183: How Early Conditioning Shapes Self-Trust — And Why Midlife Reveals It with Amanda Clark

For many women, midlife doesn’t arrive as a crisis — it arrives as a quiet realization.

In this episode, I’m joined by Amanda Clark for a grounded conversation about early conditioning, nervous system adaptation, and how we learn — often without realizing it — to trust external authority over our own inner signals.

We talk about how these patterns aren’t the result of something being “wrong” with us, but of how we learned to cope, comply, and stay safe in the systems we grew up in. And why midlife is often the moment those strategies stop working — not to break us, but to wake us up.

This is not a conversation about fixing your childhood or doing more healing work.
It’s about awareness.
About noticing how the body has been communicating all along.
And about understanding why listening to yourself can feel unfamiliar — even when you’re deeply capable.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• How early conditioning shapes self-trust and decision-making

• Why the nervous system learns to override the body before we’re conscious of it

• The difference between childhood context and childhood “healing”

• How midlife reveals patterns rather than creates problems

• What it actually means to feel safe in your body — without self-improvement pressure

Amanda is a somatic relationship + Boundaries coach, and Breathwork Facilitator. I help women break the emotional chains of childhood and become the authority of their livesFollow Amanda on IG @its.amandaclark

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