The mindbodygreen Podcast 634: Healing inner-child wounds you didn’t know you had | Nicole LePera, Ph.D. (The Holistic Psychologist)
Mar 29, 2026
Nicole LePera, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and creator of The Holistic Psychologist movement, shares her work on reparenting and self-healing. She talks about recognizing inner-child reactions, how lacking emotional support becomes trauma, nervous-system roots of intense feelings, epigenetic patterns, and practical steps to begin reparenting and building emotional resilience.
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Tell Kids Your Reaction Was Not Their Fault
- Take ownership and explicitly tell children when your reaction was about you, not them.
- LePera recommends statements like I overreacted and it had nothing to do with your worth to prevent internalized shame.
Reparent By Teaching Your Nervous System Safety
- Reparent by noticing triggers, listening to the inner child, and teaching new nervous system responses.
- LePera frames reparenting as shifting from insight to practicing safety and new choices in real time.
You May Inherit Survival Wiring From Ancestors
- Some survival patterns may be epigenetically transmitted and predate your family environment.
- LePera explains adaptations meant for past generations can remain wired into nervous systems despite changed contexts.
