People-pleasing can look remarkably similar to kindness, until caring for others begins to require constantly monitoring their moods, preventing disappointment, and ignoring your own needs. Through Claire’s story and a few emotional vampires, explore the psychology of people-pleasing, fawning, resentment, and boundaries, and what can happen when we stop treating everyone else’s discomfort as ours to manage.
Tag Archives: people pleasing
The Monsters We Build, the Shadows We Follow, and Why Therapy Isn’t About Slaying Either
What if the monsters we spend our lives trying to defeat are not enemies at all, but old protectors, inherited stories, and survival strategies that once helped us find our way through the dark? Through Plato’s cave, Dante’s underworld, Jungian psychology, and the image of a therapist carrying a lantern, this reflection explores how healing begins not by slaying what frightens us, but by understanding it. Sometimes the path home starts by looking more closely at the shadows.
The Invisible Backpack: What You’ve Been Carrying That Was Never Yours
What if some of the things weighing you down were never yours to carry in the first place? In this installment of Storm Haven’s Four Arc series, we explore the invisible backpack many late diagnosed neurodivergent adults have been carrying for years, including perfectionism, people pleasing, hyper-independence, and demand avoidance. Through storytelling, nervous system insight, and compassionate reflection, this piece invites you to untangle survival strategies from identity and discover who you are beneath the weight of adaptation.