Focus on developing independence, decision-making skills, and trusting your own judgment.
Actively questioning long-held beliefs about your worth and recognizing them as projections of your parents' own limitations rather than truths about you.
Once you identify the distorted image, the goal is to reject that reflection and separate emotionally from the source of the abuse. Healing Your Emotional Self: A Powerful Program...
Reflects "You only exist to serve my needs".
Diagnostic tools to identify your specific parental mirrors and core wounds. Reflects "You only exist to serve my needs"
Through exercises like creating a "word self-portrait," you explore your own values, likes, dislikes, and dreams apart from parental expectations.
Reflects "You are worthless" or "You are a burden". Reflects "You are worthless" or "You are a burden"
The "inner critic" is often the internalized voice of a parent. Engel teaches techniques to confront and counter this voice with self-compassion.