Triggered and True

What if the reason prayer feels so difficult has less to do with your faith—and more to do with the wounds you've carried since childhood?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese continue their series on how the Compassion Method brings biblical truths to life by exploring prayer, forgiveness, loving your enemies, and other commands that often feel impossible to live out.

Brian vulnerably ...

What if the Christian life was never meant to be about trying harder, but about healing deeply enough that love becomes natural?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese continue their conversation about faith and emotional healing by exploring one of the biggest misunderstandings in the Christian life: the difference between producing the fruit of the Spirit and trying to manufacture it through...

What if the healing that's transforming your heart is more biblical than you've been led to believe?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese continue their conversation about common objections to the Compassion Method by addressing one of the biggest questions they hear from Christians: Is this process actually biblical?

Laura shares her own faith journey and explains how her relationship with G...

What if the emotions you've spent your whole life trying to avoid are actually trying to help you heal?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese tackle one of the most common objections to the Compassion Method: "Shouldn't I ignore my feelings instead of paying attention to them?" 

Together, they unpack why so many of us fear our emotions, where that fear comes from, and why learning to feel...

What if the questions you keep asking are actually pointing you toward the healing you've been looking for?

In this special Q&A episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese answer listener questions about emotional healing, the Compassion Method, trauma, learning, and what it really looks like to grow when life feels overwhelming.

From navigating new challenges and emotional triggers to understanding how...

What if the freedom you're searching for isn't found by doing more, but by learning how to be still?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese explore what they call a roadmap to true freedom, weaving together neuroscience, emotional healing, the Compassion Method, and faith to show why lasting transformation begins with slowing down instead of striving harder.

Laura explains that our brains are w...

What if the emotional trigger you're trying to avoid is actually the doorway to your healing?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese challenge one of the biggest misconceptions about emotional triggers: that they're something to fear or eliminate. 

Instead, they explain why triggers can become one of the greatest gifts in your emotional healing journey when you learn how to work with them ...

What if the holidays don't have to be something you survive—but something you actually experience?

In this special holiday episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese explore why Christmas and family gatherings can stir up so many emotional triggers—and how you can approach them with greater peace, awareness, and self-compassion.

Rather than offering another list of holiday coping strategies, La...

What if the person you trust the least... is yourself?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese unpack one of the deepest roots beneath anxiety, relationship struggles, and emotional triggers: self-trust. 

They explore why betrayal by others often awakens something much older—and why healing begins by restoring trust in yourself before trying to rebuild trust with anyone else.

Laura exp...

What if the healing you've been looking for doesn't start with fixing yourself—but with finally understanding yourself?

If you're new to Triggered & True, this is the perfect place to begin. In this special introduction episode, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Friese share what the podcast is all about, why emotional healing matters, and how the Compassion Method helps people move through emotional triggers, shame, anxiety,...

What if the shame you've spent your whole life outrunning traces back to something as simple as being a sensitive kid who felt too small?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise follow up on their last conversation ("Uncovering Shame, Reclaiming Your True Self") by getting deeply personal — Brian opens up the actual roots of his own shame, and lets it be walked through in real time. 

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What if there's a quiet virus running underneath everything — one that keeps the emotional healing from taking hold, and you don't even know it's there?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise go deep on the one thing that may block your healing more than anything else: shame. 

Brian compares it to a virus running low-grade on your operating system — slowing everything down, dis...

What if the harsh way you judge other people is really a mirror of the way you quietly judge yourself?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise take on judgment — and the surprising place it comes from. 

Starting with Matthew 7 ("judge not, that you be not judged") and reading it with the word "condemn" in place of "judge," they draw a crucial distinction most of us blur: the differenc...

What if hearing real people tell you exactly how healing changed their lives is the encouragement you needed to believe it could change yours?

In this very special episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise hand the microphone to the people who've lived it: brave graduates and students of the Compassion Method who share honest testimony from their own journeys. 

Each of them once had a "great awakenin...

What if physical pain isn't just physical — what if it's quietly pressing on an emotional wound and making the whole thing feel a hundred times worse?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise explore a connection they'd only ever hinted at before: the deep link between physical and emotional health. 

The timing wasn't planned — within a single week of each other, both hosts had t...

What if the anxiety — or the shutdown — that's followed you for years isn't chasing you, but is a scared, lonely child trying to get your attention?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise continue their live walkthroughs of the remote control exercise with two brave volunteers, and the pairing is illuminating — because Laura takes two very different people down two very diffe...

What if watching someone else navigate their emotional pain in real time could show you the way through your own?

In this special episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise do something they've never done on the podcast before: walk real listeners through the remote control exercise live. 

Two brave volunteers each agreed to be a "guinea pig" — bringing a genuine, tender trigger and letting Laur...

What if the emotional reaction you've been fighting to control for twenty years could simply stop being a reaction at all?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise devote a full episode to the tool at the practical heart of the Compassion Method: the remote control exercise. 

They first introduced it back in Episode 6, but here they go deeper — into both the science of why it works and...

What if the meltdown that made you feel like a failure is actually proof that the healing is working?

In this episode of Triggered & True, Laura Duncan and co-host Brian Freise get honest about a feeling every listener knows: "I feel like I'm failing at this." 

Whether you're brand new to the Compassion Method or 56 episodes deep, there will be moments — often right after some progress — when a huge triggered rea...