Sherapy Sessions: Cutting Toxic Family Ties

In this powerful conversation, Dr. Sherrie sits down with Bridgette to explore what it means to transform toxic family patterns and step into the role of a sacred ancestor. Drawing from Bowen’s Family Systems theory, genograms, attachment work, and experiential psychotherapy, Bridgette offers a path toward breaking cycles, healing shame, and creating freedom for future generations.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🍏 What it means ...

In this deeply resonant episode of Sherapy Sessions, Dr. Sherrie Campbell welcomes Tamarin Michel, a clinical psychologist turned holistic healer, to explore the profound impact of toxic family dynamics, navigating complex in-law situations, and the transformative potential of somatic healing and inner child work.

Topics include:

🍏 the power of somatic healing

🍏 how we hold trauma in our bodies

🍏 family dynamics are the common den...

In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Sherrie sits down with Chantal Contorines to unpack the hidden realities of parenting with or after a relationship with a narcissist. Chantal brings deep wisdom, compassion, and clarity to one of the most complicated and painful dynamics families face today.

What we cover:

🍏 What led Chantal to specialize in narcissistic abuse and parenting after trauma

🍏 Why “co-parenting” with a narcissist isn’t...

So many of us spend years, sometimes a lifetime, chasing love, validation, or approval from family members who will never give it.

In this episode, we talk about how to see the pattern for what it is, why it’s so hard to stop, and what it really takes to walk away from the chase.

In this episode, we will cover:

🍏 Why we keep returning to toxic or emotionally unavailable relatives, even when we know it hurts

🍏The signs you’re stuck i...

Have you ever felt like no matter what you did, it was never enough for your family?

Have you carried the heavy burden of criticism, manipulation, or indifference, always trying to fix what you didn’t break, always hoping that one day your love would be enough to change them?

Many survivors of toxic family dynamics wrestle with this painful reality, often staying far longer than they should out of guilt, duty, or the desperate hope...

Living someone else’s script—performing the role your family assigned while quietly losing touch with who you are—makes the shift to authenticity not just an emotional transformation but a full-body reckoning.

This episode explores the fall from “golden child” to scapegoat, the link between unresolved trauma and chronic illness, and how reclaiming authenticity fosters true mental, physical, and spiritual healing.

🌿 What is mind-bo...

Have you ever felt like you're living in someone else’s life script—following invisible rules, walking on emotional eggshells, and carrying pain that doesn’t fully belong to you?

Do you wonder why, even after cutting contact, your toxic family still seems to echo in your mind, body, or choices?

Survivors of enmeshed, narcissistic, or otherwise toxic family systems often live in what Jerry Wise brilliantly calls “the family trance”—a...

Are you beginning to realize that your healing started the moment the noise stopped? The moment you cut ties with your family?

If your healing journey has felt spiritual, psychological, and deeply physical all at once, it's because it should be.

Spiritual teacher and empath mentor Jennifer Pilates, shares the embodied path of healing after cutting ties with a toxic family. Because healing after family trauma isn’t just a psychologi...

Have you ever questioned whether your neurodivergence played a role in the trauma you endured—and perhaps even helped you escape it?

Was it the trauma that caused the ADHD, or did the ADHD cause the trauma?

In this powerful conversation, let's explore how living with undiagnosed ADHD made Angie, an ADHD coach and fellow survivor of a toxic family system, the perfect target for scapegoating—misunderstood, mislabeled, and chronically...

Has your relationship with your mother brought more pain than comfort? 

The mother wound is real, painful, and often invisible to outsiders—but healing is possible.

Join me and Stephi as we unpack the deeply misunderstood journey of women who recognize the “mother wound”—emotional enmeshment, manipulation, and conditional love—and make the toughest choice: breaking free.

🌿 Key behaviors that signal a toxic maternal relationship...

Have you ever felt responsible for a parent’s emotions—like it was your job to keep them happy, calm, or stable?

Were you praised for being the “mature one,” even though you were silently falling apart inside?

Do you ever struggle to know where your needs end and someone else’s begin?

If so, you may have grown up enmeshed.

In this episode, let's explore how enmeshment, adultification, and complex trauma converge to distort the vict...

In many toxic families, the scapegoat becomes the emotional and psychological sponge for everyone else’s dysfunction, pain, and projection. It’s a trauma-inducing role that is often misunderstood, dismissed, or mischaracterized as “drama.” But for those who live it, scapegoating is a profound and persistent form of psychological abuse.

One of our bravehearts, LaToya Rice, shares her personal experience as the scapegoated twin in a ...

You are more than a toxic family abuse survivor—you are a cycle breaker. And there is a powerful difference between the two.

In this episode, find out what it means to move beyond the pain of being the “scapegoat” and step into the empowered identity of a “cycle breaker.”

🌱 What is a cycle breaker?

🌱 How each cycle breaker’s story is uniquely their own but also similar to the story of other survivors

🌱 The devastation of being d...

What happens when you’re raised to believe your worth depends entirely on your mother’s emotional comfort?

Let's explore the insidious dynamics of covert narcissistic abuse, emotional enmeshment, victimhood, and the liberating power of estrangement.

🌿 the no win trap set by toxic mothers

🌿 the damaging power of the “victim role”

🌿 the “victim role” as a personality type

🌿 how the victim role silences its victims

🌿 conflict does...

For many daughters, the relationship with their father is the first blueprint for love, trust, and emotional safety. When that father is emotionally absent, narcissistic, or abusive, the wounds run deep.

Listen in for a deeper conversation on healing from the complex and often unspoken impact of toxic fathers and parental neglect.

🌱 Understanding Toxic Fathers

🌱 Recognizing Abuse: It's Hard to See When You're In It

🌱 Living in F...

Survival isn’t just about enduring hardship—it’s about reclaiming your power, rewriting your story, and learning how to thrive in a world that may have once felt unsafe. 

If you're trying to navigate your trauma right now, this episode offers powerful insights on:

🌿Surviving multiple traumatic events from home life, to foster care, to homelessness 

🌿How to find and use resilience 

🌿How foster care was safer than at h...

Society expects them to be strong, stoic, and unshakable. But what happens when the weight of trauma becomes unbearable? 

What happens when the very qualities that make them resilient also become the barriers that keep them from healing? 

In this unfiltered conversation, retired police officer Kevin Donaldson sheds light on the silent struggles of men, ranging from masculinity and emotional suppression to toxic family dynam...

Society tells us that family is everything—that blood is thicker than water. But what happens when that very bloodline is the source of deep emotional wounds?

What happens when the people who are supposed to love and support you are the ones causing the most harm and abusing you?

In this powerful conversation, Josh Connolly shares about the harsh societal pushback against survivors who choose to go no contact, the misplaced sympathy...

If you have endured the emotional wounds of toxic parenting and are ready to step into your power, this episode is for you.

Cari Fund shares her story and the critical importance of choice, the liberating power of boundaries, and the redemption found in becoming the person your parents could never be.

🌿 Defining moment and experiences that inspire healing

🌿 How our personal journey, when examined, can help us evolve and deepen our...