When we learn to meet our needs by meeting the needs of other people, think of it as a survival mechanism. It isn't the most optimal approach and it works to an extent so we keep doing it. If the unconscious thought is... 'if I care for you, and you're good, then maybe you'll be able to care for me' ...then what will be sacrificed just to meet some of the basic human, relational needs? Sometimes quite a lot.

It's a nice thought that things that happen in the past, stay in the past. The issue is that it's not true.

Trauma often creates implicit, nonverbal memories that can't be fully processed just through talking about them.

Some types of trauma that happens in relationships, interpersonal traumas, are sometimes overlooked or minimized. This may be in part due to

If you've ever said the phrase, "a part of me feels one way and another part of me feels another", there really is something to that.

Over time the stress from witnessing accidents and deaths, responding to emergencies, hearing the details of people's worst moments...