Alienation and Lingering Effects and Trauma that Bad Parenting Can Cause in Children with Lisa Goodpaster

In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Childhood Trauma Educator and Founder of the Stephood Project Lisa Goodpaster who is the author of “Alienated: When Parents Won’t Parent”. We talk about her personal experiences as a stepdaughter of being purposely and intentionally alienated from her parents by a narcissist and what divorce and abandonment look and feel like to a child. Lisa also explains the various steps needed to reach awareness and then how to deal with her traumatic childhood past. Childhood trauma sticks with us and shapes and influences us profoundly as negative experiences affect our brains. Yet as adults, we have the chance and opportunity to make a conscious decision to change that by opening up to our feelings and being honest about what has happened instead of being led and driven by anger and victimization, which tend to trap us in victim mode, but which can be difficult to let go of. This awareness and course of action take a lot of courage, effort, and hard work and will be very uncomfortable, but it is all necessary for healing and feeling whole again and there is no shortcut to emotional healing. But it is of great importance to dissolve negative love patterns lodged in our body and mind, which would make us feel less alienated and less lonely and will help us see the future more clearly and more brightly on our path ahead.