Self-validation CAN be learnt. The reason it is so important is that validating ourselves re-connects us with our inner knowing, our intuition. Self-validation is particularly important when we have grown up in an environment with mixed messages. Where our reality …
The Power of Self Validation
As a child we look to our parents for validation. Validation about ourselves and about the world around us. When we don’t receive that validation, it can be incredibly detrimental to our mental health as adults. It might sound like …
Attuned Parenting – Being With Children’s Feelings
When we lack attunement with our children, they will grow up to be adults who lack attunement with themselves. It is so easy to be dismissive when we are parenting. We are too busy, too distracted, to really stop and …
Journal Prompts For Those Who Were Parentified Children
I have found journaling to be an invaluable part of my healing journey. It is time just for me, where I can contemplate my life, think through relationships and have space to allow my intuition, different perspectives and ideas to …
How To Handle The Critics
Someone needs to hear this today. I have this in the back of my mind ALL the time. We live in an age where social media allows us to hide our real identity or hide behind the physical distance that …
Results Of Parentification
If you were a parentified child, it is likely that caregiving is simultaneously fulfilling AND exhausting. Why? As a parentified child one of the ways you got love and acceptance was through caring for your siblings and / or parents. …
Breaking The Cycle Of Parentification
When we take on adult roles, whether physically or emotionally, we lose out on part of our childhood and we can lose connection with the playful, joy filled part of ourselves. It IS possible to reconnect with this part of …
How To Recognise Parentification
Parentification has been referred to as an INVISIBLE childhood trauma. One study of 783 university students into the links between parentification and later adult wellness showed those who experienced parentification to have an increased risk of depression, anxiety, eating disorders …
Why Would A Child Take On The Role Of Parent?
As I mentioned in the last post about parentification, there are two types of parentification: ???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? – Acting as a friend and confidant to a parent, becoming the peacemaker, emotionally supporting the family. I???????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? – helping the family with physical tasks such …
What Is Parentification?
Parentification is a potential form of neglect (Hooper, 2008). Parentification is the lack of boundaries within a family unit which means the children or a child, takes on duties and responsibilities that are usually the domain of adults (Boszormenyi-Nagy & Spark, …