By Anna McKenzie

Post Induction Therapy (PIT) is a therapeutic roadmap for identifying, conceptualizing, and sustaining ongoing recovery from codependency. It’s a way to directly intervene on the five core issues, secondary symptoms, and relational issues defined by the Model of Developmental Immaturity, which charts the impact of codependency. Resolving codependency can restore your sense of self, foster healthy relationships, and offer freedom from addiction.

All About Post Induction Therapy

While most people may not be familiar with Post Induction Therapy, many are familiar with the term codependency. Codependency stems from the relationship between a child and their primary caregiver, where the overwhelming feelings of the caregiver overflow onto the child. The child becomes focused on ensuring the caregiver’s emotional well-being and neglects their own well-being. When the child grows up, they tend to enable negative or addictive behavior in others and may develop their own. The neglect of their personal needs hampers their emotional maturity and ability to cope with life’s challenges.

As early as the 1970s, Meadows Senior Fellow Pia Mellody recognized that the addictive behavior of individuals in addiction treatment had roots in codependency and a fragmented sense of self. From this information, she created the Model of Developmental Immaturity, which is used at The Meadows to foster awareness of the self. Mellody’s Post Induction Therapy is designed to facilitate the personal growth process and a reconnection to the authentic self so that individuals can respond to the world from the position of a functional, mature adult who engages in self-love, self-protection, self-awareness, self-care, and self-containment.

“Post Induction Therapy supports healing for anyone whose childhood was less than nurturing and/or experienced as shaming. ‘Post Induction’ refers to how to treat someone ‘post,’ meaning ‘after’ shame or other emotions have been induced into the child. The idea of carried emotions is a core element of PIT,” explains Deirdre Stewart, Vice President of Trauma Resolution Services at Meadows Behavioral Healthcare.

“Throughout our growing-up years, we have not yet developed strong internal boundaries. Therefore, when a major caregiver is in denial of or overwhelmed with an emotion, they will inadvertently leak it, and the child will absorb this energy,” says Stewart. “Our own emotions support growth, healing, and connection to our humanity. Carried emotions are experienced in the extreme and will feel overwhelming.”

When children are raised in an environment unable to meet their needs, Stewart says they do not stop loving their parents. Instead, she says, “They stop loving themselves.” To stay connected to their caregiver, children learn to disconnect from their authentic selves. “This creates the core issues that are specifically addressed in PIT.”

When children grow up in an environment that is unable to meet their needs, the child does not stop loving their parents; they stop loving themselves.

Deirdre Stewart, Vice President of Trauma Resolutions at Meadows Behavioral Healthcare

What Does Post Induction Therapy Work Look Like?

Post Induction Therapy `consists of psychoeducation, written work, and experiential processing. It’s about getting to the truth of what happened and how it may have impacted you. It is an experience that enables you to:

• Get an accurate history of your life
• Get realistic about relational trauma
• Hold your main caregiver accountable
• Reparent wounded and adapted parts of the self

Experiential work of holding the main caregiver accountable is done from the place of the functional adult, which includes relationality and respect. You hold their behavior accountable and assess its impact; you do not assign blame or demean that person’s value or worth as a human being.

PIT psychoeducation is about how you experience arrested development and get wounded from pronounced experiences. As a result of these experiences, you are more susceptible to triggering yourself when that wound is reactivated.

Both the Model of Developmental Immaturity and PIT are focused on getting to the truth and living in the truth. They foster rigorous honesty. “PIT also explores and treats abuse — whether it is overt/covert, physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, religious, spiritual, or intellectual — neglect, abandonment, and enmeshment, which have a proven impact on early development and the organizing self,” says Stewart.

Benefits of Post Induction Therapy

When you engage in Post Induction Therapy, you can experience the following benefits:

• A stronger sense of self — a more embodied sense of agency and ability to love, protect, honor, care for, and contain the self
• Stronger boundaries, as well as the ability to engage in optimal self-care and explore any challenges to self-care
• The ability to discharge carried emotions, freeing up space internally to be more fully present to your reality and life experience
• The chance to grieve the loss of what you needed and deserved
• The capacity to live more in the truth of who you are — inherently valuable and worthy of love, connection, intimacy, and abundance
• The ability to be relational, connect with yourself, and share your vulnerability with others
• The ability to self-regulate in the moments in which you feel triggered or wounded
• The opportunity to identify wounded and adapted parts of yourself that need re-parenting
• The capacity to live from a place of truth and power instead of reaction

Find Healing at The Meadows

Post Induction Therapy is for anyone who has experienced relational trauma, including, but not limited to, abandonment, neglect, enmeshment, and abuse. At The Meadows, you can experience PIT and recover from the impact of codependency. If you’re struggling with addiction, shame, and mental health issues, our team is ready to help you find healing and restoration. You can reconnect with your authentic self and learn to thrive again. Contact us today to learn more.