Ep. 119: Inner Conflict: What Happens When You Silence Half of Yourself

There's a civil war happening inside you — and you may not even know one side of it exists.

After 30 years as a psychotherapist, I've noticed something remarkable: every person who walks into my office with depression, anxiety, or compulsive patterns is fighting the same battle. One part of them is running the show. Another part — equally real, equally legitimate — has been silenced.

Drawing on Carl Jung's concept of "holding the tension of opposites," the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme model, and five case studies from my practice — including an architect whose body went on strike and a lawyer who banished her own assertiveness — this episode explores what happens when you silence half of yourself, and what it takes to reclaim it.

The solution isn't winning the war. It's learning to hold both sides at once.