Childhood Emotional Neglect
Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN) is a term coined by Jonice Webb, author of Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect and Running on Empty No More: Transform Your Relationships with Your Partner, Your Parents and Your Children.
CEN is more common than you might think. In fact, most clients I work with experienced CEN in their childhoods. CEN is when your parents failed to meet your emotional needs in upbringing.
Don’t worry, we will not be placing blame on your parents. The powerful thing about learning about CEN is that you can learn how to heal from it.
Wondering if you experienced CEN? Take the assessment here: https://drjonicewebb.com/cenquestionnaire/
Kelsey Kuehn’s CEN experience
→CEN Level 2 Trained
→Worked alongside Jonice Webb as her writing assistant
→Read some blog posts here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/jonice-webb-phd
Healing from CEN
Learn all about CEN
You’ll learn all about CEN and how it showed up in your upbringing. CEN is something that didn’t happen in childhood, so it can be difficult to identify. Building your awareness is the first step to healing.
Practice emotion skills
Together we’ll work on learning and implementing emotion skills. These skills include identifying and naming, accepting and validating, managing, and expressing.
Build emotional validity
If you grew up with CEN, you are prone to minimizing your emotions. Creating an internal dialogue that can allow for embracing and nurturing your emotions is the key to healing your unmet needs.
Deepen relationships
When you have emotion skills under your belt, you’ll feel more connected to yourself. This will provide you with the confidence to express yourself and practice vulnerability.