263. Relationships with Emotionally Immature People with Lindsay Gibson

Many of us grew up with or are in a current relationship with someone who is emotionally immature. And if that’s the case, you may feel anger towards that person, and a lingering sense of loneliness and anxiety in intimate relationships. Lindsay Gibson, the author of the bestselling book, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, helps us understand why these relationships cause us such pain, how to heal, and even how to navigate relationships with an emotionally immature person in our adult life. Join us to learn how to find a new way to be in relationship with an emotionally immature person. 

Listen and Learn:

• Why Lindsay first began writing and treating adult children of emotionally immature parents
• The value of understanding what emotional immaturity is, but also the caution we should use in applying labels
• The hallmark qualities of emotional immaturity (and emotional maturity)
• The research that highlights why being raised by an emotionally immature parent can cause such long-term pain
• The surprising stance Lindsay has on cultivating compassion for an emotionally immature person
• Strategies for growing relationships in that don't resemble those which you were raised with
• Understand how you can help a relationship with an emotionally immature person grow
• Lindsey’s thoughts on estrangement from an emotionally immature parent or partner

Resources

• Ed Tronick’s still face experiment
• Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them, by Karl Pillemer
• Atlantic Article: Why Parents and Kids Get Estranged

About Lindsay Gibson

Lindsay C. Gibson, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice who specializes in individual psychotherapy with adult children of emotionally immature parents. She is author of Who You Were Meant to Be and writes a monthly column on well-being for Tidewater Women magazine and she’s here today to talk with me about her books, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents and Recovering From Emotionally Immature Parents. Welcome, Linsday!

Related Episodes

• Episode 85. Emotion Efficacy with Aprilia West
• Episode 98. Narcissism with Avigail Lev and Robyn Walser
• Episode 183. Permission to Feel with Marc Brackett
• Episode 186. Set Boundaries, Find Peace with Nedra Tawwab

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