Loretta Graziano Breuning is one of the coaches that we found this month and we did a little interview with her. She impressed us with her expertise and vast understanding of evolutionary psychology.
She is a pioneer in helping people understand the hidden forces behind their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors through the lens of evolutionary psychology and neuroscience. After a long academic career as a college professor, Loretta discovered how understanding our mammalian brain can transform the way we approach personal growth, habits, and emotional resilience.
She teaches that many of the struggles people experience are not signs that something is wrong with them, but natural patterns created by the brain’s survival wiring. Through her books, including Habits of a Happy Brain, and her work with the Inner Mammal Institute, Loretta helps people understand how dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins influence their daily choices and how they can intentionally create healthier patterns.
She brings a unique perspective to coaching by combining scientific understanding with practical self awareness, helping people recognize their inner impulses instead of fighting against them. In this interview, Loretta shares powerful insights about rewiring the brain, overcoming limiting patterns, and accepting the human experience with greater understanding and compassion. Here is what she said…
Meet Life Coach Loretta Graziano Breuning:
Name: Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD
Pillar: The Mind, The Heart
Who is this coach for: People who want to understand their emotions, habits, and behaviors through the lens of neuroscience and evolutionary psychology so they can create lasting personal change.
How they can help: She helps people understand their brain’s survival patterns, rewire unhealthy habits, and build new neural pathways by working with their natural mammalian instincts.
First of all, how are you and your family doing in these “crazy” times?
History shows that all times are crazy.
Blaming “the times” for our life experience is disempowering.
I ignore the negativity around me.
How did the coronavirus pandemic affect your clients? Did it affect you at all?
I was not very affected because I was already retired.
I love to write, and I have always ignored other people’s alarmism.
The Origin:
Tell us about you, your career, how you started with your coaching career?
I discovered evolutionary psychology after a long career as a college professor in another field.
It helped me understand the survival urges of animals and the social rivalry that results from them.
I thought everyone should know this, so I started writing about it.
I wrote eight books, and now I am focused on Substack.
What was your biggest obstacle that you had to overcome in your life that made you who you are today?
I grew up around a lot of fear and negativity, so I did not have positive expectations about people.
I had to learn to look for the good in people while still being realistic.
This is why I benefited so much from understanding our common mammalian core.
It helps me avoid taking things personally.
What are the biggest lessons that you learned overcoming your greatest obstacle?
After years of trying to change, I learned to look for the good side of my wiring.
It is good to be independent.
You do not have to run when the herd runs.
In nature, you get eaten by a lion if you do not run when the herd runs.
In human life, there are costs to not following the herd.
There are also benefits.
The Coaching Style:
How do you innovate with coaching your clients?
I am more of a teacher than a clinician.
I focus on how our happy chemicals work in animals and how they pave neural pathways.
We end up motivated to repeat behaviors that felt rewarding in the past, despite our best intentions.
We can build new pathways, but we do not do the work if we refuse to believe we have these impulses.
I help people identify their mammalian impulses and understand how they were wired during their youth.
What’s unique about your coaching approach?
Since I am retired, I do not look for long term clients.
I do not need to affirm false beliefs just to create connection.
I can go straight to the point and say what needs to be said.
I do it in a kind way, so people thank me.
They do not come back if they only want to be told they are right.
It is nice to be retired.
What benefits do your clients get after working with you?
They see that nothing is wrong with them because all mammals have strong feelings about social rivalry.
They can understand how their old neural pathways create their feelings.
They also understand why it takes so much repetition to create new pathways.
Do you use any specific tools to be efficient with your clients?
I explain what activates dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins in animals.
This helps us understand what activates these chemicals within ourselves and how we can change those patterns.
It is all in my book.
The Impact:
If you had a super megaphone that, when you speak into, the whole world will hear your message, what would you say?
Our brain evolved to promote survival, not to make us happy.
Our brain defines survival from an animal and childhood perspective.
That perspective does not always make sense to our conscious verbal brain.
You have to be honest with your inner mammal, even if your conscious brain says, “I do not think that way.”
What is the greatest lesson you have learned in your life?
I learned that problems do not have simple answers.
When I was young, I accepted the popular idea that our society was both the cause of problems and the solution.
I learned that problems are much more complex.
People who insist they have the answer often make things worse.
I cannot stop other people from believing simplistic theories.
At least I can free myself from them.
Your final thoughts?
We are all mammals.
We are all wired during our youth.
If you accept this, you can accept your own impulses instead of denying them and shifting the blame.
Animal trainers use treats to motivate the repetition necessary to rewire behavior.
We can also find healthy ways to reward ourselves and motivate the difficult steps needed to create lasting change.
Where Can You Find Loretta Graziano Breuning?
If you liked this interview and if you would love to see how Coach Loretta is helping people find their inner mammal, go to innermammalinstitute.org and discover how to embrace your inner mammal.
For those who are interested to work on themselves, join her course.
If you want to peak a glimpse into her coaching, here are beautiful video series that can help you understand more about your Happy Chemicals.
And this is her YouTube channel where she shares powerful videos that dive deep into subjects related to relationships, evolutionary psychology, mindset…
Feel free to follow her Instagram, Facebook, and X accounts.
And if you’d like to connect with her more personally, you can do that through LinkedIn or by sending her a direct message on her Email [email protected]. It was an honor having this interview with her.