How to Love Your Partner in Their Shadows While Setting Boundaries

Join our new Masterclass offering for couples wanting to reopen their hearts after conflict. 👉Sign up HERE: https://www.thesacredwe.com/rupture-a... There is a moment early in Mike and Courtney's relationship that Courtney describes in this episode. She was crying in the car. And she turned to Mike and said: "This is part of my shadow. I am so afraid of men. There is a fierce protector in me that has had to fight so hard. And you are going to be dancing with that. Are you okay with that?" And Mike said yes. That conversation -- that choosing -- is what this entire episode is about. In this episode, Mike and Courtney get deeply honest. Mike shares his shadow: the freeze and numbness that comes from losing two primary attachments before he turned 14 months old. The way his body learned to stop showing signs that it wanted connection. The way he can look blank, far away, uninterested -- even when he is aching for closeness. And what Courtney has had to learn to do with that. Courtney shares her shadow: the fierce protector that formed in a childhood where she had to fight hard to protect herself from masculine energy that hurt her. The way that Mike -- strong, powerful, embodied Mike -- can trigger that protector in ways that are completely disproportionate to anything he's actually doing. And what Mike has had to learn to do with that. And then they go into the real work. Not just love. Not just tolerance. Not just patience. But how to actually be in a boundaried, clear, tender, growing relationship with a partner's shadow -- in a way that doesn't enable it, doesn't collapse under it, and doesn't destroy what you're building. Go Deeper With Mike & Courtney 🔥 The Initiated Man -- Mike's online men's community for men who are ready to understand their own shadows, break inherited patterns, and become the embodied men they know they can be. https://www.itsmikeelliott.com/TIM 💚 Work With Mike & Courtney -- Private couples work and individual containers for those ready to do the deep work together. https://www.thesacredwe.com/thesacredwe 📬 Questions: [email protected] 👉Sign up for our couples list HERE: https://www.thesacredwe.com/thesacredwe 💛 Work with Mike & Courtney 2:2 →https://www.thesacredwe.com/2-2-conta... Work with Mike → ⁠https://www.itsmikeelliott.com/coaching⁠ Work with Courtney → ⁠https://www.courtneywren.com/rebirth⁠ 📺Subscribe to our YouTube Channel → ⁠   / @thetogetherpodcast⁠   🏹Join the Initiated Man →https://www.itsmikeelliott.com/TIM Donation link 👇🙏🏼❤️🌏 ⁠⁠https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted... Email: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠ ⁠[email protected]⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠www.itsmikeelliott.com⁠⁠⁠ https://www.thesacredwe.com/thesacredwe ⁠www.courtneywren.com⁠ Instagram: @MikeElliott.Relating @courtneywren.relating #SacredWe #shadowwork #consciousrelationship #initiatedman #sacredrelating #attachmenthealing #nervoussystemhealing #lovewithboundaries #intimacy #relationalhealing #consciouscouples #healing