We explore how a polished childhood story can hide harm and why so many of us feel like outsiders in our own families. We unpack cognitive dissonance, rereading childhood with clarity, and the slow, necessary work of boundaries and self‑love that ends self‑blame.

• the gap between family image and lived reality
• cognitive dissonance and defence mechanisms in caregivers
• rereading childhood as a coherent narrative
• the jigsaw metaphor for making sense of fragments
• estrangement as gradual boundary setting
• why “forgive and move on” can harm without acknowledgement
• shifting from comparison to self‑compassion
• practical steps to release self‑blame and build safety

Welcome to the first ever episode of Here As You Are — a quiet, non-judgemental space for people who feel different, who carry deep inner hurt, and who long for real connection and lived understanding without noise, performance, or being told what to do by people who do not understand....

This episode is an unpolished introduction to this space - please forgive the 'no mic' audio quality just this once.

New Here As You Are episodes will launch every Sunday at 8pm GMT. I hope you return as there are so many more of us out there, waiting to be heard, understood, and accepted, as we are.

Contact: hereasyouare@proton.me

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