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-body healing?

🌿How our physical bodies alert us to dysfunction through illness or pain

🌿The power of family roles we are chosen for by no choice of our own

🌿The treacherous fall from the Golden Child Role to that of the Family Scapegoat

🌿How to find and live as your authentic self

🌿How and why the journey into authenticity cannot be defined by anyone other than you

Lauren Smallcomb is a Mind-Body Practitioner and co-owner of Flourish Therapy. Her journey as a healer began at 20 when she became a registered nurse, dedicating a decade to caring for patients in the ER. She later expanded her expertise to become a birth doula and, eventually, a nutritional therapist. In 2020, after making the difficult decision to walk away from a dysfunctional family system, Lauren embarked on a transformative process of rebuilding her mind and body through brain retraining and trauma healing. This journey inspired her to become a certified Mind-Body Practitioner. The newfound sense of empowerment prompted Lauren and her therapist husband to establish Flourish Therapy, with the purpose of helping others heal and thrive after childhood trauma. Born and raised in upstate New York, they now make their home in Northern Thailand with their children, two dogs, and a cat.

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Episode Sponsors:

Betterhelp

Going to therapy is a sign of strength, not weakness. My sponsor BetterHelp makes therapy simple, with 10% off your first month to help you get started:

https://betterhelp.com/drsherrie

BetterHelp, founded in 2013, is the world’s largest online therapy platform, offering accessible, affordable, and personalized mental health care.

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Hiya

Hiya is revolutionizing children's health with a pediatrician-approved, sugar-free multivitamin designed to nourish growing kids with the essential nutrients they need—without the junk. Made with 15 key vitamins and minerals, Hiya’s chewable formula is free from artificial sweeteners, dyes, and gummy additives, offering a cleaner, healthier approach to kids’ nutrition. Trusted by parents and loved by kids, Hiya is on a mission to build lifelong wellness habits from the very first bite.

Use my link 👉 https://hiyahealth.pxf.io/c/5964558/1730519/20098 to get 50% off of your first order with HIYA and free delivery!

*****

MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

📌 [Book] Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover - https://www.amazon.com/Educated-Memoir-Tara-Westover/dp/0399590501

📌 [Book] Golden Child: My Descent to Scapegoat and Rise to Freedom by Lauren Smallcomb - https://flourishtherapy.kartra.com/page/goldenchild#_95sz30uj4

📌 [Book] The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. - https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748/

CONNECT WITH LAUREN:

📌 Website: https://flourishtherapy.kartra.com/page/goldenchild

📌 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flourish_therapy/

📌 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LukeandLaurenSmallcomb

📌 Substack: https://substack.com/@laurensmallcomb

📌 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-smallcomb-5b5545355/

📌 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@flourish_therapy

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MY LATEST BOOK!!!

Adult Survivors of Emotionally Abusive Parents: How to Heal, Cultivate...

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 psychological and emotional programming that conditions our perception, keeps us loyal to dysfunction, and disconnects us from our true selves.

In this episode, let’s explore the core dynamics that keep us bound: family trance, self-differentiation, enmeshment, the misunderstood role of the “identified patient,” and the trauma of awakening.

🌿The Super Self of the Toxic Family System

🌿 Unpacking what it means to be in the “Family Trance”

🌿 Enmeshment creates a lack of connection, just as distance creates a lack of connection.

🌿What Jerry means by “self differentiation”

🌿 Whether our relationships with our families are in contact or no contact there is always still a connection

🌿 We cannot use an “other-centered focus” to change our family

🌿 Being centered on healing yourself is not selfish

🌿 Enmeshment is not closeness.

🌿 How to start “Self Differentiating”

Jerry T. Wise, MA, MS, CLC, is a renowned family-systems expert and self-differentiation coach with over 45 years of experience as a marriage & family therapist, addictions therapist, pastoral counselor, and certified life/relationship coach. He’s helped thousands of clients across 110+ countries, reaching millions online as he guides survivors of narcissistic, dysfunctional, or emotionally immature families to reclaim their authentic selves—cultivating resilience, confidence, and calm.

His signature “Road to Self” program, along with hundreds of free videos and trainings, focuses on healing through boundary-setting, emotional detachment, and reducing reactivity, helping individuals break free from lifelong patterns.

*****

Episode Sponsor:

Hiya is revolutionizing children's health with a pediatrician-approved, sugar-free multivitamin designed to nourish growing kids with the essential nutrients they need—without the junk. Made with 15 key vitamins and minerals, Hiya’s chewable formula is free from artificial sweeteners, dyes, and gummy additives, offering a cleaner, healthier approach to kids’ nutrition. Trusted by parents and loved by kids, Hiya is on a mission to build lifelong wellness habits from the very first bite.

