Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson8 Sep 2025

People Pleasing and the Fawn Response with Meg Josephson

Forrest and therapist Meg Josephson explore the fawn response, a survival strategy where safety is sought by pleasing other people. They discuss how fawning can start as self-protection in childhood, but later morph into overthinking, hypervigilance, and self-abandonment. Meg shares her own experience, including how fawning creates resentment and makes it difficult to find a healthy relationship or figure out your authentic needs. Topics include becoming aware of unconscious habits, building distress tolerance, grief, self-compassion, healthy boundaries, and speaking up for ourselves. About our Guest: Meg Josephson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and author of the new book Are You Mad at Me? Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction 1:18: Self-sabotage as self-protection 4:01: Bringing the unconscious fawn response into awareness 9:51: Silencing wants and needs, conflict avoidance, and resentment 14:33: Rediscovering wants and needs after people pleasing 18:05: The healing arc: grief, anger, and relationship 25:30: Viewing people pleasing as a “part” rather than an identity 30:11: Nice vs. compassionate 51:36: Hypervigilance and the NICER practice 57:22: Authenticity as “uncovering” rather than “fixing” 1:03:02: Recap Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors If you have ADHD, or you love someone who does, I’d recommend checking out the podcast ADHD aha! Level up your bedding with Quince. Go to Quince.com/BEINGWELL for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns. Join hundreds of thousands of people who are taking charge of their health. Learn more and join Function at functionhealth.com/BEINGWELL. Listen now to the Life Kit podcast from NPR. Go to Zocdoc.com/BEING to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Treating Shame with Self-Compassion with Dr. Chris Germer

Shame is one of the hardest emotions to work with, in part because it blocks what we need most when we’re feeling shame: self-compassion. Dr. Chris Germer, co-developer of the Mindful Self-Compassion ...

28 Sep 1h 11min

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: What the Critics Get Right (and Wrong) w/ Dr. Ellen Hendriksen

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the world's most researched, recommended, and criticized form of therapy. Clinical psychologist Dr. Ellen Hendriksen joins Forrest to talk about what CBT is, its ...

21 Sep 1h 33min

The New Science of Pain: It's Not Just Physical with Dr. Rachel Zoffness

Pain psychologist Dr. Rachel Zoffness joins Forrest and Dr. Rick to explore what pain is, why it can persist long after an injury has healed, and what actually helps. Rachel explains why the brain, ra...

14 Sep 1h 48min

People Pleasing vs. Fawning: Why We Do It and How to Change

Dr. Rick and Forrest talk about what separates people-pleasing from the fawn response, and why those differences affect what actually helps. They trace the surprising history behind both ideas, explai...

11 Sep 1h 12min

Depleted Mother Syndrome: Why Moms Burn Out, and How to Recover with Jan Hanson

Forrest is joined by his parents, psychologist Dr. Rick Hanson and nutritionist Jan Hanson, to discuss "Depleted Mother Syndrome:” the exhaustion, brain fog, and low mood so many mothers experience. T...

31 Aug 1h 17min

How to Feel Your Feelings with Simone Saunders

We’ve all been told to “feel our feelings,” but what does that actually mean, and how do you do it? Forrest talks with trauma therapist Simone Saunders about how to go from knowing your patterns to be...

24 Aug 1h 25min

The Psychology of Manipulation: How to Become Manipulation Resistant

Dr. Rick and Forrest explore how to become more resistant to manipulation, discussing terms like gaslighting, DARVO, and love bombing. They talk about why cynicism doesn’t make you immune to manipulat...

17 Aug 1h 10min

What’s The Problem With Therapy Speak? August Mailbag

Terms like boundaries, gaslighting, triggers, trauma, and attachment are everywhere now. Dr. Rick and Forrest answer a listener question about the consequences - good and bad - of clinical language es...

10 Aug 1h 1min