Fawning: When People-Pleasing is a Trauma Response

Fawning is a response of placating, appeasing, or putting others’ needs first in order to protect yourself from conflict. It can be viewed as a lesser-known response to trauma that can relate to patterns of people-pleasing. In this article, I explore what fawning is, how it relates to people-pleasing, and how to work on shifting out of this pattern.