Filled with great ideas. Love you two, your generosity, compassion, knowledge and experience. For me, at 67, I find myself in a place of insecurity on several levels.it's embarrassing to not have life "figured out." Even as I feel certain I'm not alone. You two are helping. So glad I somehow found you.
Yes, Forrest and your father are incredible and so helpful to me as I navigate my way through complex ptsd resulting from 6 years of domestic snd narcissistic abuse. I am so grateful for your resources!
Just dropping in to say that I've observed a sudden joy every time I see you've posted a video. :) I didn't listen to this one , YET - only felt like sharing a good vibe. :)
I'm 64, Australian diagnosed with Cptsd /ADHD My Trauma Psychologist and I regularly discuss about what comes up after your podcasts, we're both fans, and she, attendee of Rick's Lectures. I'm so grateful for you both, your wisdom, experience, discussions, your gentleness and humour. - Thank you. Your topics are always so timely for me. I cherish watching you relate to each other, and love between you. Forrest. btw my son's middle name is Forrest, as it's a family name. 🙏 Namaste
This is really amazing. Your dad is such a treasure :) - I actually feel like he's talking directly to the inner child in me because of his gentle tone. I also really want to thank you for this podcast, it has helped me through extremely difficult periods of my life.
Thanks. I have experienced how helpfull it is. Most helpfull for me was the acknowledgement that i had missed support, love and caring. I knew mentally that these were very scarce in my childhood, but actually feeling it made it softer and made it possible to let go of the pain. I recognized that my parents were only doing what they had learned from their parents. And this allowed me to do things different for my kids, which was a great desire. And i improved the relation with my mom.
that must be so nice, since my mom is narc, and my father 'goes along', i had to do something that i never thought of that existed, is no contact... i learned 'what was really going on', thanks to good people on yt, meanwhile my health is 'broken'... good for u :)
I *so* appreciate your channel! I've been sharing it with clients and others in my life. You're making big, positive waves of healing... Kudos to you, Forrest❣️
The role play you did helped me understand how IFS works. It makes more sense to me now and I will try to reflect more on my parts and what they are saying and the role they are serving for me. I also enjoyed the part about what was happening to our parents that our child self would not have been able to understand. E.g double shifts, reports that were over due etc. Great ep. We appreciate what you do!!
Loved this. I think this podcast was really thorough- thank you for breaking the inner child work down so well and giving so many options to explore! I identified a younger part that I would really like to re-discover and give it the opportunity to flourish and to be seen!
Very interesting. Simply listening, I was able to put a couple experiences from my youth together with an ongoing issue I have. Once I connected the dots, through your help here, it was so obvious to me. Thank you!
The example from Dr. Hanson’s infancy made me tear up. I have a one year old son and the thought of him or another baby crying for food hurts. I am sorry this happened to you and moved by your openness and commitment to healing yourself and others. I wish peace, love and healing for you. Thank you for everything you do.
Thank you so much! Really really appreciated! I hope one day my daughter and I can talk like this!!! Her work is because of me!!! I really like the idea of writing to my older self! I see the flow in that!!! Hey Forest can you please include people who English is not their native language! Also culturally have not got to where the west is in terms of phycolgy! Thank you again
I really needed this I was triggered & alienating my friends(thinking it was this election) but I SAW ur roll play and how it started,middle & end! It made me get in touch with my therapist to do this: I thought it was great and uncomfortable BUT it was very brave! I wanted to look up Rick for a session! And I’m not kidding! Thx for helping me! You two are MY Go To! 😊
Hi Forrest, great episode! Loved the role play example between Rick and you! You mentioned character armoring as something to play with when exploring these inner parts, which made me think about physical armoring. I would love to see an episode on armoring, specifically in context op cptsd. Years of trauma really can lead to armoring and adopting these protective postures, even though they can be painful to live in (i'm referencing physical pain here, from tight muscles and lack of mobility). I was wondering what your take on this is as a top-down thinker, but would also love to hear a bottom-up approach from your partner Elizabeth. Any somatic advice would also be welcomed, because just stretching doesn't seem to work for me, as my mind keeps reverting back to bracing for impact.
Ohmigoodness, THIS, @Bobswea! I am so with you in your experience with C-PTSD. Have you gotten a chance to listen to Forrest's interviews with Dr. Jacob Ham and his therapy client with C-PTSD, Stephanie Foo? I'm looking forward to reading her book, "What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma" 🤓
I've been in armor pretty much since birth (SzPD) and am in the healing process now myself using a sort of homespun version of this technique (it just started happening spontaneously as a reaction to extreme stress the dissociative defences couldn't withstand). As for the physical tension, I had an episode several years ago with muscle spasms so extreme it pinched a sciatic nerve and I could hardly walk, sit, or stand. Chiropractic and massage helped some, but after many weeks and too much money, a friend loaned me a book titled "Somatics" by Dr. Thomas Hannah; the exercises in that book are designed to retrain the nervous system to relax by increasing awareness of opposing and complimentary muscle groups - I was back on my feet in no time. Hope that helps.
