When Your Child’s Emotions Mirror Your Own: The Double Invitation to Heal

When Your Child’s Emotions Mirror Your Own: The Double Invitation to Heal
For every moment you comfort your child, there's a chance to comfort the part of you that never felt held.

By Jessica Hicks, Truth Love and Connection

There are moments in parenting that pierce straight through—when your child bursts into tears over something small, or recoils from noise, or crumbles under pressure. And while your instinct is to comfort them, there’s often another feeling that rises in the background: something unspoken, something old.

A memory. A familiar ache.
A flash of your own childhood.

This is the double invitation:
To hold your child and—at the same time—to hold yourself.

Highly sensitive children often reflect the inner terrain of their sensitive parents. And when they struggle with big emotions, it can reawaken the places inside us where our own emotions weren’t welcomed or soothed. Maybe you were told to “toughen up,” or learned early to swallow your feelings so you wouldn’t overwhelm those around you.

When your child cries and you feel irritation, or freeze, or shame—pause. Ask:
What did I need when I was that age?
What was I told about my own sensitivity?

This isn’t about blame. It’s about recognition. And from recognition, comes repair.

You can break the cycle.
Not by being perfect—but by being present.
By showing up for your child with compassion, and then turning that same kindness inward.

Healing doesn’t always come from doing something big.
Sometimes it’s as simple as sitting beside your child while they cry—and realizing, maybe for the first time, that it’s okay to cry, too.

Reflection Prompt:

“When was the last time I soothed someone else, but abandoned myself?"
"What would it look like to stay with both of us next time?”

What if parenting your child is also an invitation to re-parent yourself?
If you’re on a healing path, our immersion-style guided meditations and self-reflection tools offer powerful support. And our Navigating Sensitivity Program will walk you through the deeper process of reconnecting with your truth, your needs, and your nervous system—all at your own pace.