Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN)

Childhood emotional neglect is harder to identify than abuse and physical neglect but can have just as much of a detrimental impact. Whereas abuse is active, emotional neglect is all about what should have happened and didn’t happen. It’s a failure to pay attention to, attune and respond to a child’s feelings. This doesn’t mean a parent didn’t love their child, they just may not have known how to respond to their child’s moods and emotions. People who have grown up with CEN often feel very lonely, unfulfilled, disconnected and empty, they can have difficulty knowing and trusting their own emotions and may have difficulties understanding the feelings of others. Because CEN is all about what didn’t happen to us it can be harder to remember and thus people often can’t explain why they feel the way they do and may thus blame themselves for their difficulties.

Some of us here at The Psychology Company have undertaken training in Childhood Emotional Neglect and work with clients who have grown up in emotionally neglectful families to give them a way of understanding their feelings and offer an explanation to their struggles.