Childhood Emotional Neglect: How Attachment & Transference Affect Your Life | 139

Ask Kati Anything ep. 139 | Your mental health podcast, with Kati Morton, LMFT 

This week Kati talks all about attachment, transference, childhood emotional neglect, and how that can affect our relationship with our therapist. She also discusses bipolar disorder, the importance of feeling validated and understood by our therapist, and why certain emotions are harder to feel and express. This and so much more on this week’s episode!

AUDIENCE QUESTIONS

1. I’ve noticed a pattern in my life since early childhood where I become emotionally attached in a non-romantic way to certain people and I subconsciously place them in a parental role. I feel dependent on them emotionally and want to feel validated by...  
2. I have a question about bipolar disorder, and therapy in general. I take lamictal daily. I was diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder last year, and I go to therapy every two weeks. Whenever I go to see my therapist, I feel as though she exaggerates my experiences and labels them as episodes...  
3. How do you know if its attachment to your therapist is something more? I have noticed that I fear the day that I won’t be in therapy but I don’t know that it is so much that I’m attached to my therapist and don’t want to leave her... 
4. I wanted to follow up on a question I asked recently because I don’t think you quite covered what I meant and there has been a lot of discussion in the comments about it. My question was about the phrase “you can’t make someone feel something”.  
5. What are some creative ways we can celebrate our mental health wins? I think this may be an overlooked part of our healing journey. I feel silly expressing them because they aren’t always as big as a new job or a degree, etc. and...  
6. I find it difficult to express my feelings in other ways than through words alone. I don't want to bother anyone by showing that I feel something or acting irrationally and emotionally. I've always been this way, but after trying DBT it's even harder to feel my...  
7. What's your take on "gifted kid burnout" that's talked about pretty often on social media? What do children experience when they don't get supported enough to reach their potential or what does it do to them to be told that they have potential but they don't fully use it?  
8. My question is around what feels like extremely intense maternal transference with my therapist. I find it very difficult and extremely humiliating (although I have been able to let her know and she has been excellent about it). I’ve been seeing her for...  
9. How do I know the difference between a therapist being too harsh, or just doing her job?

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KATI'S BOOKS

• Traumatized https://geni.us/Bfak0j
• Are u ok? http://bit.ly/2s0mULy

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• ONLINE THERAPY While Kati does not currently offer online therapy, her sponsor Betterhelp will connect you with a licensed, online counselor. Visit https://betterhelp.com/kati
• PATREON: this podcast is made possible through the generous support of patrons like you. https://www.patreon.com/katimorton
• BUSINESS INQUIRIES: Linnea Toney linnea@underscoretalent.com

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