We had a 60-minute office session today. Marcus came in looking pretty frustrated and said he's been noticing this pattern where he just explodes during conflict, and afterward he feels terrible about it. He said quote 'It's like I'm not even in control when it happens' unquote. We started exploring what was coming up for him in those moments, and he described this really intense angry part that he calls his 'protector.' It shows up whenever he feels criticized or attacked, and it just takes over.
We spent some time getting curious about that protector part, what it's trying to do for him. Marcus realized that it's actually trying to keep him safe, like it learned a long time ago that anger was the best defense. As we dug deeper, he started noticing a younger part underneath all that anger, a part that carries a lot of shame from when he was a kid and got bullied pretty badly. That younger part, the exiled part, has been buried under the protector's anger for years.
We worked on unblending from the angry protector, helping Marcus step back and notice it without being completely taken over by it. I guided him through connecting with his Self energy, that calmer, more grounded part of him, and we practiced having his Self talk to both the protector and the younger part. The protector was really worried that if it stepped back, Marcus would get hurt, so we reassured it that the Self could handle things now. By the end of the session, Marcus said he felt this sense of relief, like these parts weren't fighting each other as much. His homework is to notice when the protector shows up this week and try to check in with it from Self, just asking what it needs. We'll meet again next week to see how it goes and keep building that internal trust.
