Our Whole Childhood with Patrick Teahan

By Patrick Teahan

This is "Our Whole Childhood" - hosted by Patrick Teahan - where we discuss everything childhood trauma, from the issues that we experience, to the stuff that comes up in our families, and to the h

... more

4.9

306306 ratings

FAQs about Our Whole Childhood with Patrick Teahan:

How many episodes does Our Whole Childhood with Patrick Teahan have?

The podcast currently has 54 episodes available.

Best of Our Whole Childhood with Patrick Teahan

The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

Number 1: Overcoming Childhood Guilt & Reparenting Your Inner Child
In this episode, Patrick Teahan, MSW explores the heavy burden of guilt carried by childhood trauma survivors. When growing up in a toxic or dysfunctional family, children are often trapped in no-win situations, blamed for things entirely out of their control, and expected to manage adult problems. This creates a deeply rooted sense of guilt that persists into adulthood, fueled by underlying, internalized shame. Patrick breaks down the crucial difference between guilt and shame. Guilt focuses on the actions we feel we are failing to do, while shame provides the painful internal narrative that we are inherently selfish or bad for failing. This combination often leads survivors to cave in, self-sacrifice, and abandon their own boundaries to avoid making others uncomfortable. To help break this cycle, this episode features two detailed reparenting roleplays that demonstrate how to communicate effectively with a wounded inner child. Key TakeawaysUnderstanding the Guilt Trap: How early experiences of being helpless to fix a parent create lifelong patterns of over-responsibility and caving to external pressure.Guilt Versus Shame: The distinct but connected ways guilt dictates our actions while shame attacks our core identity.The Unchallenging Inner Adult: A look at how an underdeveloped inner adult agrees with the inner child's fears and fails to set boundaries with toxic family members.The Empowered Inner Adult: Strategies for advocating for yourself, setting firm boundaries, and showing the inner child that it is safe to prioritize your own well-being over a toxic parent's comfort.Protecting Your Peace: Why letting a narcissistic parent experience their own disappointment is a necessary step in protecting your present relationships and mental health. Join the Healing Community! Join the Monthly Healing Community Membership
August 12, 202626min
Number 2: Breaking Free From a Narcissistic Parent
This episode explores how growing up with a narcissistic or emotionally immature parent can distort your perception of yourself, others, and your worth, and how to reclaim it. Instead of fixating on the parent, we look at the damage that lingers and the path to undo it. Learn why triggers around work, relationships, and self-doubt aren’t personality flaws—they're leftover survival responses from childhood. Patrick shares vulnerable personal stories about being cast as “the dumb one” and how those old narratives showed up in adulthood, even during success. Topics include:How narcissistic parents damage a child’s perceptionThe impact on self-worth, identity, and intimacyHypervigilance, projection, and feeling “in trouble” for existingThree powerful recovery tools:Protecting your inner childWriting a truth statementGiving back what was never yours to carryYou’ll walk away with practical exercises to shift perception, stop living in fear, and reclaim a sense of self that was always yours. ----------------------------- Workbook Chapters 1 — How to Get Your Inner Adult in Place … 12 2 — The Built-In Forgetter (Codependency) … 27 3 — Honoring Our Trauma Responses & Coping Strategies … 38 4 — Overcoming Magical Thinking … 51 5 — The Feeling of Being "In Trouble"… 63 6 — How to Stop Anticipating Criticism … 74 7 — Childhood Trauma & Physical Energy Issues … 84 8 — Depression Related to Childhood Trauma … 97 9 — Processing Childhood Emotional Neglect (The Things That Didn’t Happen)… 107 10 - Processing Childhood Enmeshment with an Emotionally Immature Parent …118 11 - Processing Childhood Trauma-Related Grief … 131 12 - Processing Guilt: Recognizing the Family History Before Low or No Contact … 143 13 - How to Recover from a Narcissistic Parent … 153 Journal Prompts Journal Prompt #1: How did self-worth get twisted? How did your narcissistic parent create damage around your self-worth and how you perceive yourself? Write a list of ten experiences about lost self-worth due to that parent. Examples That Christmas when my mother made me stand up in front of the entire extended family while she berated me about why I didn’t get any gifts. My father would take any achievement I had and one-up me. I gave up on having self-worth because he was the focus. Journal Prompt #2: Who did they say you are? Write several paragraphs about your struggle with a healthy sense of self and how the narcissistic parent contributed to a poor sense of self. Who did your parents say you were, either through protection, neglect, or supply? Example I’ve always guessed at what I like or who I am. My mother had these twisted ideas, or fantasies, that I was going to become an entrepreneur and live a fabulous life in support of her. Did I want that? What even is that? What I know now is if she had a child who was a rich genius, she could have supply and validation—she could tell her friends she raised an entrepreneur. Of course I don’t know who I am. Access the workbook here Patrickteahan.com/workbook Keywords: narcissistic parent recovery, childhood trauma, perception wounds, inner child healing, self-worth repair, intimacy triggers, emotional abuse healing, trauma recovery tools Join the Healing Community! Join the Monthly Healing Community Membership
October 15, 202530min
