You know that feeling when everything was fine ten minutes ago, but suddenly you’re in a cold, prickly standoff over something as small as the school pickup?

You’re not trying to be dramatic. You’re not trying to pick a fight. But suddenly, the air feels heavy, someone is quiet, and you’ve both retreated into your corners without even knowing how you got there.

If you’ve ever thought, Why does everything always spiral like this?, this episode is for you. It’s about understanding the "dance" that happens when your nervous systems start arguing before your brains can even catch up.

In this episode of The Connection Podcast, Lauren Dry, Master Marriage Coach and founder of Rise into Regulation™, unpacks the defensive resentment loop that high-achieving couples fall into. She explores why your partner’s defensiveness is rarely about your tone, and why your resentment is usually about the emotional baggage of carrying the load alone.

You’ll hear about:

1. Why normal conversations can suddenly feel like a personal attack on your identity.
2. The "spiral of doom" that happens when one person feels abandoned and the other feels like a failure.
3. How old childhood patterns make your body brace for impact and pull connection away when you make a mistake.
4. The difference between fighting about a topic and your nervous systems simply reacting to each other.
5. Three micro-tools to interrupt the cycle today so that connection starts to feel easier and less like "stepping on Lego."

Resources & Links:

1. 🌐 Learn more about Rise into Regulation™, the skillset for connection, communication, and Nervous System safety in modern marriage.
2. 📱 Follow Lauren on Instagram @lauren_dry

If something in this episode resonated, please share it with a friend, leave a review, or connect with me on Instagram. I love hearing what lands for you.

Big love,

Lauren X

If your relationship has started to feel more like managing life than sharing it, there’s a reason.

You’re functioning. You’re handling the logistics. You’re a solid team. On the outside, it looks like things are working.

But inside, it can feel like the relationship part has gone quiet. Like you’ve become really good at running a life together, and you’re not sure how to find your way back to closeness, ease, and intimacy.

If you’ve ever had the thought, Is this it now?, while also feeling guilty for even thinking it, this episode will land.

In this episode Lauren Dry, Master Marriage Coach and founder of Rise into Regulation™, unpacks why high-achieving couples so often slip into teammate mode. She explores how the skills that help you build a life together can quietly work against intimacy, and what actually helps connection come back without forcing it or blowing everything up.

You’ll hear about:

1. Why marriage can start to feel transactional, even when the love is still there
2. How compromise and compartmentalising keep things running, but disconnect you emotionally
3. The fear of wanting more, and why that doesn’t mean something is wrong with you
4. How attention, energy, and daily habits quietly shape intimacy
5. Small, realistic shifts that help closeness come back online

Resources & Links:

🌐 Learn more about Rise into Regulation™, the skillset for connection, communication, and Nervous System safety in modern marriage

📲 Follow Lauren on Instagram @lauren_dry

If something in this episode resonated, please share it with a friend, leave a review, or connect with me on Instagram. I love hearing what lands for you.

Big love,

Lauren X

You know that feeling when you still love them, but your body is like… nope.

You’re not trying to be dramatic, you’re not trying to nitpick, but suddenly everything feels irritating, flat, or strangely off.

If you’ve ever thought, “Why am I getting the ick?” or “Where did the romance go?”, this episode is a deep exhale. It’s not about blaming your partner or making you feel broken. It’s about understanding what your nervous system is doing underneath it all.

In this episode of The Connection Podcast, Lauren Dry, Master Marriage Coach and founder of Rise into Regulation™, unpacks how resentment, nervous system overload, and feeling emotionally unsafe can quietly switch off desire and connection in modern relationships.

This is a conversation about what “the ick” can actually be pointing to, and how to start rebuilding safety and closeness without forcing romance or pretending things are fine.

You’ll hear us explore:

1. Why “the ick” can be a nervous system response, not a sign your relationship is doomed
2. How resentment builds when you’re carrying too much, or not saying what’s true
3. What happens when your body stops feeling safe, even if your mind still wants connection
4. The difference between a relationship problem and a dysregulation problem
5. Small, realistic ways to bring safety, softness, and romance back online over time

Resources & Links:

🌐 Learn more about Rise into Regulation™, the skillset for connection, communication, and Nervous System safety in modern marriage

📲 Follow Lauren on Instagram @lauren_dry

If something in this episode resonated, please share it with a friend, leave a review, or connect with me on Instagram. I love hearing what lands for you.

