The Cost of Being the “Easy” Child: Trauma Therapy for Emotional Abandonment in Falls Church, VA
What is Emotional Abandonment?
Emotional abandonment is characterized by the disinterest, de-valuing, minimization, gaslighting, or ignoring of your emotional experiences, particularly by a caregiver during your childhood development. During your early childhood (typically before the age of 10), you exist in a critical developmental timeframe where you build an understanding, vocabulary, and connection for how to express your needs and emotions, both to yourself and to others. When a caregiver is rejecting, critical, or minimizing of your emotional experiences, it can make it confusing for you to identify and communicate your needs. This can lead you to believe that your feelings are less important than the needs of others, which is why trauma therapy for emotional abandonment can be an important step toward healing.
How Does Emotional Abandonment Become Self-Neglect in Adulthood?
Emotional abandonment in childhood and its messaging usually show up as self-neglect in adulthood in one or more of the following ways:
Avoiding your own emotions because they are uncomfortable/scary.
Ignoring your basic needs (hygiene, taking care of yourself when sick, cooking, cleaning, because these tasks involve care for you.)
Being the caretaker for everyone else and putting yourself last.
Prioritizing someone else’s needs over yours because “you’re not that important.”
Low self-esteem.
High levels of internal shaming.
A loud internal critic.
Difficulty with self-advocacy and setting boundaries.
How to Deal with Emotional Abandonment & Why IFS Trauma Therapy Supports Healing Self-Neglect
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is a trauma-focused technique in which we map out your inner world in order to expand your emotional vocabulary and build your nervous system’s capacity to hold the information that comes your way. We build compassion towards the strategies you have used and needed to protect yourself. Together, we also expand your emotional vocabulary and wisdom, naming and noticing what it is like for you to sit in feelings of anger, hurt, distraction, anxiety, and sadness. This is so that when these emotions arise, your body is less overwhelmed and incapacitated by them.
IFS therapy further supports this process by helping you define your self-energy, or the version of you that is the most connected, relaxed, and energized. In therapy, we explore what gives this part of you security and resources so that you can return to yourself the skills of emotional connection and attunement that you missed out on during childhood—this is often referred to as reparenting. With an experienced trauma therapist at Nurturing Willow Psychotherapy, you gain more capability, providing yourself with guidance and gradually finding paths to experience and express the full range of your emotions and your full, authentic self.
Start Trauma Therapy for Emotional Abandonment at Nurturing Willow Psychotherapy in Falls Church, VA
Alice Zic, MPH, LCSW | Owner and Trauma Therapist at Nurturing Willow Psychotherapy, LLC
At Nurturing Willow Psychotherapy, we provide warm, trauma-informed care designed to help you reestablish emotional safety, reconnect with your inner resilience, and remember the parts of yourself that may have felt lost.
Here’s how to get started:
Click below to schedule your free 15-minute consultation call.
Complete the short pre-consultation questionnaire.
Meet with trauma therapist Alice Zic to explore your needs and goals.
Begin your healing journey from childhood trauma with specialized childhood trauma therapy.
Compassionate Online Support for Childhood Trauma in Virginia
Online therapy offers an accessible and meaningful way to begin your childhood trauma therapy journey. As a Virginia-licensed therapist, I’m equipped to support clients living anywhere within the state. With a quiet space, a secure internet connection, and your preferred device, you can experience the benefits of therapy from the comfort of your own home. No long drives or traffic—just a simple, convenient way to get the help you need.
Start by scheduling your free consultation call below:
In-Person Trauma Therapy Services in New Orleans, Louisiana
Nurturing Willow Psychotherapy provides in-person sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in New Orleans, Louisiana. If you live in the Greater New Orleans area and are seeking support for childhood trauma, healing from the impact of an emotionally immature mother, or anxiety treatment for your teen, our Mid-City office offers a welcoming and accessible space to start your healing process.
Other Online Therapy Services We Offer at Nurturing Willow Psychotherapy
In addition to childhood trauma therapy for emotional abandonment, Nurturing Willow Psychotherapy provides online therapy for teen anxiety in CT, VA, and LA, along with in-person services in New Orleans. Whether you’re coping with the effects of parentification, supporting a teen who feels emotionally overloaded, or healing from childhood neglect, we offer a compassionate, nonjudgmental space for growth—accessible to clients across Connecticut, Virginia, and Louisiana.
Learn About Alice Zic, Trauma Therapist for Childhood Trauma
Alice Zic is a licensed clinical social worker based in New Orleans, Louisiana. She offers virtual therapy to clients across Louisiana, Connecticut, and Virginia, along with in-person sessions in New Orleans. As a trauma therapist, she specializes in supporting perfectionistic, mother-wounded women who are working to heal childhood trauma and step into adulthood with confidence and clarity. Alice practices from an attachment-focused lens and is trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS), a trauma-informed, evidence-based approach that integrates mind–body healing and helps you gently reparent the wounded, critical, and overwhelmed parts of yourself.
If you’d like to learn more about Alice, please click here. To begin working with her, you can schedule a free consultation call here.