As a child, did you ever feel like nobody paid attention to you? Like you were always on the outside looking in? Like your parents were never home and your siblings were too busy with their own lives?

If so, then you may have been neglected as a child.

Children who are neglected often have trouble forming healthy relationships later in life because they don't know what it means to be loved unconditionally. They grow up feeling like nobody wants them around, and this can make them struggle with acceptance from others and themselves throughout adulthood. Without a sense of love and belonging from someone important in their lives (like a parent), it can be difficult for them to develop meaningful connections with others later on too.

So how does one heal from childhood neglect?

In this week's episode, I sit down with Teely Hopkin to discuss how one can overcome childhood emotional neglect. When Teely was two years old, she lost her mother to a car accident who was on her way to respond to an emergency call for the fire department. This left her dad to raise two very young children by himself. As a result of this, the atmosphere of the home she grew up in quickly started to change when her father remarried, and Teely found this new environment to be deeply emotionally neglectful.  After going through intensive therapy in her adulthood and later joining Starts With Youth, an organization that aims to create a community that no longer shies away from conversations about trauma and abuse, Teely wants to share her story to help others who have also experienced emotional neglect in their childhood. 

In more detail we discuss:

• What it means to be neglected as a child
• The effects of neglect in adulthood
• How childhood neglect can impact your friendships and romantic relationships
• How one recovers and heals from neglect
• And more!

Connect with Teely and Starts With Youth on Instagram and check out their website https://www.startswithyouth.com/! 

Connect with me:

• Email: [email protected]
• Personal Instagram: @haileyrodddgers
• Podcast Instagram: @seemeshowpod

I'm always looking for guests so please reach out to me through any of these channels and I'd be happy to discuss a potential episode :)