Peter Pan & Wendy Syndrome | featuring Lauren

Lauren is a licensed mental health therapist in the state of Virginia who recently completed her credit hours to provide supervision for up and coming counselors in her state. She has been practicing in a variety of settings since 2017 to include public schools, acute inpatient hospitals, and outpatient. Lauren has always been passionate about the performing arts to include, singing, theater, and Irish dance. She is passionate about implementing these experiences to include expressive arts, metaphor, and storytelling in all settings as a form of healing. In April of 2023, Lauren experienced a major heartbreak from a man she loved dearly. While she had to begin her spiritual/healing journey and the re-discovering of herself after the event, Lauren had some professional as well as personal revelations which has motivated her to tell this story in order to help others. She discovered a concept that was first coined in the 1980s by Dr. Dan Kiley called Peter Pan and Wendy’s Syndrome. While these aren’t official terms and diagnoses in the DSM-V, Lauren couldn’t help but find that these pop culture psychology terms are very relevant in today’s society. Lauren hopes to use her story to help and educate others about the damages caused by emotionally unavailable, immature people as well as ways to move past the “Wendy’s Syndrome” which includes anxious attachment, people pleasing, and codependent tendencies. As a recovering anxiously attached people pleaser herself, Lauren hopes her story helps others see their worth and ways to avoid being caught in a Peter Pan and Wendy Syndrome dynamic in their relationships.