DiscoverMother Mayhem: For Daughters of Narcissistic or Emotionally Limited Mothers106. Longing for Love, Afraid to Be Seen: How Childhood Trauma Shapes Adult Relationships
106. Longing for Love, Afraid to Be Seen: How Childhood Trauma Shapes Adult Relationships

106. Longing for Love, Afraid to Be Seen: How Childhood Trauma Shapes Adult Relationships

Update: 2025-08-27
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Why do relationships feel so confusing and hard?

If you grew up with a narcissistic or emotionally limited mother, you may have learned to associate closeness with danger and distance with safety.

This week,, we're talking about relational trauma, attachment wounds, and how childhood trauma shapes the way you show up in adult relationships.

We'll explore:

  • What relational trauma actually means and how it differs from single-event trauma
    How disorganized attachment can leave you stuck in a painful push-pull cycle
    Why your nervous system reacts to love, intimacy, and connection as threats
    What it looks like to relate from survival mode, and how to begin shifting out of it
    Why healing relational trauma requires relationship and how to do that without overwhelming yourself
    Gentle, trauma-informed steps to stretch your capacity for safe, connected relationships
    Whether you’re someone who over-functions in relationships, avoids intimacy altogether, or struggles to trust your own feelings, I get it.  You’re protecting yourself in the only way your system knows how. 

  • Resources:

  • Listen to Episode 105 first: Why You Feel This Way: Trauma, the Nervous System, & the Healing Journey





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    106. Longing for Love, Afraid to Be Seen: How Childhood Trauma Shapes Adult Relationships

    106. Longing for Love, Afraid to Be Seen: How Childhood Trauma Shapes Adult Relationships

    Heather Gray, LICSW