Big love,

Lauren x

Have you ever known you should apologise, but your body just won’t let you? Not because you don’t care, but because even thinking about saying sorry feels heavy, tight, or almost impossible. You replay the moment, feel the shame rise, and somehow the words stay stuck.

This episode is for the moments after disconnection, when your nervous system is still activated and repair feels out of reach, even though connection matters deeply to you.

This is the second episode in a holiday series where Lauren revisits some of the most listened to and most returned to conversations from The Connection Podcast, to support you through busy, emotionally loaded seasons.

In this episode of The Connection Podcast, Lauren Dry, Master Marriage Coach and founder of Rise into Regulation™, unpacks why apologising can feel so threatening when you’re dysregulated, what’s actually happening in your nervous system, and how to approach repair in a way that doesn’t require self abandonment.

Lauren shares honest reflections, nervous system context, and practical ways to begin repairing without forcing yourself to bypass your body’s signals.

You’ll hear about:

1. Why saying sorry can feel physically unsafe when your nervous system is activated
2. How shame and self protection block repair, even when you want to reconnect
3. The difference between forced apologies and regulated repair
4. Why repair starts with safety in your body, not the perfect words
5. Small, honest ways to move back towards connection after a hard moment

Resources & Links:

🌐 Learn more about Rise into Regulation™, the skillset for connection, communication, and Nervous System safety in modern marriage

📲 Follow Lauren on Instagram @lauren_dry

If something in this episode resonated, please share it with a friend, leave a review, or connect with me on Instagram. I love hearing what lands for you.

Big love,

Lauren x

There’s a particular kind of shame that hits after you snap at your kids or your partner, especially around holidays and long weekends when everyone’s “meant” to be happy. On the outside it looks like family time and full calendars. Inside, your body feels tense, wired and stretched thin.

You know the tools. You understand the nervous system. You care deeply about your people. But in those moments when you’re exhausted or overstimulated, it can feel like something else takes over and you’re left replaying it all, wondering why you couldn’t just pause.

This episode opens a holiday series where Lauren revisits some of the most listened to and most returned to conversations from The Connection Podcast to support you through busy, emotionally loaded seasons.

In this episode, Lauren Dry, Master Marriage Coach and founder of Rise into Regulation™, shares a real parenting moment where she was at her limit, what was happening in her body, and the simple exercise that helped her move out of shame and back into connection.

You’ll hear what’s actually going on in your nervous system when you’re maxed out, why your inner critic gets louder under pressure, and how to reset after hard moments instead of staying stuck in the spiral.

You’ll hear about:

1. How shame shows up in your body after you lose it, and what to notice next
2. The “harsh inner coach” voice, and what it’s trying to protect
3. A short guided exercise you can use to reset after a tough moment with your kids or partner
4. How small, honest repair moments rebuild trust more than getting it “right” every time
5. What changes when you repair with yourself before you repair with your kids or partner

Resources & Links:

🌐 Learn more about Rise into Regulation™, the skillset for connection, communication, and Nervous System safety in modern marriage

📲 Follow Lauren on Instagram @lauren_dry

If something in this episode resonated, please share it with a friend, leave a review, or connect with me on Instagram. I love hearing what lands for you.

Big love,

Lauren x

A note before we begin: this episode includes conversation about domestic violence and coercive control. Please take care of yourself as you listen, and pause anytime you need. 🤍

There’s a kind of confusion that can live inside a relationship, especially when everything looks “fine” on the outside. You’re functioning, achieving, holding it all together… but inside, something feels tight, uneasy, or off.

In this episode, Lauren Dry is joined by Cat Dunn, an award-winning Online Business Manager, mentor, speaker, and founder of Life After I Left podcast and speaker events. Cat shares her lived experience of domestic violence, including emotional, financial, and digital control, and why it’s so easy to minimise what’s happening when there’s no obvious moment you can point to and say, this is abuse.

This is an honest, grounded conversation about self-trust, nervous system wisdom, and the slow work of naming what’s real, so clarity and ease become possible again.

