Dr. Ingrid Clayton and Fawn Stars: The Hidden Cost of People Pleasing (Part 2)

A Little Bit Culty

Sarah Edmondson & Anthony “Nippy” Ames

True Crime, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you actually stop fawning, and what does healing look like in real life? In Part 2 of our convo with Dr. Ingrid Clayton, we dove into boundaries, agency, and what it really takes to step out of survival mode. Ingrid shared her go-to body-based tools—like orienting with the senses, making nature your therapist, building a “pillow palace” like Sarah’s, and giving yourself full permission to take up space.

Expect honest stories about parenting and relationships as radical acts of autonomy, plus some real-talk on microdosing mushrooms, nervous system hacks, and learning to say what you actually feel. If you’ve ever felt lost in people-pleasing or longed to reclaim your voice, this episode offers wisdom, compassion, and bite-sized practices to help you trust yourself and move toward genuine self-acceptance.

Pick up Ingrid’s book, Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves--and How to Find Our Way Back. Also follow her on Instagram and Substack @IngridClaytonPhd or visit her website at IngridClayton.com.

Also…let it be known that:

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.

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CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

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Audio production: Will Retherford

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Writer: Sandra Nomoto

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, medical, or mental health advice.
0:06.1	The views and opinions express do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast
0:10.6	and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone, or anything.
0:17.0	Music. anything.
0:28.0	I'm Sarah Edmondson.
0:31.1	And I'm Anthony Nippy Ames, and this is a little bit culty.
0:35.8	We woke up from a cult, and that journey was captured in the vow on HBO and in my memoir,
0:36.4	scarred.
0:40.3	Now, in this podcast, we break down the shame and secrets that make these experiences so destructive with honest conversations on how seemingly benign groups can cross into
0:44.7	the cult of us, and how to spot and recover from trouble if it happens to you.
0:48.8	Each week, we bring an expert, survivors, and whistleblowers to explore red flags, resilience,
0:52.9	and even share a few laughs because because sometimes you've got to laugh.
0:56.0	Subscribe to our Patreon for early and ad-free listening, some live Q&A and exclusive content at patreon.com slash A Little Bit Culty.
1:03.0	Welcome to Season 8 of A Little Bit Culty.
1:06.0	Seeking down to the depths of the ocean,
1:14.7	hanging on to win my love.
1:31.0	Welcome back to part two with these patterns. How toton, author of the fawning book. Today we're going to get into more of the unfaunting how to stop these patterns.
1:33.8	If you have not listened to Part 1, we highly recommend that you do that.
1:38.4	Let us know what you think of the show on the gram or the Patreon wherever you listen.
1:40.0	Hope you enjoy as much as we did. Fawn star, Part 2. Welcome back, everybody to to part two with Ingrid. And I have to just start this with a little
2:06.4	anecdote that I got from your book, which is that it's not like you read the book and then you
2:09.9	stop fawning. Awareness is the first step. And I was laughing at myself because I was literally
	...

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