Have you ever wondered or been told that you are Co-Dependent but don’t really know what that means? Co-Dependency includes many different behaviors, but in essence, it refers to having an unhealthy dependence on another person to meet your needs. Those needs could be physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, or sexual in nature.

Almost all humans have acted in a co-dependent manner at some point in our lives since our world and society are set up in such a way that we need other people to survive. Co-Dependency goes beyond these necessary dependencies for survival, such as depending on your boss for a paycheck and enters into a dysfunctional relationship with another person or multiple people.

Co-Dependent relationships can involve friends, family, romantic relationships, coworkers, and even strangers, and can lead to a “Laundry List” of dysfunctional behaviors. Most of these behaviors were learned in childhood in order to survive a chaotic family system, see some examples of different Family Types that can produce co-dependent behaviors.

This does not only include children raised in alcoholic/addict homes, as everyone experienced some form of dysfunction in their family, even if they were raised by loving parents. This is simply the nature of the family unit and “group dynamics.”

These unhealthy behaviors learned in childhood were then inadvertently repeated in adult relationships. Here are some examples of different Patterns & Characteristics taken from Co-Dependents Anonymous, a 12 Step fellowship focused on helping people develop healthy relationships.

My goal as your Therapist is to help you first identify your co-dependent behaviors and then teach you how to change those patterns to start choosing and creating healthy relationships – but the first and most important relationship to master is the one with yourself! This type of therapeutic work can include Self Love/Self Esteem, Adult Child, and Reparenting/Inner Child Work. Basically, you will learn how to become your own loving parent to your wounded inner child – which is you.