Adult Child of Dysfunction

What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't your past... It's the story your past taught you to believe? In this powerful episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction , Tammy Vincent sits down with licensed therapist Aaron Gilbert , founder of Boston Evening Therapy Associates, to explore one of the most important concepts in healing from childhood trauma: your default story . From the moment we're...

Have you ever noticed how quickly you ask everyone else what they think before asking yourself? If you grew up in a dysfunctional home, that isn't because you're indecisive—it's because you learned to survive by paying attention to everyone else's needs before your own. In this week's Tammy's Takes , I expand on one of the biggest takeaways from my conversation with therapist and author Shari Foos...

n this heartfelt episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction , I sit down with therapist, author, and founder of The Narrative Method , Shari Foos , to explore how writing can become one of the most powerful tools for healing childhood trauma. Many adult children of dysfunctional families learned early in life to stay quiet, suppress their emotions, and become whoever they needed to be just to survive....

Have you ever been completely exhausted... but the moment your head hits the pillow, your mind comes alive? Maybe you replay conversations from the day. Maybe you worry about tomorrow. Maybe you wake up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and can't get back to sleep. What if the problem isn't that you can't sleep? What if your nervous system simply doesn't feel safe enough to rest? In this episode of T...

Sleep isn't a luxury. It's the foundation of your mental health, emotional resilience, physical healing, and nervous system regulation. In this powerful episode, Tammy sits down with Tim Thomas, creator of the Breathwork in Bed app and a former military veteran who transformed his own struggle with chronic insomnia into a mission to help others sleep naturally. After losing six years of his life t...

What if your thoughts are not always telling you the truth? For many adult children of dysfunction, anxious thoughts do not just feel like thoughts. They feel like warnings. They feel like facts. They feel like instructions we have to follow in order to stay safe. “They are mad at me.” “I am going to mess this up.” “I need to fix this.” “I should stay quiet.” “I am too much.” “I am not enough.” In...

What if healing is not about getting rid of painful thoughts, fixing every feeling, or becoming a completely different person? In this powerful episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction , Tammy Vincent sits down with Dr. Elisabeth Morray, licensed psychologist, acceptance and commitment therapy expert, and VP of Clinical at Alma. Dr. Morray introduces the concept of psychological flexibility —the abil...

Why does a simple text message, a difficult conversation, or a little bit of criticism sometimes feel so overwhelming? The answer may surprise you. In this episode of Tammy's Takes, Tammy introduces her powerful Trigger-to-Truth Method—a simple but transformative tool designed to help you identify emotional triggers, uncover the fears hiding beneath them, and recognize when your past is influencin...

What happens when the survival skills that protected you as a child begin holding you back as an adult? In this powerful episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction, Tammy sits down with author, poet, and memoirist Sarah Hanson to discuss growing up in a dysfunctional family, the hidden impact of emotional abuse, and the lifelong journey of reclaiming your authentic self. Sarah shares her experience of...

What if anxiety isn't the problem? What if people-pleasing isn't the problem? What if overthinking isn't the problem? What if they're all messengers? In this powerful Tammy's Takes episode, Tammy explores one of the most important lessons from her conversation with voice coach Barbara McAfee: the emotions, needs, and experiences we suppress don't simply disappear—they often find another way to be...

What happens when it isn't safe to speak? For many adult children of dysfunction, silence became a survival strategy long before they ever realized it. Whether it was fear, criticism, neglect, abuse, or simply growing up in a home where emotions weren't welcome, many learned to suppress their voice in order to stay safe. In this powerful conversation, Tammy sits down with voice coach, author, spea...

What if you're not stuck? What if you're grieving? In this powerful follow-up to my conversation with John Kammer of Guardian AIngels, we're diving into a truth that many people never consider: grief doesn't only happen when someone dies. We grieve lost relationships, lost opportunities, lost dreams, lost health, childhoods we never had, and versions of ourselves we thought we'd become. The proble...

What if healing from grief didn't mean letting go? In this powerful episode, Tammy sits down with John Kammer, founder of Guardian AIngels, an innovative AI-powered grief support platform designed to help people process loss through guided reflection, journaling, and meaningful conversations. After losing three of his closest friends, including one to suicide, John found himself carrying years of...