Number 3: Explode or Shut Down? The 2 Types of Repressed Rage
In this episode, Patrick Teahan, MSW, explores the profound impact of rage as a byproduct of childhood trauma, detailing how unsafe environments force children to either weaponize or absorb intense emotional energy. He introduces the concept of inward and outward rage, moving beyond the stigma of "anger issues" to focus on the underground emotional deposits that develop when a child is erased, ignored, or exposed to volatility. The episode begins by unpacking a complex dynamic: the four specific childhood situations that fuel adult rage. Patrick uses these roots to illustrate how survivors often struggle with a "well of childhood" that runs their present-day reactions, where symptoms like road rage or chronic exhaustion are actually valid byproducts of old injustices. Listeners will learn:The Four Situations of Rage: Why adults not doing the right thing, deep injustice, volatile or passive parenting, and being "erased" create a lifelong emotional burden.Outward Rage (Fire at Will): The reality of being "wired for anger," characterized by a low threshold for frustration, self-righteousness, and the tendency for rage to come out sideways in adulthood.Inward Rage (The Superhero Absorber): Exploring why some survivors never feel anger at all, instead acting like a "black hole" that absorbs dangerous energy at the expense of their own physical and mental health.The Erasure Effect: What it truly means to be invisible as a child and how having your needs or feelings wiped out leads to a massive sense of adult injustice.Situations Over Symptoms: Why understanding your story is more vital for recovery than simply managing symptoms, as the "what happened" is the source of the "what is felt."Reclaiming and Releasing: How healing involves Jane-style pressure release for those with outward rage and Beth-style "reclaiming of the f-you" for those who have gone numb.Patrick also provides a case study of two sisters to highlight how the same traumatic environment can produce polar opposite rage strategies. By understanding how these survival tactics were formed, listeners can begin to move toward a healthy middle ground where anger is a tool for advocacy rather than a source of shame or self-sabotage. Keywords: childhood trauma, repressed rage, inward rage, outward rage, inner child work, emotional neglect, parentification, nervous system, toxic family systems, trauma recovery, justice-based anger. Join the Healing Community! Join the Monthly Healing Community Membership
May 19, 202637min
Number 4: Why You Blame Yourself for Everything
In this episode, Patrick Teahan, MSW, explores the profound impact of growing up in an abusive or neglectful environment, detailing how childhood trauma survivors often struggle with intense self-blame and self-hatred. He introduces the concept of emotional math, moving beyond simple advice to just be kinder to yourself, focusing instead on the deep rooted self-contempt that develops when children lack a healthy adult guide. The episode begins by unpacking a complex dynamic: the development of damaged perceptions about personal self-worth. Patrick uses this concept to illustrate how normal human needs and mistakes are calculated as evidence of being fundamentally flawed, trapping survivors in a painful but brilliant childhood survival mechanism used to avoid the terrifying reality of having unsafe parents. Listeners will learn:Emotional Math: What this concept is and how lacking a healthy frame of reference distorts a child's perception of reality.Signs of Unrelenting Self-Criticism: Common indicators that you are too hard on yourself, such as feeling ashamed for not instantly mastering a new hobby or carrying the weight of other people's emotions.The Impact of Neglect: How both direct and indirect neglect teach children to view their basic needs and personal interests as immense burdens.Family System Roles: The ways the scapegoat and golden child utilize self-criticism and perfectionism to stay safe and secure conditional love.Self-Blame as a Shield: Why absorbing the blame during childhood was an essential protective strategy to shield the nervous system from the heartbreak of an emotionally volatile parent.Honoring the Inner Child: How to start validating your inner child for creating these survival tactics so you can begin rewriting your emotional equations.Patrick also provides a guided reflection to help listeners express gratitude to their inner child for their protective instincts, paving the way to replace self-hatred with self-compassion. By understanding how these feelings developed, survivors who struggle with perfectionism, ruminate over past social mistakes, or constantly feel like a burden can find clarity and begin to change the narrative. Keywords: childhood trauma, self-hate, emotional math, inner child work, emotional neglect, family roles, trauma recovery, self-blame, toxic family systems Join the Healing Community! Join the Monthly Healing Community Membership
May 12, 202624min
Number 5: 4 Tools to Fix Triggers
This episode dives into the ways childhood trauma shows up in daily triggers—and how to break free from them faster. Learn how your past shapes present reactions and discover practical tools to release the emotional charge that keeps you stuck. Topics include:Understanding how triggers connect past and presentFour actionable tools for regulating emotional triggersHealing practices for body and mindReclaiming your time, energy, and creativity from traumaJoin us for an empowering conversation on building resilience, calming your nervous system, and supporting your inner child. Keywords: Childhood trauma, emotional triggers, healing tools, inner child work, trauma recovery, nervous system regulation Join the Healing Community! Join the Monthly Healing Community Membership
September 22, 202527min