April 18, 2025

10 Signs Your Friend Is Actually a Dismissive Avoidant & How to Connect

12 minutes

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Is your friend more distant, private, or slow to open up than most?

They may be operating with a dismissive avoidant attachment style—often misunderstood but deeply wired for independence and protection. In this episode of The Thais Gibson Podcast, Thais outlines 10 revealing signs that your friend may be dismissive avoidant, and most importantly, how to build connection without pushing them away.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why dismissive avoidant friends are slow to warm up—but value loyalty and consistency

✔️ How intellectual and shared-activity bonding replaces emotional depth early on

✔️ The “6–8 touch point” rule before they’ll fully let you in

✔️ How dismissive friends handle conflict (and why they may disappear after one disagreement)

✔️ Their deep need for privacy, emotional safety, and a sense of autonomy

✔️ What wounds they carry—and how to build trust without overwhelming them

Whether you're feeling disconnected from a friend, recovering from a confusing dynamic, or looking to deepen a long-standing bond, this episode offers a compassionate roadmap to navigating friendships with avoidant attachment.

Meet Your Host:

Thais Gibson is the founder of The Personal Development School, best-selling author, and leading expert on healing attachment wounds and subconscious reprogramming. With a Ph.D. and over a decade of experience, she’s helped more than 70,000 members around the world transform their relationships.

Helpful Resources:

🧠 Take the Free Attachment Style Quiz

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📚 Read the Learning Love Book

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🎧 Explore More Podcast Episodes

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📝 Dive into the PDS Blog

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By Thais Gibson

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