You’ll hear us explore:

1. How domestic violence can show up without physical harm (emotional, financial, and digital control)
2. Why “it’s not that bad” and “at least…” thinking can keep you stuck
3. Intuition vs hypervigilance, and how your body tells the truth
4. Compromise vs coercion, and what repeated shutdown can signal
5. How safe support and community help you rebuild self-trust, one step at a time

Resources & Links:

🛜 Learn more about Rise into Regulation™, the skillset for connection, communication, and Nervous System safety in modern marriage

📲 Follow Lauren on Instagram @lauren_dry

Connect with Cat Dunn:

1. Website: catlouisedunn.com
2. Instagram: @catlouisedunn
3. Life After I Left: IG @lifeafterileftpodcast Podcast: Life After I Left

If something in this episode opened something up for you, share it with someone who might need it, leave a review, or send me a message on Instagram. You don’t have to hold this alone.

Big love,

Lauren X

There’s a kind of holiday stress that never makes it into the cute Christmas photos. On the outside it looks like full tables, busy calendars and everyone “making an effort”. Inside, it can feel like you’re bracing for certain comments, carrying the mental load, or wondering how you’ll hold it together all day.

You might already know which relative will push your buttons, or which topic will set things off. Maybe you leave family gatherings wired, flat, or annoyed at yourself for snapping, overexplaining or going quiet. If your body feels tense before you have even walked through the door, you’re not imagining it.

In this episode, Lauren Dry, Master Marriage Coach and founder of Rise into Regulation™, talks through what is actually happening in your nervous system during the holiday season. She unpacks how old roles, enmeshment and different communication styles stir things up, then shares simple, body-based tools and language you can lean on in real family moments.

This is a honest chat about protecting your peace, staying connected where it feels safe, and letting your nervous system guide you instead of old survival patterns.

You’ll hear about:

• Why your body can mix up anxiety and excitement around Christmas and holidays
• Simple nervous system tools to use when you feel flooded, restless or on edge
• How enmeshment can show up in everyday family moments and old roles
• How Lauren’s Connected Boundaries Bible can guide your choices
• How educate, redirect and release can support you when conversations get tense

Connected Boundaries Bible: quick reference

Three layers of connection:

• Communication: how you want to speak and be spoken to, tone, timing, space to pause and repair
• Lifestyle: how you want day to day life and holidays to feel, time, routines, drinking, parenting load, where and how you spend events
• Core values: your non negotiables, safety, how you raise your kids, what you are and are not willing to live with long term

Three doorways for boundaries:

• Educate: name what happened, share how it lands in your body, and gently say what you need instead
• Redirect: change the topic, timing or setting so the conversation is shorter, safer or more workable
• Release: step away or opt out, with a simple bridge like, “I am not available for this right now, let’s talk about it another time.”

Resources & Links:

🛜 Learn more about Rise into Regulation™, the skillset for connection, communication, and Nervous System safety in modern marriage

📲 Follow Lauren on Instagram @lauren_dry

If something in this episode resonated, please share it with a friend, leave a review, or connect with me on Instagram. I love hearing what lands for you.

Big love,

Lauren X

There’s a moment in so many relationships where things look fine on the outside, but inside it feels like you’re talking different emotional languages. You’re naming what you feel, you’re trying to connect, you’re doing the work, yet somehow he still shuts down or pulls away. And if you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “I feel like his mother”, or wondered, “Why is this so hard? Am I missing something?” this episode brings so much clarity and relief.

In this episode, Lauren Dry is joined by her husband and co-coach, Morgan Dry, Men’s Relationship and Leadership Mentor. Together they unpack what’s really happening inside men when things feel overwhelming, why shutdown happens even when they care deeply, and how tiny shifts in safety, tone and communication can change everything.

It’s a honest and grounding conversation that helps couples translate each other’s emotional language and reconnect in ways that feel safer, clearer and more mutual.

You’ll hear us explore:

• Why men often care deeply but struggle to understand emotional language
• What avoidant shutdown feels like inside a man’s body
• How tone impacts connection more than most women realise
• Why appreciation and safety create deeper intimacy than pressure or resentment
• Simple communication shifts that reduce defensiveness and help both partners feel heard

Resources & Links:

• Learn more about Rise into Regulation, the skillset for connection, communication and nervous system safety in modern marriage → Rise into Regulation™
• Follow Lauren on Instagram → @lauren_dry

If this episode opened something up for you, please share it with someone who needs it, leave a review, or send me a message on Instagram. I love hearing what lands for you.

Big love,

Lauren X