Do you tend to fall for emotionally unavailable partners? Do you struggle with anger or feel the need to keep rigid boundaries in nearly every area of your life?
For some people, these patterns can be linked to what therapists call a “father wound.”
“The term ‘father wound’ isn’t a formal diagnosis, but it’s a helpful way to describe the emotional pain that comes from an absent, emotionally unavailable, critical, unpredictable or unsafe father figure,” Cynthia Flores, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told HuffPost. “It can also stem from a father who was physically present but emotionally disconnected. The wound is less about blame and more about unmet developmental needs.”
Psychotherapist Doriel Jacov said a father wound can form even when a father showed love in certain ways.
“Many people I work with describe fathers who materially provided or were proud of them at times but struggled to emotionally attune or were emotionally unavailable,” he said.
