Nick Woodall
@nickwoodall.bsky.social
Psychodynamic psychotherapist (MA). Partner at Family Separation Clinic. Specialising in childhood relational trauma.
'[D]isorganized attachment in infancy and early childhood is recognized as a powerful predictor for serious psychopathology and maladjustment in children. Children with disorganized attachment are more vulnerable to stress, have problems with regulation and control of...
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July 31, 2025 at 1:39 PM
'[D]isorganized attachment in infancy and early childhood is recognized as a powerful predictor for serious psychopathology and maladjustment in children. Children with disorganized attachment are more vulnerable to stress, have problems with regulation and control of...
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'[F]or all babies, there is a developmentally appropriate drive and evolutionary need to push difficult emotions, such as fear, panic, and rage, into the mother such that she *feels* the emotion.'
June 15, 2025 at 3:04 PM
'[F]or all babies, there is a developmentally appropriate drive and evolutionary need to push difficult emotions, such as fear, panic, and rage, into the mother such that she *feels* the emotion.'
'The boy identified himself with the teacher's anger and copied his expression as he spoke (...) Through his grimaces he was assimilating himself to or identifying himself with the dreaded external object.'
Freud, A. (2018). The ego and mechanisms of defence. Routledge.
Freud, A. (2018). The ego and mechanisms of defence. Routledge.
June 9, 2025 at 2:17 PM
'The boy identified himself with the teacher's anger and copied his expression as he spoke (...) Through his grimaces he was assimilating himself to or identifying himself with the dreaded external object.'
Freud, A. (2018). The ego and mechanisms of defence. Routledge.
Freud, A. (2018). The ego and mechanisms of defence. Routledge.
'The child’s sense of agency, identity, and integrity of self are diminished in the process of identification with the aggressor. The child, experiencing her—or himself as an object of use for the caretaker, rather than as a person of intrinsic value, becomes highly...
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May 7, 2025 at 6:46 PM
'The child’s sense of agency, identity, and integrity of self are diminished in the process of identification with the aggressor. The child, experiencing her—or himself as an object of use for the caretaker, rather than as a person of intrinsic value, becomes highly...
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'[P]erturbations in infant-attachment appear to induce immediate neurobiological changes that shape subsequent development and lead to neurobehavioral dysregulation associated with compromised emotionality and increased vulnerability to psychopathology during...
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April 30, 2025 at 9:43 AM
'[P]erturbations in infant-attachment appear to induce immediate neurobiological changes that shape subsequent development and lead to neurobehavioral dysregulation associated with compromised emotionality and increased vulnerability to psychopathology during...
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'[T]he question of first importance is the preservation or, if lost, the restoration of psychic wholeness, the safeguarding of the basic natural dynamic unity of the psyche developing its potential as a true personal self.'
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April 13, 2025 at 3:15 PM
'[T]he question of first importance is the preservation or, if lost, the restoration of psychic wholeness, the safeguarding of the basic natural dynamic unity of the psyche developing its potential as a true personal self.'
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‘The parents' state of mind with respect to attachment will be profoundly influenced by whatever developmental traumas were most significant for them - including developmental experiences of parental traumatizing narcissism.’
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March 29, 2025 at 4:41 PM
‘The parents' state of mind with respect to attachment will be profoundly influenced by whatever developmental traumas were most significant for them - including developmental experiences of parental traumatizing narcissism.’
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'There are degrees of false self. At the pathological extreme there is "the truly split-off compliant False Self which is taken for the whole child." Because the true self; being totally hidden, can have no relationship to reality, life itself becomes futile.'
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March 20, 2025 at 5:46 PM
'There are degrees of false self. At the pathological extreme there is "the truly split-off compliant False Self which is taken for the whole child." Because the true self; being totally hidden, can have no relationship to reality, life itself becomes futile.'
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'My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the parents. Don’t you see that the converse is equally valid. I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children. This...
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March 11, 2025 at 2:26 PM
'My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the parents. Don’t you see that the converse is equally valid. I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children. This...
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Reposted by Nick Woodall
Yesterday, we met with the EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture, and Sport Glenn Micallef to push for stronger action on missing children.
1) Here's what we spoke about. 🧵
1) Here's what we spoke about. 🧵
February 18, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Yesterday, we met with the EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture, and Sport Glenn Micallef to push for stronger action on missing children.
1) Here's what we spoke about. 🧵
1) Here's what we spoke about. 🧵
'[T]he child’s sense of agency, identity, and integrity of self are diminished in the process of identification with the aggressor. The child, experiencing her—or himself as an object of use for the caretaker, rather than as a person of intrinsic value, becomes highly...
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February 19, 2025 at 4:55 PM
'[T]he child’s sense of agency, identity, and integrity of self are diminished in the process of identification with the aggressor. The child, experiencing her—or himself as an object of use for the caretaker, rather than as a person of intrinsic value, becomes highly...
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Reposted by Nick Woodall
For #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek we’ve made a video for mental health practitioners about Developmental Language Disorder! #DevLangDis affects 7% of ppl, and is over represented in MH settings. We introduce DLD and have tips for making MH support more accessible. Please share! youtu.be/Ko6sFea3v0w?...
