
03/06/2025
Often people ask me ‘Why do therapists always want to talk about my parents?’ And underneath the question, there’s often something else: Isn’t that digging too far back? Isn’t that blaming other for my own misery? Shouldn’t I be over it by now?
And I get it. The idea of revisiting those early relationships can feel indulgent, dramatic, or even disloyal, especially if you had parents who really did try. But this isn’t about turning your past into a courtroom. It’s about noticing that some of the ways you move through the world now, the way you wait for people to pull away, or keep yourself small, or struggle to ask for help. All of these didn’t start in adulthood, they have roots. And sometimes those roots run deeper than you thought.
So when your therapist asks about your parents or brings them into the process, see it as an invitation to be curious, to wonder what stories live beneath your reflexes. To hold the truth that love was there AND so was the quiet shape-shifting you had to do to feel safe in it. You’re allowed to be loyal to your history, your parents, your past and still want something different for your present and future.