The Importance of Acknowledging Childhood Trauma in the Clinical Field

There is a distinct lack of discussion pertaining to the lasting damage narcissistic parents inflict on their children, a shortfall so intense that some of the victims themselves don't recognise the harm done to them either, or accept the abuse as being their fault. One of the saddest things is that most children or grown-up survivors never get help or relate their lifelong relationship troubles back to their real origins. They are often categorised by society as having only suffered emotional abuse at best. It is disappointing how lots of professionals and, in particular, physicians and counsellors, minimise the pain those who have lived through lasting emotional trauma are feeling and the impact it has on the patients' physical and psychological well-being. Don't judge and condemn what you don't understand. By taking the reader through my own personal journey dealing with this kind of abuse, I aim to present how detrimental emotional abuse can be and try to bridge that above mentioned gap in general knowledge.

Rita Zbojan Ballantyne was born in the communist Romania of the '70s. Encouraged by her father to experience the world beyond the confines of the Iron Curtain, she explored many countries and cultures after the dictatorship's fall. A political activist, animal lover and trained Psychologist, she currently lives in Scotland with her husband and her youngest son, with the older children having recently flown the nest.