When child is expressing something

• When child is expressing something that also belongs to you

Posted on by Muriel

When child is expressing something

What if your child is expressing something that also belongs to you?

A mother contacted me for a remote session because her two-year-old daughter had suddenly stopped sleeping well. She struggled to fall asleep and would often wake during the night crying.
As the session unfolded, I was guided to ask her mother what had happened about two and a half months earlier.
She paused for a moment and then replied:

“That was when I had a major anxiety attack. I later received support and worked through it. But now that I think about it, that’s also when Lili’s sleep problems began.”

Babies and young children are often incredibly sensitive to what is happening around them, especially to what their parents are going through.
Sometimes they seem to express, in their own way, a tension, worry, or shock that has affected the family. They may also add their own experience and sensitivity to it.

I have observed this often enough throughout my years of practice to invite parents to consider this possibility whenever a sudden change appears in their child.

Sometimes, it can be helpful to simply tell them:
“What happened belongs to me. I am taking care of it. You do not need to carry it or express it for me.”

In this little girl’s case, things settled down very quickly after the session.
Of course, every situation is different.
But when we look beyond the symptom and consider what is happening within the whole family system, some situations suddenly become much easier to understand.

Has this ever happened with your baby or young child?
I would be curious to hear your experience in the comments.

I work with adults, babies and children, both in person and online.

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Couching for relations and family

• When Setting a Boundary Heals a Relationship

Posted on by Muriel

Couching for relations and family

When Setting a Boundary Heals a Relationship

Sometimes, it creates a more peace.

There is a belief many of us carry without even realising it.

If I say no… I will hurt someone.
If I express what I really need… I may lose their love.

So we stay silent. We adapt. We say yes when our whole body is asking for no.

For a while, this may seem to preserve harmony.
But over time, something else begins to grow :
Resentment. Exhaustion. Distance.

And eventually, the relationship suffers anyway.

I remember a client who once told me:
“In my family, the same relationship struggles seem to repeat themselves from one generation to the next.”

She had grown up surrounded by conflicts that never truly healed. Family members stopped speaking to one another for years. Disagreements became permanent separations.
She desperately wanted a different story.

During our sessions, we didn’t focus on the people around her.
We focused on what was happening inside her.

Little by little, deeper layers emerged.
An almost automatic sense of responsibility for everyone else’s wellbeing.

The belief that keeping the peace was her job.
The fear that disappointing someone meant risking the relationship itself.

These weren’t conscious decisions.
They had become part of the way her nervous system had learned to keep her safe.

When the body carries this kind of imprint, saying “no” can feel far more threatening than it appears from the outside.

A few weeks later, she came back smiling.
“I finally had the conversation.”

She had spoken honestly.
Without anger. Without blame. Without guilt.
She simply expressed what she needed.

To her surprise, the other person listened.
Nothing became magically perfect. Relationships rarely work that way.
But something fundamental had changed.

For the first time, she had respected herself without attacking the other person.
For the first time, she experienced that a boundary is not a wall.

It is a clear line that allows two people to meet with more honesty.

This is something I often witness during the healing process : many people believe that healing is about feeling calmer or having fewer symptoms.

Of course, these changes matter.

But often the deepest transformation appears somewhere else.

In conversations.
In choices.
In the ability to remain connected without abandoning ourselves.

Because healthy boundaries are rarely about pushing people away.
They are about allowing relationships to exist without constantly sacrificing who we are.

And sometimes, when one person changes the way they relate, an old family pattern quietly begins to lose its power.

Not through confrontation.
Not through forcing anyone else to change.

But because one person has finally stopped carrying a role that never truly belonged to them.
Real healing often begins there.

One clear conversation.
One boundary.
One different choice.

And sometimes, that is enough to change the story for the generations that follow.

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Muriel Laradi holistic healing therapy

• No single practitioner can do everything. No one should have to walk their path alone.

Posted on by Muriel

Muriel Laradi holistic healing therapy

No single practitioner can do everything.

No one should have to walk their path alone.

Sometimes, during a session, I realise that my client would benefit from support from another professional as well.

It might be a psychologist, a doctor, a naturopath.
Or another practitioner.

I could pretend that one approach can address everything.
But that would neither be honest nor helpful.

Over more than 25 years of practice, I have learned that some of the deepest transformations happen when different approaches work together.

Each professional brings their own perspective, skills and tools.

My role is not to have all the answers.
My role is to accompany the person sitting in front of me as fully as I can, and sometimes that includes suggesting additional support.

This is not a limitation.
I see it as part of caring well for the person.

No single practitioner can do everything.

And no one should have to walk their path alone.

— Muriel Laradi

Kinesiology • Energy Work • Therapeutic Coaching
West Cork & Online