Heather Coleman, LCSW, a psychotherapist practicing in NY, NJ and CT, describes the way to start working with the inner critical parent voice (or inner critic) and to develop an internal loving parental voice. The ACoA can begin the journey of reparenting themselves with care, love and support.

Adult children of alcoholics often lie when it would be easier to tell the truth. How does this happen? Parents model behavior to their own children; if you consider that alcoholism often includes deception, secrecy and twisted truths, then you can see the straight line from kids observing their parents behavior and then mimicking that behavior themselves. Moreover, in alcoholic homes, it may have been unsafe for children to tell the truth.