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): a guide for mental heath practitioners
YouTube video by RADLD
youtu.be
February 5, 2025 at 6:56 AM
For #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek we’ve made a video for mental health practitioners about Developmental Language Disorder! #DevLangDis affects 7% of ppl, and is over represented in MH settings. We introduce DLD and have tips for making MH support more accessible. Please share! youtu.be/Ko6sFea3v0w?...
The work we do with children focuses on healing the relational trauma they have suffered, in the care of a parent with harmful behaviours, in order to help the child inhabit their authentic selves rather than the defensive false self that the abuse has produced #psychotherapy
February 7, 2025 at 5:01 PM
The work we do with children focuses on healing the relational trauma they have suffered, in the care of a parent with harmful behaviours, in order to help the child inhabit their authentic selves rather than the defensive false self that the abuse has produced #psychotherapy
‘Parents who had abused their children identified themselves as being particularly likely to use projection, displacement, passive-aggressiveness denial, and splitting to a degree greater than normal persons or patients with anxiety disorders.’
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January 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
‘Parents who had abused their children identified themselves as being particularly likely to use projection, displacement, passive-aggressiveness denial, and splitting to a degree greater than normal persons or patients with anxiety disorders.’
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'[F]ailing to find himself in his mother's mind, [he] finds the mother instead. The infant is forced to internalize the representation of the object's state of mind as a core part of himself. But in such cases the internalized other remains alien and unconnected to the...
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January 5, 2025 at 3:21 PM
'[F]ailing to find himself in his mother's mind, [he] finds the mother instead. The infant is forced to internalize the representation of the object's state of mind as a core part of himself. But in such cases the internalized other remains alien and unconnected to the...
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When those who have the power to shape and disseminate the narrative are also those leading ideological campaigns against the protection of children, the #FamilyCourt transparency project simply becomes a tool for creating misinformation #FamilyLaw - www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...
December 23, 2024 at 7:34 PM
When those who have the power to shape and disseminate the narrative are also those leading ideological campaigns against the protection of children, the #FamilyCourt transparency project simply becomes a tool for creating misinformation #FamilyLaw - www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...
The Sara Sharif case reminds us that the outright rejection of a parent by a child is a significant red flag for abuse that must be thoroughly investigated #FamilyLaw #FamilyCourt #ChildProtection Read: www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-c...
December 17, 2024 at 11:08 PM
The Sara Sharif case reminds us that the outright rejection of a parent by a child is a significant red flag for abuse that must be thoroughly investigated #FamilyLaw #FamilyCourt #ChildProtection Read: www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-c...
There are some bargains to be had at the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis December online book auction (although postage to Europe may be prohibitive) philadelphia-school-psychoanalys.betterworld.org/auctions/dec...
December Book Auction by Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis
philadelphia-school-psychoanalys.betterworld.org
December 12, 2024 at 12:29 PM
There are some bargains to be had at the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis December online book auction (although postage to Europe may be prohibitive) philadelphia-school-psychoanalys.betterworld.org/auctions/dec...
'If the child must turn to the very parent who inflicts abuse and who is felt as bad for relief of the distress that the parent has caused, then the child must break with what has been experienced and out of a desperate need for rescue, must register...
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December 11, 2024 at 2:06 PM
'If the child must turn to the very parent who inflicts abuse and who is felt as bad for relief of the distress that the parent has caused, then the child must break with what has been experienced and out of a desperate need for rescue, must register...
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'A person who tends to externalise may be profoundly disturbed by the oppression of small countries, while unaware of how much he himself feels oppressed. He may not feel his own despair but will emotionally experience it in others.'
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December 2, 2024 at 1:00 PM
'A person who tends to externalise may be profoundly disturbed by the oppression of small countries, while unaware of how much he himself feels oppressed. He may not feel his own despair but will emotionally experience it in others.'
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'Like other victims, abused children experience significant psychological distress and dysfunction. Unlike adults, however, they are traumatized during the most critical period of their lives: when assumptions about self, others, and the world are being...
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November 20, 2024 at 7:48 PM
'Like other victims, abused children experience significant psychological distress and dysfunction. Unlike adults, however, they are traumatized during the most critical period of their lives: when assumptions about self, others, and the world are being...
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‘The False Self has one positive and very important function: to hide the True Self, which it does by compliance with environmental demands.'
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November 20, 2024 at 10:44 AM
‘The False Self has one positive and very important function: to hide the True Self, which it does by compliance with environmental demands.'
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'[Splitting] compartmentalizes and sequesters certain overwhelming and painful ego states accompanying negative introjects of the betraying primary object and the betrayed self. These sequestered introjects, furthermore, act as automatons, generating behaviors that arbitrarily...
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November 19, 2024 at 7:12 PM
'[Splitting] compartmentalizes and sequesters certain overwhelming and painful ego states accompanying negative introjects of the betraying primary object and the betrayed self. These sequestered introjects, furthermore, act as automatons, generating behaviors that arbitrarily...
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