Did you or anyone you know play a childhood role like the Golden Child, the Scapegoat, or the Lost Child? Well, I have learned none of these roles have anything to do with who we really are underneath that trauma. Awakening to the reality of these roles, and healing from them, brings unique challenges for each. I believe the solution to the illusion of the trauma roles lies in seeking the mix of healing modalities that work to reparent oneself and save one’s inner child. When it finally hurts badly enough to do something about it, when life has become unmanageable, the choice becomes to heal or die. Hopefully, we can act before it gets to that extreme. Staying in the dysfunctional family trauma roles, instead of discovering our true selves, keeps us in the illusion that the roles are us. But the roles are not Real. This episode ends with a reading of The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real, by Margery Williams, in its entirety. I believe revisiting these stories can be helpful in the process of reparenting yourself and nurturing and empowering your inner child. It says the audience is ages 4 to 8, and 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of its publishing. It is healing from extremes and finding the middle path that will lead me to the Real me, in my opinion. How are you finding the Real you?