Healing After Betrayal From Within: A Mindfulness Approach With Dallin Brunn, MBSR (Rise Season 2, Episode 26)

When betrayal shatters your reality, it's natural to look outward for safety. But safety can be difficult to find when you feel disconnected from yourself, questioning your instincts, doubting your reality, and struggling to regulate overwhelming emotions. What if healing begins by learning to trust yourself again? Healing doesn't begin by controlling your emotions—it begins by changing your relationship with them. In this episode of Rise: Hope and Healing After Sexual Betrayal, host MaryAnn Michaelis, LICSW, CSAT, CPTT, welcomes mindfulness expert and therapist Dallin Bruun, AMFT, MBSR, for an inspiring conversation about using mindfulness to recover from betrayal trauma. Together they explore why mindfulness isn't simply meditation—it's learning to meet your pain with curiosity, compassion, and presence instead of fear or avoidance. Dallin explains how betrayal activates survival responses like fight, flight, and dissociation, and how mindfulness gently teaches the nervous system that safety can begin from within. You'll also hear practical ways to begin reconnecting with yourself through breath, body awareness, self-compassion, and simple grounding practices that anyone can begin today. Whether you're newly navigating discovery or further along your healing journey, this episode offers hope that trusting yourself again is possible. In This Episode You'll Learn Why betrayal trauma disrupts self-trust The difference between reacting and responding How mindfulness calms the nervous system Why your body holds emotional pain How self-compassion helps heal betrayal trauma Practical mindfulness exercises for emotional regulation Why awareness—not fixing—is often the beginning of healing How to reconnect with your intuition after gaslighting Gentle grounding techniques you can practice today Why healing starts with your relationship to yourself Memorable Quote "You can become the source of the safety, compassion, and trust you've been searching for." Resources Mentioned Tara Brach and the RAIN meditation practice Kristin Neff's Mindful Self-Compassion practices Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) courses Somatic approaches for trauma healing Connect with MaryAnn and the Human Intimacy Team If this episode encouraged you, subscribe to Rise: Hope and Healing After Sexual Betrayal, leave a review, and share this episode with someone navigating betrayal trauma. For additional resources, courses, and support for betrayal trauma recovery, visit www.humanintimacy.com.  If there's a topic you would like us to address, or you would like to share comments, questions or concerns, please send an email to: [email protected]