This book was recommended to me through meeting with a fellow counsellor and life coach. She said that this book has been very helpful to many of her clients whom have Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN) experiences that affect their relationships in the present.
The author has a website with a questionarrie about whether you have experienced CENs: drjonicewebb.com/cen-questionnaire
The book is comprised of three parts: CEN and your relationship, your CEN parents, and your children.
CEN and your relationship first starts with the differences you may see between if one person has CEN or if both do in the relationship. The author uses examples of past clients to illustrate this. Next is how CEN affects your choice of partner. Then effects of your relationship, how to speak to your spouse and lastly how to repair the relationship.
One thing that really jumped out whilst reading this book is the writing style of the author. She writes in such a plain and relatable way. The examples she writes makes each point understandable without feeling as you’ve been spoken down to; this style follows throughout the rest of the book. The chapter on how to speak to your partner is exceptionally helpful as it explains how to approach this in a non blaming way to open up communication between yourself and your partner.
The 2nd part about your CEN parents includes a portrait of how it looks, your relationship with your parents, how to protect yourself and set boundaries and lastly how to talk to your parents (if you choose) about these issues. Again the author breaks this part down into examples of how this may look and lastly help if you want to talk to you parents about the issues of how their parenting has affected you.
The last part part of the book is based on how you may be affecting your children if you yourself have CEN. This part is extremely helpful at identifying if this is having an affect on your children and how to change this when it is happening.
I would recommend this book to clients whom have experienced CEN or have a partner who may do. This book is useful to open up lines of communication within any relationships you may have that are affected by this issue.
5/5
Charli Davies
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