This episode is sponsored by Your Wish Is Your Command, a transformational success and mindset program focused on helping people reshape the way they think, create, and pursue personal growth. Join The Gentle Year Facebook Group What happens when a child grows up believing they are too much? Too loud. Too emotional. Too needy. Too difficult. In this deeply personal and emotionally raw conversation, psychotherapist Cassie O'Day shares the story behind the woman she became. Beneath the confident exterior, the successful career, and the decades spent helping others heal lies a little girl who spent much of her life carrying a painful question: "Am I truly wanted?" Cassie opens up about growing up in a family marked by trauma, emotional neglect, attachment wounds, violence, abandonment, and survival mode. She shares how those early experiences shaped her relationships, self-image, femininity, sense of safety, and eventually led her into psychotherapy. For many women, this conversation may feel uncomfortably familiar. The longing to be chosen. The ache of never quite feeling seen. The habit of becoming strong because vulnerability didn't feel safe. The tendency to build a hard exterior while protecting a deeply sensitive heart. Together, Knikki and Cassie explore attachment, trauma responses, emotional survival, feminine identity, somatic healing, and the hidden stories people carry beneath the surface. This is not a conversation about blame. It's a conversation about understanding. About recognizing the wounds that shaped us. And about discovering who we might become if we finally felt safe enough to let ourselves be fully seen. Topics discussed include: Childhood emotional neglectAttachment wounds and abandonment fearsThe fight response in womenFeeling "too much" or "a burden"Survival mode and protective identitiesFeminine versus masculine energySelf-sabotage and healingSomatic therapy and trauma stored in the bodyThe lifelong desire to feel wanted, chosen, and lovedIf you have ever felt unseen, misunderstood, emotionally abandoned, or forced to become strong long before you were ready, this episode may speak directly to a part of you that has been waiting to be heard. This episode of The Gentle Year is powered by Turning The Tide Tutoring, Shared Humanity: A Field Agent's Journey into the Human Mind, personalized academic coaching for students who think differently, and Acting With Pippi, where creativity and confidence come to life on and off the stage. This episode is also sponsored by Your Wish Is Your Command, a transformational success and mindset program focused on helping people reshape the way they think, create, and pursue personal growth. Some of the links in this episode may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only share products, programs, and resources that I personally use, believe in, and genuinely feel have had a meaningful impact on my own life and work. Thank you for supporting The Gentle Year and helping make these conversations possible. 🎙️ The Gentle Year with Knikki Hernandez Helping families, educators, and individuals better understand themselves and the people they love. Send us Fan Mail Turning The Tide TutoringSponsored by Turning The Tide Tutoring — empowering students and parents to grow and thrive.Acting With PippiActing with Pippi is acting program that helps youths build courage & presence through performance.Your Wish Is Your CommandA resource for deepening awareness around thought patterns, perception, and intentional response.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
