16/07/2026
What if the part of you you keep trying to eliminate is actually trying to protect you?
In my latest conversation with counselling psychologist Kristi De Young, she describes the psyche as an inner boardroom.
Around the table might sit your achiever, caretaker, perfectionist, anxious planner, confident self and the part of you longing to take a risk.
But the most powerful question may be: Who is not allowed in the room?
Which part of you learned she was too sensitive, too angry, too ambitious, too imperfect, too spiritual—or simply too much?
We explore Internal Family Systems, the core Self beneath our protective patterns, the body’s need for safety, and what becomes possible when we stop compartmentalising who we are.
Kristi shares that, as she began bringing her psychologist self and spiritual self together, a colleague told her: “I didn’t know we were allowed to be that.”
Sometimes our willingness to be fully ourselves becomes someone else’s permission.
Love to hear your thoughts once you have a listen and tell me, who as been waiting outside your inner boardroom?✨
What if your perfectionism, people-pleasing and anxiety are not proof that you are broken, but parts of you still working from an old set of instructions? None of these parts is inherently good or bad. Each has a history, a purpose and a perspective.