Why do we keep doing things we know aren't good for us? Why do we keep overreacting, people pleasing, overthinking, numbing out, procrastinating, or sabotaging our own success—even when we know better? In this Tammy's Takes episode, Tammy builds on her recent conversation with Kathryn Eipl, founder of EIPL Healing and creator of the Neuro Resonance Method, to explore one of the biggest misconcepti...

What if the struggles you're experiencing aren't character flaws—but nervous system patterns that were created long before you knew they existed? In this powerful episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction, Tammy sits down with Kathryn Eipl, founder of EIPL Healing and creator of the Neuro-Resonance Method, to explore the connection between emotional patterns, nervous system regulation, self-sabotage,...

In this episode of Tammy's Takes, Tammy explores one of the most important lessons from her recent conversation with Kaylin Peete of the Family Online Safety Institute: the real issue isn't technology—it's connection. As parents, caregivers, educators, and mentors, many of us worry about social media, screen time, AI, and online safety. But beneath those concerns lies a deeper question: Do our chi...

How do we keep kids safe online without creating fear, shame, or disconnection? In this important conversation, Tammy sits down with Kaylin Peete, Program Specialist at the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) and former educator, to discuss the growing challenges families face in today's digital world. From social media and online gaming to AI chatbots and screen time, technology is shaping how...

In this episode of Tammy's Takes, Tammy explores one of the most powerful lessons from her recent conversation with women's health expert Kirsten Karchmer: What if your symptoms aren't the problem? What if they're the message? Too often we treat anxiety, overwhelm, emotional reactions, self-doubt, and chronic stress as things to eliminate. But what if your body is actually trying to communicate so...

Feeling stuck, overwhelmed, anxious, or emotionally exhausted? In this episode of Tammy’s Takes, Tammy pulls powerful lessons from her conversation with Kym Coco and shares five practical ways to start moving forward when life feels heavy, uncertain, or completely overwhelming. Whether you’re navigating grief, anxiety, burnout, childhood trauma, nervous system dysregulation, life transitions, or j...

How do you rebuild yourself after loss, grief, anxiety, or a major life transition? In this deeply meaningful episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction, Tammy sits down with author, speaker, yoga teacher, and founder of Swagtail Yoga, Kym Coco, to explore how movement, mindfulness, breathwork, and nervous system regulation can help us heal. After experiencing profound loss following her husband’s illn...

What if infertility isn't simply a hormone problem? In this eye-opening episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction, Tammy sits down with fertility expert, healthcare innovator, and Conceivable founder Kirsten Karchmer to explore the hidden factors that impact fertility, reproductive health, and overall wellness. After helping more than 10,000 women in clinical practice, Kirsten discovered that many wom...

Why do so many adult children of dysfunction struggle to trust themselves? In this episode of Tammy’s Takes, Tammy pulls from her powerful conversation with therapist Kara Lissy to unpack one of the biggest hidden wounds of growing up in dysfunction: losing trust in yourself. If you grew up around addiction, emotional neglect, criticism, unpredictability, narcissism, or chaos, you may have learned...

What happens when childhood dysfunction follows you into adulthood? In this deeply healing episode of Adult Child of Dysfunction, Tammy sits down with licensed therapist and ACOA specialist Kara Lissy to unpack the lasting effects of growing up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional home. Together, they explore childhood trauma, nervous system dysregulation, people pleasing, grief, shame, perfectionism,...

Are you functioning but not really feeling? If you grew up in dysfunction, emotional neglect, addiction, chaos, criticism, or unpredictability, emotional numbness may have become a survival response. In this episode of Tammy’s Takes, Tammy Vincent follows up on her conversation with Megan Margherio to explore why adult children of dysfunction often feel disconnected from themselves, struggle with...

What happens after survival? If you grew up in dysfunction, emotional neglect, abuse, addiction, or chaos, chances are you learned how to survive. But what happens when survival mode becomes emotional numbness? What happens when you no longer feel the pain… but you also can’t fully feel the joy? In this deeply powerful and validating conversation, Tammy sits down with trauma-informed embodiment co...