Unfurl. Untangle. Thrive.
At Velvet & Vine, we use Interpersonal Neurobiology to understand how brains, bodies, and relationships shape healing. This approach blends neuroscience, attachment theory, mindfulness, and relational care. It recognizes that your nervous system doesn’t exist in isolation. It grows and changes through connection. For queer, trans, and neurodivergent people, these connections often carry both harm and hope. Interpersonal Neurobiology gives us a roadmap for healing through compassion, science, and story.
Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) is a multidisciplinary framework developed by Dr. Dan Siegel. Instead of focusing on symptoms alone, it explores how relationships shape the brain and how healing emerges in safe, attuned connections.
In therapy, this means we look at:
Integration: bringing together body, mind, and relationships.
Neuroplasticity: the brain’s capacity to change through practice.
Embodied awareness: noticing how feelings live in the body.
Relational repair: finding safety after disconnection or trauma.
For queer and trans communities, IPNB also helps name how oppression and belonging affect the nervous system. It validates that anxiety, shame, or vigilance are not flaws but adaptive responses to unsafe environments.
For more background information on IPNB, explore the Mindsight Institute.
Trauma often isolates. It fragments memory, disrupts safety cues, and makes trust feel dangerous. IPNB helps by weaving fragmented experiences back into a coherent story, where body, brain, and relationships can align again.
At Velvet & Vine, we use IPNB to:
Explore how trauma shows up in your body (tightness, numbness, hyperarousal).
Reframe symptoms like hypervigilance as protective, not broken.
Build safety through grounding, breathwork, and co-regulation.
Support integration of painful memories in manageable ways.
For survivors, especially queer and trans survivors, this approach honors resilience while gently loosening trauma’s grip.
Queer and trans people often grow up in environments that misattune to their needs. IPNB therapy helps repair these ruptures by centering dignity, chosen family, and body sovereignty.
With IPNB, therapy can focus on:
Identity affirmation: building coherence around who you are.
Attachment repair: addressing rejection, abandonment, or shame from family or institutions.
Body connection: healing from dysphoria, shame, or hypervigilance.
Resilience practices: celebrating joy and resistance within queer culture.
This work does not pathologize queer or trans identities. Instead, it highlights how liberation and safety expand the brain’s capacity for joy and growth.
See our Queer Healing page for more information.
For neurodivergent people — whether autistic, ADHD, or otherwise wired differently — traditional therapy models can feel misattuned. IPNB embraces neurodivergence as natural variation. It looks at how your nervous system is wired and how connection can support regulation.
Key aspects include:
Understanding sensory experiences without judgment.
Exploring self-regulation and co-regulation strategies.
Identifying patterns of shutdown or overwhelm with compassion.
Supporting executive functioning through relational scaffolding.
This approach helps reframe difficulties not as deficits but as adaptations. Therapy becomes a space to honor your brain’s rhythms while practicing new tools for regulation.
See Our Values for more information about our commitment to neurodivergent-affirming care.
In sessions at Velvet & Vine, Interpersonal Neurobiology therapy may include:
Mindful awareness: noticing thoughts, sensations, and feelings with curiosity.
Somatic practices: grounding through breath, movement, or touch-based exercises.
Narrative work: integrating fragmented experiences into a coherent story.
Relational repair: practicing trust and connection in a safe therapeutic space.
Skill-building: using practices that grow integration, such as reflective journaling or guided imagery.
The therapist acts not as an authority but as a partner, offering attunement, safety, and structure so your nervous system can learn new pathways for connection.
For a complimentary approach to IPNB, explore Narrative Therapy.
Healing is not just about reducing symptoms. It’s about reconnecting with yourself, your community, and your sense of possibility. At Velvet & Vine, our therapists bring a trauma-informed, queer liberatory, and neurodivergent-affirming lens to Interpersonal Neurobiology.
We believe that healing happens in relationship—not only with your therapist, but with yourself, your body, and your communities. Through IPNB, we work together to honor your story and open space for new growth.
Learn more about our therapy services, or schedule your free consultation today to start IPNB with us.
No. You don’t need a formal diagnosis to begin. While some clients use insurance (which will require one), IPNB can support healing with or without diagnostic labels.
IPNB integrates neuroscience and relationship science. It doesn’t just talk about problems; it helps you rewire patterns in your brain and body through mindful, relational practices.
Yes. By addressing how relationships and experiences shape the brain, IPNB supports integration and regulation, which often reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Yes. Because IPNB focuses on attachment, safety, and nervous system regulation, it can be especially supportive for those healing from early relational trauma.
Absolutely. IPNB provides a framework for integrating different parts of yourself, making it a powerful approach for queer, trans, and neurodivergent people navigating identity questions.