine how self-trust is formed, how it becomes damaged through burnout, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and broken promises to ourselves, and how we can...
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The Power of Small Things: Why Tiny Habits Change Lives
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
Want deeper reflection and free companion journals for each episode? Subscribe to the Restored reflection library here: Listen & follow Restored here: We often think change happens through dramatic breakthroughs, big decisions, or finally “getting it together.” But what if lasting transformation is actually built through small things repeated over time? In this episode of Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace, Dr. Malorie explores why tiny habits matter more than we often realize—and how psychology, neuroscience, and faith all point toward the quiet power of consistency....
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The Science of Becoming: Why Growth Feels Uncomfortable
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
Want to go deeper? Subscribe for companion reflection journals, guided prompts, and deeper resources designed to help you move beyond listening and into meaningful reflection and growth. ✨ Reflection journals & deeper resources: Have you ever wondered why growth feels so uncomfortable—even when it is good for us? In this episode of Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace, we explore something many people quietly wrestle with: Why does healing sometimes feel harder before it feels better? Whether you are learning healthier boundaries, healing from anxiety, grieving, changing old...
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The Hidden Psychology of Hope
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
What if hope matters more than we realize? When life feels heavy, growth feels slow, or healing seems farther away than we hoped, discouragement can quietly begin shrinking our sense of possibility. Yet psychology—and faith—both point to something important: Hope matters. In this opening episode of a new season of Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace, we explore the hidden psychology of hope—how hope shapes resilience, healing, motivation, and our ability to keep moving forward in difficult seasons. Together, we unpack why hope is more than optimism or wishful thinking, how it...
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What culture is Doing-Episode 5: Grief--The Losses We Don’t Name in a Fast, Changing World
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
What if some of the heaviness you’ve been carrying… is grief? Not only grief after losing a person. But grief from change. From disappointment. From relationships that shifted. From dreams that didn’t unfold the way you hoped. From seasons of life that quietly ended before you were ready. In the final episode of What Culture Is Doing to Our Nervous Systems and Souls, Dr. Malorie explores a form of grief many of us experience but rarely name: the grief of modern life. We live in a fast-moving world that teaches us to adapt quickly, push through, stay productive, and keep moving. But what...
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What Culture is Doing Episode 4: Fragmented— Comparison, Performance, and the Scattered Self
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
Why do so many of us feel disconnected from ourselves—even while appearing high-functioning on the outside? In Episode 4 of What Culture Is Doing to Our Nervous Systems and Souls, Dr. Malorie explores the hidden cost of living in a culture shaped by comparison, performance, productivity, and constant visibility. We live in a world that subtly teaches us to perform different versions of ourselves depending on where we are, who we are with, and what is expected of us. Over time, many people begin to feel scattered, disconnected, and unsure of what is truly them. In this episode, we unpack what...
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What Culture is Doing Episode 3: Always On
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
Episode 3: Always On — Chronic Urgency, Hypervigilance, and Why Rest Doesn’t Feel Restful Why does it feel so hard to truly slow down? In Episode 3 of What Culture Is Doing…, we explore the nervous system impact of living in a culture that rewards speed, urgency, constant availability, and nonstop productivity. Many people feel exhausted not simply because they are “doing too much,” but because their bodies have adapted to staying emotionally and mentally activated—even during moments of rest. This episode unpacks: chronic urgency and hypervigilance why rest often doesn’t...
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Mother’s Day Bonus Episode: The Many Layers We Carry
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
Mother’s Day is often portrayed as a simple celebration filled with flowers, gratitude, and joy. But for many people, this day carries far more complexity than the world around them acknowledges. In this special bonus episode of Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace, Dr. Malorie explores the many emotional layers people bring into Mother’s Day—layers that are often deeply personal, tender, and difficult to talk about openly. This conversation creates space for: the joy and meaning of motherhood the sorrow of losing a mother the grief of never having the kind of mother you needed...
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What Culture is Doing: Episode 2-When Caring Costs Too Much
Restored: Where Psychology Meets Grace
You’re not just tired. There’s a kind of exhaustion that doesn’t come from doing too much—but from caring deeply in an environment that continually asks more of you than your system can sustain. In Episode 2 of What Culture Is Doing…, we explore moral fatigue—a form of emotional and nervous system strain that develops when your values, responsibilities, and daily demands stay in tension over time. Many people describe feeling overwhelmed, depleted, or disconnected without fully understanding why. This episode offers language for that experience. We’ll walk through: What moral...
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Why do so many of us carry a quiet sense that something is wrong with us… even when we can’t explain why?
In this episode of Held Together: Healing Childhood Trauma, we explore the connection between trauma, shame, and identity—and how early experiences shape the beliefs we carry about ourselves.
Building on the previous episodes, Dr. Malorie helps you understand how the roles you learned to survive are often rooted in something deeper: shame-based core beliefs formed in moments your nervous system was overwhelmed and trying to make sense of your world.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
• The difference between shame and guilt—and why it matters
• How shame forms in childhood when needs are not consistently met
• What defectiveness beliefs are and how they develop
• How trauma shapes identity—not just behavior
• The concept of the false self and why it forms
• How survival roles (achiever, peacemaker, independent, etc.) are connected to shame
• How Internal Family Systems (IFS) helps us understand protective parts with compassion
• Why shame continues to impact adult relationships, even when we don’t recognize it
If You’ve Ever Thought…
“I feel like I have to hold everything together.”
“If people really knew me, they wouldn’t stay.”
“I’m either too much… or not enough.”
This episode will help you understand where those beliefs may have come from—and why they feel so real.
What You’ll Begin to Understand
Shame doesn’t begin as a thought.
It begins as a felt experience in the nervous system—a child trying to make sense of disconnection, inconsistency, or overwhelm.
And over time, those experiences form beliefs like:
“I am not enough.”
“I am too much.”
“I am on my own.”
To cope with those beliefs, we develop roles—ways of being that help us stay connected, accepted, or safe.
But what once protected us can later leave us feeling disconnected from who we truly are.
Reflection for This Week
When you notice shame showing up, pause and ask:
“What am I believing about myself right now?”
Then gently remind yourself:
“That belief was learned.”
Healing begins not by forcing new beliefs—but by meeting old ones with compassion.
Resources Mentioned
• No Bad Parts – Richard Schwartz
• The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk
• Healing the Shame That Binds You – John Bradshaw
• The Gifts of Imperfection – Brené Brown
Coming Next
In Episode 4, we explore how trauma lives in the body—and why understanding the nervous system is essential for healing.
If you’ve ever felt like your body reacts before your mind can catch up, that conversation will meet you there.