Episode 78: Type C to Type D: A Therapist’s Honest Look at Building Your New Normal with Leonore Tjia
This week I'm bringing back a conversation that has stayed with me since we first recorded it, and repositioning it inside our Building Your New Normal arc, because it's the piece that unlocks what this quarter is really about.
My guest is Leonore Tjia, a field guide to the inner world who helps people transform their emotional and relational patterns. Full disclosure: Leonore has also been my therapist for the last seven years.
We talk about Type C patterns, the conflict avoidance, people pleasing, and emotional suppression many high achievers live inside without naming it. And we talk about the shift Leonore and I call moving from Type C to Type D: learning to differentiate instead of merge, to hold a boundary without losing the relationship, and to let your own needs matter as much as everyone else's.
If you've ever wondered what a real transformation journey looks like from the inside, not the highlight reel version, this is it.
In this episode, Kathy and Leonore discuss:
Where empathy and high sensitivity come from, and why they can be both a gift and a liability
The difference between merging with someone and truly meeting them
Four ways Type C patterns show up specifically in relationships
What it actually feels like to move from Type C to Type D
If Leonore was a tincture, what effect would she want to have on someone?
Seduction; allowing the ingestor to experience deep ancestral awakenings
More About Leonore and Rewilding the Heart:
Learn more about Leonore on Linkedin
Visit Leonore’s website
I am a Marriage and Family Therapist trainee who is interested in the intersection of sex, intimacy and complex trauma. I work with many people who identify as Highly Sensitive, LGBTQ+, kinky, and/or polyamorous or ethically non-monogamous, who might just want a therapist who can be affirming around these subjects while working on other concerns.
I came to psychotherapy after spending most of my 20s as a sexuality educator, learning through direct experience about the shame and suffering many people go through around sex and relationships. I also learned about resilience, shame healing, and the power of collective liberation. I hold a deep commitment to therapy and other kinds of healing work that help people liberate life force and break free of sexuality/gender oppression. I also see this as merely one step in the greater change work of transforming race, able-body, and class-based oppression.
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