The Joy Junkie Show

We’ve all heard of our inner child, right? That wounded inner child who is still reckoning with incidents occurring in our childhood. But, have you ever heard of your “outer child”? Tell me if this sounds familiar: You are going back home to visit your family and the minute you get around your parents, it’s like you’re 16 all over again. You’re angsty, everything is unfair, and you just want to burn incense and listen to music, yet hanging out with your fam makes you want to lash out and yell and scream and maybe break a lava lamp. And suddenly all of the coping mechanisms you’ve learned in decades of therapy are out the window. This, my friend, is your Outer Child. It’s a way in which we regress to earlier versions of ourselves and act out from that place when surrounded by triggering people. And, let’s face it, it’s often our family. In this week’s episode, I dial up Alexa Rae Schiefer, Trauma Coach and former mental health clinician, to ask her some heavy-hitting questions around the trauma we incur from o