So many of us spend years, sometimes a lifetime, chasing love, validation, or approval from family members who will never give it.

In this episode, we talk about how to see the pattern for what it is, why it’s so hard to stop, and what it really takes to walk away from the chase.

In this episode, we will cover:

🍏 Why we keep returning to toxic or emotionally unavailable relatives, even when we know it hurts

🍏The signs you’re stuck in a cycle of seeking approval that will never come.

🍏The first steps to break free from this exhausting pattern

🍏How to navigate the guilt, grief, and pushback that can come with setting boundaries

🍏Healthy ways to meet your emotional needs without family validation

🍏The most freeing truth about letting go of the love you’ll never get

Jacqueline Hurst is the UK's leading Life Coach. She is also a specialist in Advanced Structured Hypnotherapy and a Master NLP Practitioner. She has over 15 years of experience and has worked with over 5,000 clients. With many tools in her box, she uses a unique, specialized, and highly sophisticated technique to help clients drop their negative thoughts and behaviors, to get past their own limitations, and achieve a life they love.

Jacqueline is GQ Magazine's resident therapist and is regularly featured in the media as an expert in her field including The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Harpers Baazar, The Times, Easy Living Magazine, The Daily Mail, BBC London Radio, Talk Radio, and the Oprah Winfrey Network. She has also worked alongside major brands including Clinique, Eve Lom, Space NK, Sweaty Betty, Lulu Lemon, and Bank of America.

She works with clients 1:1 by phone, Skype, or in person at her office in Mayfair in London. She also works with clients who bring her to their home country for a day, 3 days, or 5 days.

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Episode Sponsors:

Betterhelp

Going to therapy is a sign of strength, not weakness. My sponsor BetterHelp makes therapy simple, with 10% off your first month to help you get started:

https://betterhelp.com/drsherrie

BetterHelp, founded in 2013, is the world’s largest online therapy platform, offering accessible, affordable, and personalized mental health care.

—

Hiya

Hiya is revolutionizing children's health with a pediatrician-approved, sugar-free multivitamin designed to nourish growing kids with the essential nutrients they need—without the junk. Made with 15 key vitamins and minerals, Hiya’s chewable formula is free from artificial sweeteners, dyes, and gummy additives, offering a cleaner, healthier approach to kids’ nutrition. Trusted by parents and loved by kids, Hiya is on a mission to build lifelong wellness habits from the very first bite.

Use my link 👉 https://hiyahealth.pxf.io/c/5964558/1730519/20098 to get 50% off of your first order with HIYA and free delivery!

*****

MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

📌 Lucille Ball - https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/lucille-ball

📌 ThinkUp App - https://thinkup.me/

CONNECT WITH JACQUELINE:

📌 Personal Website: https://www.jacquelinehurst.com/

📌 Business Website: https://www.thelifeclass.com/

📌 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Jacqueline_hurst_/

📌 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jhurstcoaching

📌 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-hurst-83a35628/

*****

MY LATEST BOOK!!!

Adult Survivors of Emotionally Abusive Parents: How to Heal, Cultivate Emotional Resilience, and Build the Life and Love You Deserve - https://amzn.to/3UhURWI

*****

MY TEDx TALK:

📌 TEDx Talk Not All Parents Are Good by Dr. Sherrie Campbell - https://youtu.be/deyHwDkG7oc

BOOKS BY DR. SHERRIE:

⚉ Adult Survivors of Toxic Family Members: Tools to Maintain...

Have you ever felt like no matter what you did, it was never enough for your family?

Have you carried the heavy burden of criticism, manipulation, or indifference, always trying to fix what you didn’t break, always hoping that one day your love would be enough to change them?

Many survivors of toxic family dynamics wrestle with this painful reality, often staying far longer than they should out of guilt, duty, or the desperate hope that things might improve.

🌿 Passive-aggressive, overly critical mother

🌿Passive toxic father

🌿Divided sibling relationships

🌿Knowing when enough is enough

🌿Stopping one-sided efforts at repair

🌿Cutting ties

🌿The shattering stage of grief and why it’s the hardest

🌿Healing is only possible once ties have been cut

🌿Embracing feelings of relief and freedom in the aftermath of cutting ties

Amy Kline is a survivor of toxic family dynamics who found the strength to break free after years of enduring gaslighting, manipulation, and criticism. A devoted wife and mother of three daughters, she has committed herself to breaking the cycle of abuse and modeling healthy boundaries for the next generation.

For nearly seven years, Amy has followed Dr. Sherrie Campbell’s work, crediting her books and teachings with helping her recognize abuse, trust her instincts, and ultimately choose freedom. Today, she shares her story with honesty and optimism, offering hope and encouragement to others navigating the painful but liberating path of cutting toxic family ties.

*****

Episode Sponsors:

Betterhelp

Going to therapy is a sign of strength, not weakness. My sponsor BetterHelp makes therapy simple, with 10% off your first month to help you get started:

https://betterhelp.com/drsherrie

BetterHelp, founded in 2013, is the world’s largest online therapy platform, offering accessible, affordable, and personalized mental health care.