Patrick has been helpful to me, but I had to stop listening to him because of his abundant emphasis on cutting people out in your life. I worry he’s falling down the narc-tok rabbithole
@owenlarson07366 that is definitely a fair assessment. I personally don't speak to my family, and I wonder if NC is always the right thing sometimes because they really are the definition of toxic he speaks about. One day, I might reconsider, but I don't think I'm ready for it just yet.
When I am feeling quite whole and conscious, my inner children just flavour up my personality, fluidly; when I'm not, they pop in and out roughly and operate on instinct, usually because I've abandoned consciousness. Someone has to drive the bus and my kids can be unruly when unsupervised. 😁 🙏😑
Harold Bloom you impress me Rick! I wouldn't go so far to recommend you read HBs The Western Canon, although I guess it is entirely possible you have 😂 I love your readerliness ❤
I never thought of it like that… “different ages and stages” of our inner children. I always thought just one inner child was in me without a certain age, but it’s thoughtful to put awareness into what age a child may be when they are triggered or reactive and how it shows up in our adult life.
This was good, but almost seemed like the firehose approach. I would appreciate some of this being broken down more and taken at a deeper and perhaps slower pace. But I appreciate so much what you and your dad do. Love listening to your podcast.
What about JohnBradshaw who, I think, has been the one who brought up the inner child work to the foreground. He wrote books: on The Family; Homecoming (inner child book) and Healing the Shame that binds you. I attended workshops with crowds of people with him when he was around doing that; and he was on PBS re dysfunctional families. Are you familiar with him, I wonder??
What if you ask your inner critic why she criticizes and the immediate respond is that it’s because you’re disgusting and hateful? I wasn’t expecting to go into inner critic mode so quickly, much less to get such a quick and clear response
Yeah, there are reasons why these sorts of techniques are often done with a trained therapist. The mind is a cave of bats as Rick likes to say, and it's easy for some surprisingly dark/difficult stuff to pop out. It sounds like there's a significant self-worth/self-respect issue here, which we've produced content on in the past. I'd also recommend that you mostly do this kind of work with a licensed clinician if you get a strong and negative early response to it.
Something like that happens with me too. My inner critic is the self-appointed protector of all the exiles, and learned everything he knows by having experienced it up until age 15, when he was exiled as well. He also happens to be my aggression (or most of it); he's 30 feet tall, made of two flaming tornados, and uses a fiery lash as his defensive weapon (but never against the children). Any time I "interfere" by attracting too much attention he shows me who's boss, he isn't interested in reason or negotiation, considers me derelict in doing my own job (taking care of physical world matters) while I'm infringing on his territory and endangering the safety of the younger kids, and resents the fact that he was exiled instead of me, insisting he would have done a better job. I'll probably have to go a round with him after writing this and drawing too much attention, and I'll get knocked flat again - but I keep trying, because I need his help, and he needs mine. He's just a scared, overwhelmed, parentified, frustrated kid, and I love him. I have to gain his trust and respect so I can train him to be helpful, we have exiles to rescue. Yes, a well-trained clinician would be a real asset if one were available, but that's not the case for me. I hope my example helps some though.
Grew up in narc cult entraining. I would sacrifice myself to protect a coward fraudster father. 😂 Healing was hell but it happens at the right time. Now life is beginning to feel easy, happy, & simple. Completely not caring for smear campaign. Having income and independence is vital to leave and go no contact with narc parents cults.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Forest, I just want to say how much your videos here on TH-cam have helped me to begin to work through some of my issues. Many thanks to you and Rick.
Loved this and I've learned alot. And I just want to say how great it was to listen or watch a podcast with 2 people and not a single interruption!
I love all these podcasts, but this one is the very best for me. Thank you both so much.
Filled with great ideas. Love you two, your generosity, compassion, knowledge and experience. For me, at 67, I find myself in a place of insecurity on several levels.it's embarrassing to not have life "figured out." Even as I feel certain I'm not alone. You two are helping. So glad I somehow found you.
This was so needed! Love the explanations and took many many notes. Will be watching again ❤️❤️❤️
Yes, Forrest and your father are incredible and so helpful to me as I navigate my way through complex ptsd resulting from 6 years of domestic snd narcissistic abuse. I am so grateful for your resources!
