Survival Attachment and You: Understanding Your Experience Beyond Diagnostic Boundaries

This work investigates the cognitive "bypass" in high-stress attachment systems and the limitations of traditional diagnostic labels in capturing the reality of survival-based lived experience.

Reference: Wolf, C. J. (2025). Survival Attachment and You: Understanding Your Experience Beyond Diagnostic Boundaries. SSRN. Advance online publication.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5277877

Note for Researchers: Writing from a Denmark-based perspective, I am humbled that this work is cited in international research from France regarding trauma-informed approaches in complex environments. Cited in Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal.

Citation Reference: Rady, A., Rupaire, C., Bermejo, M., & Lacoste, J. (2026). The Paradox of Childhood Cumulative Adversity in Antisocial Personality Disorder: Reconsidering Trauma-Informed Approaches in Carceral Settings. Mental Health: Global Challenges Journal, 9(1), 49–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.56508/mhgcj.v9i1.338 (SMPR — CHU de Martinique, France).

Hyper-Associative Cognition: Rethinking Attention, Trauma, and the ADHD-PTSD Continuum

This research explores the neurobiological overlap between neurodevelopmental attention patterns and traumatic stress. It reframes "distraction" not as a deficit, but as a hyper-associative scanning mechanism developed for environmental survival.

The Focus: Investigating the continuum between ADHD and PTSD to understand how trauma shapes attention. The paper proposes that in high-stress environments, the brain prioritizes rapid associative thinking over linear focus to maintain safety.

Significance for Practice: This work provides the theoretical foundation for my Attention & Neurodivergence practice. It shifts the goal from "fixing focus" to understanding interest-led engagement and providing the co-regulation (body doubling) necessary for the hyper-associative mind to settle.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5tcev_v1 (PsyArXiv)

ADHD as a Chronic Emergency Response: Oscillation Between Hyperarousal and Depletion

This study analyzes the physiological "cost" of constant alertness. It examines how individuals with neurodivergent patterns or trauma histories often exist in a state of chronic emergency, leading to cycles of intense hyper-focus followed by cognitive depletion.

The Focus: Analyzing the metabolic and psychological toll of sustained hyperarousal. The research suggests that "burnout" in these populations is often the result of a nervous system that has forgotten how to down-regulate from a survival state.

Significance for Therapeutic Art: This research justifies the use of Process-Oriented Engagement as a way to "interrupt" the emergency response. By focusing on material interaction rather than output, the practice offers the nervous system a rare opportunity for down-regulation and restorative focus.

DOI https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/h5zef_v1. 

The research can be accessed via platforms such as OSF and ResearchGate. 

Access: ResearchGate: Charles J. Wolf 

When Survival Takes the Helm: Trauma Bonding and the Eclipse of Emotion and Logic

This paper investigates the cognitive "bypass" that occurs within high-stress attachment systems. It explores why survival-based emotional triggers can overrule logic and self-interest, specifically in the context of relational trauma.

The Focus: Mapping the neurobiological shift that happens when survival mechanisms (the "helm") take over the prefrontal cortex. It examines the mechanics of trauma bonding and the difficulty of navigating these systems through verbal logic alone.

Significance for Practice: This work highlights why non-verbal, reflective art practices are vital. When logic is "eclipsed" by survival triggers, the tactile, direct act of marking a surface can bypass verbal resistance to reach the underlying experience.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5274493

A Theoretical Model of the Biological Consequence of Reality Instability in Trauma: Inversion

This research introduces the concept of "Ontological Trauma", the destabilization of an individual’s fundamental sense of reality. It explores how deep-seated trauma can "invert" perception, causing the individual to interpret safety as threat and stability as danger.

The Focus: Proposing a model for the biological "inversion" of response patterns following prolonged instability. It examines how the brain re-calibrates to a world it perceives as fundamentally untrustworthy.

Universal Legitimacy: This paper provides a systems-level view of how trauma alters the human interface with reality. It reinforces the need for Trauma-Informed Practices that provide a predictable, structured, and low-pressure environment for exploration.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5454854

Hyperfocus as Cognitive Refuge: Toward a Frontier Perspective on ADHD 

This paper reframes the intense "hyperfocus" seen in neurodivergent populations not merely as a symptom, but as a protective and generative cognitive refuge.