—

Hiya

Hiya is revolutionizing children's health with a pediatrician-approved, sugar-free multivitamin designed to nourish growing kids with the essential nutrients they need—without the junk. Made with 15 key vitamins and minerals, Hiya’s chewable formula is free from artificial sweeteners, dyes, and gummy additives, offering a cleaner, healthier approach to kids’ nutrition. Trusted by parents and loved by kids, Hiya is on a mission to build lifelong wellness habits from the very first bite.

Use my link 👉 https://hiyahealth.pxf.io/c/5964558/1730519/20098 to get 50% off of your first order with HIYA and free delivery!

*****

MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

📌 [Film] Lady Bird - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Bird_(film)

*****

MY LATEST BOOK!!!

Adult Survivors of Emotionally Abusive Parents: How to Heal, Cultivate Emotional Resilience, and Build the Life and Love You Deserve - https://amzn.to/3UhURWI

*****

MY TEDx TALK:

📌 TEDx Talk Not All Parents Are Good by Dr. Sherrie Campbell - https://youtu.be/deyHwDkG7oc

BOOKS BY DR. SHERRIE:

⚉ Adult Survivors of Toxic Family Members: Tools to Maintain Boundaries, Deal with Criticism, and Heal from Shame After Ties Have Been Cut. - https://amzn.to/3L3sMuA

⚉ But It’s Your Family…: Cutting Ties with Toxic Family Members and Loving Yourself in the Aftermath - https://amzn.to/3tuNQEn

⚉ Your Pocket Therapist: Quick Hacks for Dealing with Toxic People While Empowering Yourself - https://amzn.to/3JBql1R

⚉ Success Equations: A Path to Living an Emotionally Wealthy Life - https://amzn.to/3uobd1u

⚉ Loving Yourself: The Mastery of Being Your Own Person - https://amzn.to/36mlXp5

CONNECT WITH DR. SHERRIE:

⚉ Website: https://drsherriecampbell.com/

⚉ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherrieCampbellPhD

Check...

Living someone else’s script—performing the role your family assigned while quietly losing touch with who you are—makes the shift to authenticity not just an emotional transformation but a full-body reckoning.

This episode explores the fall from “golden child” to scapegoat, the link between unresolved trauma and chronic illness, and how reclaiming authenticity fosters true mental, physical, and spiritual healing.

🌿 What is mind-body healing?

🌿How our physical bodies alert us to dysfunction through illness or pain

🌿The power of family roles we are chosen for by no choice of our own

🌿The treacherous fall from the Golden Child Role to that of the Family Scapegoat

🌿How to find and live as your authentic self

🌿How and why the journey into authenticity cannot be defined by anyone other than you

Lauren Smallcomb is a Mind-Body Practitioner and co-owner of Flourish Therapy. Her journey as a healer began at 20 when she became a registered nurse, dedicating a decade to caring for patients in the ER. She later expanded her expertise to become a birth doula and, eventually, a nutritional therapist. In 2020, after making the difficult decision to walk away from a dysfunctional family system, Lauren embarked on a transformative process of rebuilding her mind and body through brain retraining and trauma healing. This journey inspired her to become a certified Mind-Body Practitioner. The newfound sense of empowerment prompted Lauren and her therapist husband to establish Flourish Therapy, with the purpose of helping others heal and thrive after childhood trauma. Born and raised in upstate New York, they now make their home in Northern Thailand with their children, two dogs, and a cat.

*****

Episode Sponsors:

Betterhelp

Going to therapy is a sign of strength, not weakness. My sponsor BetterHelp makes therapy simple, with 10% off your first month to help you get started:

https://betterhelp.com/drsherrie

BetterHelp, founded in 2013, is the world’s largest online therapy platform, offering accessible, affordable, and personalized mental health care.

+++++

Hiya

Hiya is revolutionizing children's health with a pediatrician-approved, sugar-free multivitamin designed to nourish growing kids with the essential nutrients they need—without the junk. Made with 15 key vitamins and minerals, Hiya’s chewable formula is free from artificial sweeteners, dyes, and gummy additives, offering a cleaner, healthier approach to kids’ nutrition. Trusted by parents and loved by kids, Hiya is on a mission to build lifelong wellness habits from the very first bite.

Use my link 👉 https://hiyahealth.pxf.io/c/5964558/1730519/20098 to get 50% off of your first order with HIYA and free delivery!

*****

MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

📌 [Book] Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover - https://www.amazon.com/Educated-Memoir-Tara-Westover/dp/0399590501

📌 [Book] Golden Child: My Descent to Scapegoat and Rise to Freedom by Lauren Smallcomb - https://flourishtherapy.kartra.com/page/goldenchild#_95sz30uj4

📌 [Book] The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. - https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748/

CONNECT WITH LAUREN:

📌 Website: https://flourishtherapy.kartra.com/page/goldenchild

📌 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flourish_therapy/

📌 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LukeandLaurenSmallcomb

📌 Substack: https://substack.com/@laurensmallcomb

📌 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-smallcomb-5b5545355/

📌 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@flourish_therapy

*****

MY LATEST BOOK!!!

Adult Survivors of Emotionally Abusive Parents: How to Heal, Cultivate...