Space To Breathe Therapy

Fight, Flight, Freeze & Fawn

Understanding common threat-response language with greater clinical accuracy

Fight, flight, freeze and fawn have become familiar ways of describing reactions to threat and overwhelming situations. However, the popular four-response model can sometimes make complex human behaviour appear much simpler than it is.

This resource explores what is known about defensive responding while distinguishing established fight, flight and freezing research from the therapeutic concept of fawning.

It includes:

Fight and flight responses
Defensive freezing
Freeze versus shutdown
Fawn and appeasement
Overlapping and changing responses
Dissociation
Why responses are not proof of trauma
Supporting someone during distress
When persistent symptoms may need assessment
More accurate ways to discuss threat responses

A nuanced guide to the familiar “four Fs” that keeps the language accessible without turning it into a diagnostic or biological personality system.

Space to Breathe Therapy