Belonging
The sense that you fit somewhere as you are — one of the basic human needs.
How it shows up
It isn’t the same as company. You can be among people and not belong. Belonging requires being seen, not only accepted — being accepted as an adapted version of yourself doesn’t create belonging.
What we do with it in therapy
It often turns out you’ve been paying for belonging with adaptation. The work goes towards testing whether the relationship holds you too.
See also
Roles in the family
The unwritten tasks individual members take on so that the system stays in balance.
Co-parenting
Parents working together on raising their children after a separation — a relationship that remains, although the partnership has ended.
Attachment
The pattern by which we move closer and pull away in relationships — learned in childhood, repeated in adulthood.
