The five survival patterns described here arise out of five different ways that the flow of energy through the body can be shaped in an attempt to cope with the distress.

You may recall that each of the survival patterns shapes the person’s attention in certain specific ways. With the leaving pattern, attention tends to go away from the here and now physical situation to other dimensions. With the merging pattern, attention tends to leave the self and fixate on everyone else and what they want. With the enduring pat

The aggressive pattern develops in people who were in such distress that they feared they would die, but made it through by willing themselves to survive. Instead of leaving, looking to others for help, or simply enduring, they turned inside to their own resources, to their own will and strength, and fought their way through.

E+R – Strong skills for grounding, endurance, and order, creating a patient, organized strength, or a stubborn righteousness. Both patterns are cautious, so this person is not a risk-taker.

Enduring-patterned people need to develop autonomy and self-confidence so that they can complete the tasks of separation and individuation.