The Focus: Investigating how deep immersion in a task serves as a neurobiological boundary against external sensory overwhelm. The research proposes a "Frontier Perspective" where hyperfocus is viewed as an adaptive strength that allows for high-level pattern recognition and cognitive recovery.

Significance for Practice: This work justifies the Co-Regulation and Body Doubling practices in my studio. By providing a stable environment, we allow hyperfocus to move from a "survival-based" refuge to a creative, generative state.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6387538

The Biology of Belonging: Dyadic Synchrony and Coherence in Leadership

Published in the SSRN Electronic Journal, this research applies the principles of interpersonal neurobiology to high-level organizational systems and leadership.

The Focus: Analyzing Dyadic Synchrony, the biological "hum" that occurs when two nervous systems align. The paper argues that effective leadership is grounded in "biological coherence," where a leader's physiological state directly influences the nervous systems (and performance) of their team.

Significance for Professional Growth: This research is the core of my Leadership Development modules. It moves "Emotional Intelligence" from a soft skill to a biological imperative, using creative practice to train leaders in maintaining the internal stability required to foster team coherence.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6309818

A Mechanistic Signal-Dependent Framework for Attachment, Trauma Bonds, and Biological Detachment

This work examines attachment as a signal-dependent biological system, exploring how proximity, interaction, and absence regulate bonding. It clarifies why trauma bonds persist under intermittent reinforcement and why they are difficult to resolve through logic alone.

The Focus: Proposing that attachment is maintained through biological signaling, with contact acting as the primary input. The paper explains how unstable, high-arousal signals sustain trauma bonds, and how the removal of signal enables detachment at a physiological level.

Significance for Practice: This work clarifies why verbal insight alone often fails to resolve high-stress attachment dynamics. When attachment is maintained through ongoing biological signaling, cognitive understanding does not interrupt the underlying system. The framework supports approaches that prioritize signal reduction, boundary formation, and non-verbal forms of processing where appropriate.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6510532 SSRN
(Also available via Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19389936)

Walking the Labyrinth: The Nonlinear Nature of C-PTSD Recovery

This research investigates the "Grey Phase" of recovery, the often-overlooked period following betrayal trauma where the survivor navigates a labyrinth of core memories and vivid dream states.

The Focus: Mapping the nonlinear trajectory of Complex PTSD. The paper analyzes the role of dreams and the re-emergence of core memories as the brain attempts to "re-index" a reality that was previously fractured by betrayal.

Significance for Grief & Trauma: This work informs my Grief Practices. It validates the "quiet, steady engagement" of my sessions, providing a structured container for the "nonlinear" work of recovery, where there is no pressure to "reach a result," only to remain present.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/g7e42_v1

The Paradox of Task Switching in ADHD

This paper examines the high metabolic cost of "shifting gears" for the neurodivergent brain and why traditional time-management strategies often fail.

The Focus: Exploring the biological "friction" inherent in task-switching for those with ADHD. The research suggests that the difficulty isn't in the task, but in the transition, which requires a dopaminergic surge that the ADHD brain may not be able to recruit on demand.

Significance for Attention Modules: This informs the Body Doubling aspect of my work in Copenhagen and North Zealand. By sharing a space, we lower the "activation energy" required for transitions, allowing participants to settle into productive focus without the friction of isolation.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/mhrba_v1

Why Are Some People with ADHD Good at Math and Others Bad? Exploring cognitive profiles, working memory differences, autistic-leaning traits, and emotional/dopaminergic factors

An investigation into the divergent cognitive profiles within the ADHD community, focusing on working memory and dopaminergic factors.

The Focus: Breaking down the "Spiky Profile" of neurodivergent cognition. This research explores how emotional/dopaminergic interest (the "Interest-Based Nervous System") can bypass traditional working memory deficits, leading to high-performance in some areas and struggle in others.

Significance for Practice: This work reinforces my Intentional Creative Practice. It honors the individual’s "internal rhythm" and interest-led focus, providing a space where "deadlines" and "performance pressure" are removed to allow for natural cognitive unfolding.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/a9z85_v1

Beyond the Data

Direct Connection: 

Online peer support for for  trauma and attention

Therapeutic Art practices 

Art-based therapeutic practice informed by this and other research

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