What is a trauma bond?

A trauma bond, coined by Dr. Patrick Carnes, is not romantic or loving, but an unhealthy emotional attachment to someone who is abusive or manipulative. These bonds form through cycles of harm softened by rare acts of kindness, creating a confusing pull. Key signs include emotional dependence, minimising the abuse, constant highs and lows, isolation from loved ones, gratitude for small gestures, and self-blame.

Many feel trapped, believing their needs can only be met by the abuser.

Recognising these patterns is the crucial first step toward healing. But dissolving them requires more than willpower, it takes awareness, support, and practices that reach deeper than the mind.

In my years as a yoga therapist and long-time student, I’ve witnessed how yoga offers language and tools for patterns that modern psychology is only beginning to name. It reminds us that healing isn’t about fixing who we are, it’s about seeing the cycles we’ve been caught in and learning how to step out of them.

Yoga, Yoga Therapy, and the Dissolving Patterns Program are tools to help to move us out of survival mode and back into presence, so we’re no longer reacting from fear or dependence.

Yoga helps you reconnect with your body’s signals, learning to trust yourself again after being conditioned to doubt your own needs.

Yoga Therapy gives you practical tools to notice when you’re repeating the same cycles and gently choose a different response.

And the Dissolving Patterns Program goes to the heart of it all, helping you see where these bonds began, and guiding you to untangle them so you can create relationships built on respect, safety, and love.

Healing a trauma bond begins with awareness and deepens through compassionate, embodied practice.

Read the article here.