Just dropping in to say that I've observed a sudden joy every time I see you've posted a video. :) I didn't listen to this one , YET - only felt like sharing a good vibe. :)
I'm 64, Australian diagnosed with Cptsd /ADHD My Trauma Psychologist and I regularly discuss about what comes up after your podcasts, we're both fans, and she, attendee of Rick's Lectures. I'm so grateful for you both, your wisdom, experience, discussions, your gentleness and humour. - Thank you. Your topics are always so timely for me. I cherish watching you relate to each other, and love between you. Forrest. btw my son's middle name is Forrest, as it's a family name. 🙏 Namaste
🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾❤️
This is really amazing. Your dad is such a treasure :) - I actually feel like he's talking directly to the inner child in me because of his gentle tone. I also really want to thank you for this podcast, it has helped me through extremely difficult periods of my life.
your podcast is always worthwhile listening. thank you
Thanks. I have experienced how helpfull it is. Most helpfull for me was the acknowledgement that i had missed support, love and caring. I knew mentally that these were very scarce in my childhood, but actually feeling it made it softer and made it possible to let go of the pain. I recognized that my parents were only doing what they had learned from their parents. And this allowed me to do things different for my kids, which was a great desire. And i improved the relation with my mom.
that must be so nice, since my mom is narc, and my father 'goes along', i had to do something that i never thought of that existed, is no contact... i learned 'what was really going on', thanks to good people on yt, meanwhile my health is 'broken'... good for u :)
I *so* appreciate your channel! I've been sharing it with clients and others in my life. You're making big, positive waves of healing... Kudos to you, Forrest❣️
The role play you did helped me understand how IFS works. It makes more sense to me now and I will try to reflect more on my parts and what they are saying and the role they are serving for me. I also enjoyed the part about what was happening to our parents that our child self would not have been able to understand. E.g double shifts, reports that were over due etc. Great ep. We appreciate what you do!!
I came here because I wanted someone(s) to speak very nicely to me for a little while 😂❤
Thanks for making this video. I am building Inner Child School to build a community around this. Been on a healing journey myself
Loved this. I think this podcast was really thorough- thank you for breaking the inner child work down so well and giving so many options to explore! I identified a younger part that I would really like to re-discover and give it the opportunity to flourish and to be seen!
Very interesting. Simply listening, I was able to put a couple experiences from my youth together with an ongoing issue I have. Once I connected the dots, through your help here, it was so obvious to me. Thank you!
Mad respect for you getting up everyday to do this, I pray you get a boost!
The example from Dr. Hanson’s infancy made me tear up. I have a one year old son and the thought of him or another baby crying for food hurts. I am sorry this happened to you and moved by your openness and commitment to healing yourself and others. I wish peace, love and healing for you. Thank you for everything you do.
Love your work, wanted to say thank you for modeling this, very, very helpful, appreciate your vulnerability 🙏
Thank you so much! Really really appreciated! I hope one day my daughter and I can talk like this!!! Her work is because of me!!! I really like the idea of writing to my older self! I see the flow in that!!! Hey Forest can you please include people who English is not their native language! Also culturally have not got to where the west is in terms of phycolgy!
Thank you again
I really needed this I was triggered & alienating my friends(thinking it was this election) but I SAW ur roll play and how it started,middle & end! It made me get in touch with my therapist to do this: I thought it was great and uncomfortable BUT it was very brave! I wanted to look up Rick for a session! And I’m not kidding! Thx for helping me! You two are MY Go To! 😊
This was fantastic! I’m going
to try journaling the voices.
I love the voice dialogue demo that was great😂
Hi Forrest, great episode! Loved the role play example between Rick and you!
You mentioned character armoring as something to play with when exploring these inner parts, which made me think about physical armoring.
I would love to see an episode on armoring, specifically in context op cptsd.
Years of trauma really can lead to armoring and adopting these protective postures, even though they can be painful to live in (i'm referencing physical pain here, from tight muscles and lack of mobility).
I was wondering what your take on this is as a top-down thinker, but would also love to hear a bottom-up approach from your partner Elizabeth.
Any somatic advice would also be welcomed, because just stretching doesn't seem to work for me, as my mind keeps reverting back to bracing for impact.
Ohmigoodness, THIS, @Bobswea! I am so with you in your experience with C-PTSD. Have you gotten a chance to listen to Forrest's interviews with Dr. Jacob Ham and his therapy client with C-PTSD, Stephanie Foo? I'm looking forward to reading her book, "What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma" 🤓
I've been in armor pretty much since birth (SzPD) and am in the healing process now myself using a sort of homespun version of this technique (it just started happening spontaneously as a reaction to extreme stress the dissociative defences couldn't withstand). As for the physical tension, I had an episode several years ago with muscle spasms so extreme it pinched a sciatic nerve and I could hardly walk, sit, or stand. Chiropractic and massage helped some, but after many weeks and too much money, a friend loaned me a book titled "Somatics" by Dr. Thomas Hannah; the exercises in that book are designed to retrain the nervous system to relax by increasing awareness of opposing and complimentary muscle groups - I was back on my feet in no time. Hope that helps.