Use my link 👉 https://hiyahealth.pxf.io/c/5964558/1730519/20098 to get 50% off of your first order with HIYA and free delivery!

*****

MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

📌 [Book] People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil by M. Scott Peck - https://www.amazon.com/People-Lie-Hope-Healing-Human/dp/0684848597

📌 [Book] Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence by Esther Perel - https://www.amazon.com/Mating-Captivity-Unlocking-Erotic-Intelligence/dp/0060753641

CONNECT WITH JERRY:

📌 Website: https://www.jerrywiserelationshipsystems.com/

📌 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jerrywise

📌 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerrytwise/

📌 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JerryTWise/

📌 Twitter: https://www.tiktok.com/@jerrytwise

📌 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrytwise/

*****

MY LATEST BOOK!!!

Adult Survivors of Emotionally Abusive Parents: How to Heal, Cultivate Emotional Resilience, and Build the Life and Love You Deserve - https://amzn.to/3UhURWI

*****

MY TEDx TALK:

📌 TEDx Talk Not All Parents Are Good by Dr. Sherrie Campbell - https://youtu.be/deyHwDkG7oc

BOOKS BY DR. SHERRIE:

⚉ Adult

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 psychological process; it’s a full-body, soul-deep return to yourself.

🌿Learning to “be in your body”

🌿Healing and the mind/body connection

🌿Emotional repair cannot occur, and true health cannot develop into boundaries have been set or ties have been cut

🌿Manifesting a new life

🌿Spiritual healing

🌿Know who you are is a superpower

🌿You are far more powerful than toxicity

🌿Healing yourself gives those in your toxic family the opportunity to heal, whether they take that opportunity is not up to us

Jennifer Pilates - Spiritual Thought Leader, has been transforming clients' body, mind, and spirits worldwide for over 25 years as an Internationally Renowned Reiki Healing Master + Intuitive-Medium, Holistic Health & Wellness Expert Author, and Host of the Top-Rated Podcast Host Empowered Within.

Jennifer is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, detail-loving, stubborn-as-heck achiever, unshakeable optimistic, philanthropic, self-care activist, fur-baby momma, and ocean-loving intuitive-empath. From her readings to healing, from her training to writing, to her top-rated Podcast: Empowered Within, Jennifer has been leaving her inspirational, empowering, and transformational touch on clients and celebrities worldwide for well over two decades.

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Episode Sponsor:

Hiya is revolutionizing children's health with a pediatrician-approved, sugar-free multivitamin designed to nourish growing kids with the essential nutrients they need—without the junk. Made with 15 key vitamins and minerals, Hiya’s chewable formula is free from artificial sweeteners, dyes, and gummy additives, offering a cleaner, healthier approach to kids’ nutrition. Trusted by parents and loved by kids, Hiya is on a mission to build lifelong wellness habits from the very first bite.

Use my link 👉 https://hiyahealth.pxf.io/c/5964558/1730519/20098 to get 50% off of your first order with HIYA and free delivery!

*****

MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

📌 [Podcast] Empowered Within with Jennifer Pilates - https://jenniferpilates.com/podcast-1

📌 [Podcast Episode] Adult Survivors of Toxic Family Members with Dr. Sherrie Campbell - https://bit.ly/3GERPYi

📌 [Podcast Episode] How to Heal: Adult Survivors of Emotionally Abusive Parents with Dr. Sherrie Campbell - https://bit.ly/44P6cRZ

📌 [Program] Reiki Distant Healing - https://jenniferpilates.com/reiki-healing-events

📌 Jennifer Pilates Wellness Studio - https://jenniferpilates.com/wellness-studio

CONNECT WITH JENNIFER:

📌 Website: https://jenniferpilates.com/

📌 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkhV033DQEauG2X9AKs7mLA

📌 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejenniferpilates/

📌 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferPilates/#

📌 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferpilates/

*****

MY LATEST BOOK!!!

Adult Survivors of Emotionally Abusive Parents: How to Heal, Cultivate Emotional Resilience, and Build the Life and Love You Deserve - https://amzn.to/3UhURWI

*****

MY TEDx TALK:

📌 TEDx Talk Not All Parents Are Good by Dr. Sherrie Campbell - https://youtu.be/deyHwDkG7oc

BOOKS BY DR. SHERRIE:

⚉ Adult Survivors of Toxic Family Members: Tools to Maintain Boundaries, Deal with Criticism, and Heal from Shame After Ties Have Been Cut. - https://amzn.to/3L3sMuA

⚉ But