By Carrie Willey, PhD, LPC (Clinical Director) Pia Mellody has written extensively about Induced Feelings or Carried Feelings. This is the feeling energy that is absorbed by children in a dysfunctional family. When the parents or the Major Caregivers are unwilling to own or unconscious about their feelings, the children take that energy on. For example, if a mother rages, spewing anger all around, the child, because he/she is egocentric, believes that energy truly belongs to him/her and it is stored in the cellular memory of the body. If the caregiver is willing to take ownership, for example, the mother explains to the child that she is angry about a situation, but it has nothing to do with the child, then the child does not …

I should call the emergency line. I should email my therapist. I should tell [my fiancé]. I know exactly what I should do. I just don’t want to. I don’t want to be stopped. – Journal entry from Jan. 6, 2014 (full excerpt below) On Monday the temperature plummeted here in New York. The smell and feel of the cold air […] The post Hope and Hopelessness in Early Recovery: A Look Back appeared first on The Middle Ground.