Good convo. Very helpful. Thank you. I've been grieving my younger years for some time now...in different stages. Something to think about for sure
Loving and the content and loving the hair!!
He’s getting to look more like the da!
Thank you for this free, guided inner work🙏🏻
I’ll definitely be returning to this one! Thank you ❤
You should invite Patrick Teahan on the show!! It would be so cool to hear yall banter about this
Patrick has been helpful to me, but I had to stop listening to him because of his abundant emphasis on cutting people out in your life. I worry he’s falling down the narc-tok rabbithole
@owenlarson07366 that is definitely a fair assessment. I personally don't speak to my family, and I wonder if NC is always the right thing sometimes because they really are the definition of toxic he speaks about. One day, I might reconsider, but I don't think I'm ready for it just yet.
Patrick Teahan and Jay Reid have both been very beneficial for me.
Thank you for this! I am doing inner child work these days. And this really helped with my understanding.
thank you for your great job, Forrest!
Great episode!
This was great! Thanks so much 😊🙏❤️
When I am feeling quite whole and conscious, my inner children just flavour up my personality, fluidly; when I'm not, they pop in and out roughly and operate on instinct, usually because I've abandoned consciousness.
Someone has to drive the bus and my kids can be unruly when unsupervised.
😁
🙏😑
Thank you Forest, I enjoyed the show it was very insightful. The suggestions are really useful.
Thank you both✨
Harold Bloom you impress me Rick! I wouldn't go so far to recommend you read HBs
The Western Canon, although I guess it is entirely possible you have 😂 I love your readerliness ❤
Yeiiii monday morning with one of my favorites shows ♥ Thank You Forrest
Thanks!
I never thought of it like that… “different ages and stages” of our inner children. I always thought just one inner child was in me without a certain age, but it’s thoughtful to put awareness into what age a child may be when they are triggered or reactive and how it shows up in our adult life.
Excellent as always. Would be interested in a full episode digging into the somatic practices you discussed towards the end in more detail (with demo)
🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
❤ thank you for your help
Love you guys!
A great podcast....
This was good, but almost seemed like the firehose approach. I would appreciate some of this being broken down more and taken at a deeper and perhaps slower pace. But I appreciate so much what you and your dad do. Love listening to your podcast.
There was definitely a lot in this one, a bit like the shadow episode that way.
🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾😌❤️
What about JohnBradshaw who, I think, has been the one who brought up the inner child work to the foreground. He wrote books: on The Family; Homecoming (inner child book) and Healing the Shame that binds you. I attended workshops with crowds of people with him when he was around doing that; and he was on PBS re dysfunctional families. Are you familiar with him, I wonder??
🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Off topic but you look so Polish! Are you from Poland?
What if you ask your inner critic why she criticizes and the immediate respond is that it’s because you’re disgusting and hateful?
I wasn’t expecting to go into inner critic mode so quickly, much less to get such a quick and clear response
Yeah, there are reasons why these sorts of techniques are often done with a trained therapist. The mind is a cave of bats as Rick likes to say, and it's easy for some surprisingly dark/difficult stuff to pop out.
It sounds like there's a significant self-worth/self-respect issue here, which we've produced content on in the past. I'd also recommend that you mostly do this kind of work with a licensed clinician if you get a strong and negative early response to it.
Something like that happens with me too. My inner critic is the self-appointed protector of all the exiles, and learned everything he knows by having experienced it up until age 15, when he was exiled as well. He also happens to be my aggression (or most of it); he's 30 feet tall, made of two flaming tornados, and uses a fiery lash as his defensive weapon (but never against the children). Any time I "interfere" by attracting too much attention he shows me who's boss, he isn't interested in reason or negotiation, considers me derelict in doing my own job (taking care of physical world matters) while I'm infringing on his territory and endangering the safety of the younger kids, and resents the fact that he was exiled instead of me, insisting he would have done a better job. I'll probably have to go a round with him after writing this and drawing too much attention, and I'll get knocked flat again - but I keep trying, because I need his help, and he needs mine. He's just a scared, overwhelmed, parentified, frustrated kid, and I love him. I have to gain his trust and respect so I can train him to be helpful, we have exiles to rescue. Yes, a well-trained clinician would be a real asset if one were available, but that's not the case for me. I hope my example helps some though.
💛
Ill heal when im dead ... March 19th 2028 appears to be the official date.
Grew up in narc cult entraining. I would sacrifice myself to protect a coward fraudster father. 😂 Healing was hell but it happens at the right time. Now life is beginning to feel easy, happy, & simple. Completely not caring for smear campaign. Having income and independence is vital to leave and go no contact with narc parents cults.
Well done- my new term for it for me is deep self respect.
🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾😌
Thanks!