Feeling Empty, Numb, or Never Quite Enough? It Might Be CEN
Do any of these feel familiar?
☑︎ You often feel like you don’t matter – like you’re never quite enough, no matter what you do.
☑︎ Getting stuck in your head – overthinking, replaying conversations, or second-guessing yourself?
☑︎ Struggling to assert boundaries or speak up – especially if it might upset someone?
☑︎ You’re scared of being rejected, abandoned, or losing someone you love – even when nothing’s “wrong.”
☑︎ You feel lonely, disconnected or unseen, even with people around you.
☑︎ You say yes when you want to say no, or hide your feelings to avoid conflict or disappointment.
☑︎ You’re crumbling under the weight of everyone else’s expectations – but keep smiling anyway.
☑︎ You’re always bracing for something bad to happen, like you can’t fully relax.
☑︎ You stay busy to outrun your feelings – throwing yourself into work or numbing out with scrolling.
☑︎ You’ve realised that someone you relied on growing up couldn’t meet your emotional needs – and it’s only now starting to land.
☑︎ You worry your feelings are too much, or that sharing them will push people away.
☑︎ You find it hard to name or express how you feel – sometimes it just feels like “nothing” or “numb.”
☑︎ You’re navigating tricky family dynamics or find your current relationships emotionally confusing.
☑︎ Feeling like there’s something fundamentally wrong with you — like you’re broken, bad, or too much?
☑︎ Feeling invisible or overlooked at work, even when you work hard and go above and beyond.
☑︎ Struggling with performance anxiety or fear of speaking up in meetings – worried you’ll be judged, dismissed, or get it wrong.
If any of this feels familiar, you might be experiencing the long-term impact of having your emotional needs consistently ignored or unmet as a child. This often-invisible form of relational trauma is known as Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN).
CEN doesn’t always involve dramatic events or intentional harm. It often happens quietly, in families that looked “fine” on the surface — where physical needs were met, but emotional needs were overlooked. You might have been told you were lucky or had nothing to be upset about, yet deep down, something always felt missing.
Sometimes CEN stems from caregivers who were struggling — with their own mental health, addiction, trauma, or emotionally distant upbringings. In other cases, it can arise in busy or large families where emotional connection simply wasn’t modelled or prioritised.
However it showed up for you, the effects of CEN often ripple into adulthood — shaping how you see yourself, relate to others, and move through the world. But it’s not your fault. And it is possible to understand what happened, reconnect with your emotional self, and begin to feel differently.
It makes sense if these experiences have left a mark – and it’s not your fault.
I can support you to make sense of your experiences, grieve the relationship you didn’t have (but deeply needed and deserved), and begin to heal from this often-invisible form of relational trauma.
Drawing on extensive research, training and clinical experience, we’ll work at your pace to help you:
☑︎ Gently explore your inner emotional world — without fear of being ‘too much’.
☑︎ Name, understand and express your feelings.
☑︎ Get comfortable with having needs — and letting them matter.
☑︎ Reconnect with your body’s signals and build a stronger mind-body connection.
☑︎ Rebuild your sense of self, identity, and capacity for authentic connection.
One of my greatest privileges as a therapist is walking alongside clients as they grow self-compassion, inner trust, and a felt sense of emotional safety.
When you learn to tune into your emotions – rather than shut them down – you begin to reconnect with your intuition, understand what truly matters to you, and make choices that align with your needs and values. It can be life-changing.