It is amazing to read the impressive amount of research that shares what an imprint the first 5 years of life have on us.
Everyday with my work with clients, I am reminded that 9 out of 10 times core issue comes from before 5 yrs old.
We know from recent infant and child attachment research that a child who feels a secure physical and emotional connection to at least one parent develops the neural pathways for resilience. Those who miss out on that nurturing whether it be physical and/or emotional, the child has a much harder time consoling themselves, calming their anxieties and tolerating high levels of pleasure or excitement.
I would like to share the following excerpt from one of my favourite authors, Dr. Gabor Mate
“The brain structures responsible for the experience and modulation of emotions, develop in response to parental input, just as visual circuitry develops in response to light.
In the parent-child interaction is established designing the child’s map of the world – whether this is a world of love and acceptance or fear and neglectful indifference. Future relationships will have as their templates nerve circuits laid down in our relationships with our earliest caregivers. We will love ourselves as we perceived being loved on the deepest, unconscious levels, care for ourselves with as much compassion as at the our core, we perceived as young children. Nurturing attachment interactions in infancy provide for better modulated biological stress response in adults.”
Within the Family Constellations approach, give space to understand present day emotions, related to the primary scenario of childhood. Giving room for a new choice that no longer triggers the automatic stress response from the body. Allowing the adult to make a present day choice free from influences of the past.