Open Letter to Girls Abandoned by Their Fathers
Personal Perspective: Words of validation to help you love yourself.
Kaytee Gillis, LCSW-BACS, November 1, 2023
- Women who were abandoned by a father often feel a strong sense of self-doubt and struggle to love themself
- They have a greater chance of entering relationships in which they are mistreated or not loved.
- Understanding that abandonment is not about them is crucial for healing, but it is not easy.
I was climbing the side of a mountain. I had never had any training, yet there I was, stuck to the side of a large mound of rocks, miles in the sky, attempting to locate my father. I found him just out of reach on the mountainside when, like magic, the mountain grew and expanded, prolonging my journey toward him. I continued scaling the mountainside but while I seemed to get closer and closer, the hoped-for reunion was always just out of reach.
If I told my dream to Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung, they would make easy work of analyzing it: Like many survivors before me, I was attempting to navigate the trauma of abandonment and the obstacle of trying to […]
Sandy Bober shares her personal testimony about being raped in college, her infection with an STD and her struggles and ultimate victory to regain her self-esteem, healthy relationships and a successful marriage.
Here at Love Smarts, we would like to share helpful information including personal stories of relationship successes and failures, insights from psychology and human experience about what leads to lasting love relationships.
We look forward to hearing from YOU which articles were meaningful and also about what you have learned from your own life experience, whether that was a top-of-the mountain joy or a relationship disaster!
The Institute for Relationship Intelligence is a 501c3 nonprofit organization (EIN 22-3301766). All donations are deeply appreciated and tax-deductible.
Inspirational Quotes
Recent Articles
Why the Act of Marriage (Still) Makes a Difference
by Harry Benson, MARCH 16, 2022
Highlights
- Marriage isn’t a guarantee of success. But in a world where all of us mess up, get in bad moods, behave badly sometimes, and treat others not very well, we need something that helps give us a chance.
- Marriage has three ingredients that are more like options for cohabitation: it involves a decision, a plan, and the support of friends and family.
- Friends and family support marriage by affirming the choice we’ve made and holding us to account for that choice.
It would be easy to think that marriage is on the […]
16 Manipulation Quotes From Experts to Help You Avoid Being Controlled
Charlotte Hilton Andersen Feb. 17, 2022 TheHealthy.com
Emotional manipulators use gaslighting and other shifty techniques to get what they want from you. Peruse these manipulation quotes so you can recognize this behavior quickly, and stop it in its tracks.
If you’ve ever been emotionally manipulated—and really, who hasn’t at some point or another?—then it’s likely your experience left you searching for answers. In fact, psychoanalyst Robin Stern, PhD, co-founder and Associate Director for the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, tells The Healthy that sheer confusion is one of the hallmark signs that someone’s just taken you for a ride.
Adds Amelia Kelley, PhD, therapist, […]