S14 E16 - Mothering Our Little Places (with Brya Hanan)

In this week's episode, we welcome Brya Hanan, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, to share how we can learn to engage as an adult with the young parts of ourselves. Brya shares her story, the trauma she experienced as a child, and how it affected not only her self-perception but also how she related to others. She reflects on her healing journey and shares practical ways you can begin your healing journey. We also chat about how our unmet needs as a child can affect us as adults, how to have compassion for ourselves in our brokenness, and why healing ourselves allows us to love those around us much more fully. 

Heather’s One Thing - Her parents

Sister Miriam’s One Thing - Lentil Curry and Naan Bread 

Michelle’s One Thing - Her husband, Chris, and his loving support

Brya’s One Thing - Barre Classes!

Other Resources Mentioned: 

• Buy Brya’s book here
• Check out Brya’s website and Instagram
• Restore the Glory Podcast Episode 99: Parts Work with Brya Hanan

Journal Questions:

• Where do I sense deep divides within myself?
• How do I care for others as a way of avoiding care for myself?
• What would it look like for me to befriend my inner child?
• What are my defense mechanisms?
• Is it time to seek out therapy?

Discussion Questions:

• What “templates” of wounds and experiences do you find yourself living through?
• In your healing journey, when have you experienced things getting worse before they got better? What made the change for the better?
• What does your inner child need to hear today?
• When do you feel dysregulated?
• When do you feel well-regulated?

Quotes to Ponder:

“Remember, you are held safe. You are loved. You are protected. You are in communion with God and with those whom God has sent you. What is of God will last. It belongs to the eternal life. Choose it, and it will be yours.” (Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love)

“The history of every human being passes through the threshold of a woman’s motherhood.” (Saint Pope JPII)

Scripture for Lectio: 

 A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5: 24- 34)

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