The 3 Signs a Father Wound Is Holding You Back (and What to Do About It) | Terri Cole

Terri Cole is a licensed psychotherapist who spent nearly thirty years hearing the same private confession from accomplished women: the life looks right from the outside and doesn't feel like theirs. She coined the term "father wound" for the pattern underneath it, and her research group of 650 women forms the backbone of her new book on the subject. The conversation covers why the traits that get you promoted are often the same adaptations that keep you from enjoying any of it, and the two behaviors that look identical on a Tuesday night on the couch but do opposite things to your nervous system. Cole also makes the case that you need nothing from your father to heal — not his apology, his participation, or even his being alive — and answers the fear that stops high achievers from starting the work at all. It's for anyone who has checked the boxes and still feels something underneath running the show.