Finding Your Inner Strength: Self-Rescue Over External Validation
Episode Overview
Understand why you seek external validation and how it affects your relationships. Learn about protector parts and how they influence your behaviour. Discover how tools like sand trays can help process deep-seated emotions. Realise the importance of self-rescue over waiting for a knight in shining armour. Gain insights into reclaiming your self-worth through Internal Family Systems therapy.
They can be the great love bombers at the start of the relationship until we realise they're actually just an idiot wrapped up in tin foil
Ever felt like you're waiting for a knight in shining armour to rescue you from life's challenges? In this episode of The Narcissistic Abuse & Trauma Recovery Podcast, Caroline Strawson dives into this very feeling, sharing her own journey of self-rescue and empowerment. Caroline, a best-selling author and trauma therapist, uses her extensive training in Internal Family Systems (IFS) to explain how our childhood experiences shape our adult behaviours and perceptions.
She highlights how we often seek external validation to feel worthy, which can lead us into toxic relationships with narcissists who seem like 'good guys' at first but are anything but. Caroline's personal anecdotes about her own protector parts—like anger and dissociation—offer relatable insights into why we act the way we do when our core wounds are triggered.
She also discusses how tools like sand trays can help externalise and process these deep-seated emotions, making them easier to understand and heal. By the end of the episode, you'll realise that you don't need a knight to save you; you have the power to rescue yourself. This episode is a must-listen for anyone struggling with feelings of worthlessness and seeking ways to reclaim their self-worth.