The Untrained Therapist

They Talk. You Carry It.

De: Francisco Castillo

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

You’re the one everyone calls when things fall apart.

But no one checks on you.

You’re the strong friend.
The calm one.
The listener.
The person who always knows what to say.

You hold everyone else together, quietly, competently, endlessly, while carrying a kind of exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix.

The Untrained Therapist is for the people who became emotional caretakers without ever choosing the role.

Written by licensed marriage and family therapist and Navy veteran Francisco Castillo, this book names a truth many people feel but rarely have language for.
You’ve been doing therapist-level emotional labor your entire life, without training, boundaries, or support.

And it’s costing you more than you realize.

Inside this book, you’ll learn:

• Why being “the strong one” is often a survival role, not a personality trait

• How childhood dynamics, culture, and family systems quietly trained you to manage everyone else’s emotions

• The difference between helping and carrying, and why crossing that line leads to burnout and resentment

• Why setting boundaries feels like abandonment, and how to do it anyway

• How to receive support without guilt, shame, or the need to immediately “pay it back”

• What real, sustainable strength looks like when it finally includes you

This is not a textbook.
It’s not pop psychology.
And it’s not about becoming colder or less caring.

It’s about learning how to stop disappearing while you help.

Blending clinical insight, neuroscience, and deeply human storytelling, The Untrained Therapist offers practical tools, clear language, and real-world scripts for people who have spent their lives being the safe place for everyone else.

This book is for you if:

• You’re the friend everyone vents to, but you rarely get to unload

• You feel responsible for other people’s emotions

• You’re exhausted, but don’t know how to stop

• You struggle to say no without guilt

• You’ve been “fine” for so long it doesn’t mean anything anymore

You can be strong and still be held.

You can care deeply and still have limits.
You can put the weight down without losing who you are.

You’ve been the untrained therapist long enough.

Now it’s your turn.