How trauma, resentment and nervous system patterns keep us emotionally stuck, and how trauma-informed therapy and inner child healing can gently support emotional freedom.

True compassion is not simply about being nice. It’s not performative. It’s not a fleeting feeling of pity. It is something much more sacred, a quiet but radical recognition that we are all connected, that the boundaries we draw between ourselves and others are constructs. Constructs of fear, of conditioning, of separation. At its heart, compassion is a remembering: that there is no ‘other’. Only mirrors. Only echoes of ourselves in someone else’s experience.

We wake up to alarm clocks, not because we’re rested, but because we’re required to. We rush through breakfast, if we bother with it at all, and dive headfirst into screens. We scroll, we skim, we absorb nothing. On some days, we don’t even look up at the sky. This is the rhythm we’ve come to accept. This is what we now call normal.

In my integrative therapy practice, I often meet people who carry early experiences of being misunderstood. Some were told they were “colicky” babies. Others were seen as difficult, dramatic, or too sensitive. But what if the baby wasn’t broken? What if they were simply overwhelmed?

If you’ve ever lived in fear of someone, you’ll know Christmas isn’t always the cheerful picture we’re sold. For people in abusive relationships, the holidays are a nightmare in disguise.

Estrangement doesn’t just mean grieving the relationship you’ve lost; it often involves mourning the relationship you wish you’d had.

Maybe Christmas has always been fraught with tension, or perhaps this year is the first time things are different. Either way, it’s okay to feel the weight of what’s missing.

The holidays can be beautiful—twinkling lights, cosy evenings, maybe even a moment of peace. But let’s be real: this time can also bring up a lot of old hurt.

Family gatherings can stir up those roles we never chose—peacemaker, scapegoat, the one who’s “too sensitive” or “always overreacts.” Sound familiar?

If you’re feeling the weight of it all, here’s a gentle truth: you don’t have to stick to the old script.

Many of us carry invisible wounds - hurts born not just from what was done to us but also from what wasn’t.

The love we didn’t receive, the validation we didn’t get, the safe spaces we didn’t have to just be.

These wounds, often buried deep, can shape how we see ourselves and the world around us.

But here’s the thing: these wounds aren’t the end of the story. They’re just a chapter, and we have the power to write a different ending.