Six wounds, which one is yours?
Ever notice yourself pulling away when things get too close?
Or feeling like you have to do everything on your own?
Or maybe you’re always chasing closeness, trying to prove your worth, or struggling to feel free in relationships?
These patterns aren’t random. They’re likely part of your character strategy.
The concept of character strategies comes from psychotherapy, where it was observed that we all develop emotional coping styles in response to early relational wounds.
The Somatica® method in which I’m trained, builds on this foundation with a body-based, relational, and pleasure-centered approach.
A character strategy forms when a specific emotional task in childhood - like trusting others, depending on someone, or feeling safe being vulnerable - gets disrupted.
The wound around that task becomes the seed of a lifelong pattern designed to keep us emotionally safe and connected. These patterns are brilliant, adaptive responses to situations that once felt overwhelming or unsafe.
Let me introduce you to the six main character strategies we work with - each one named after the wound it carries:
✨ Unsafe
✨ Under-Dependent
✨ Over-Dependent
✨ Unfree
✨ Invulnerable
✨ Unworthy
The names of the strategies are based on the wound, not the person. So if you have the “Unworthy” strategy, it doesn’t mean you are unworthy - it means they carry an early wound around not feeling worthy.
These names are invitations to understanding, not labels to get stuck in.
One of the most helpful things about knowing your strategy is that it gives you a clearer map to your core desires which is your pathway to healing through pleasure.
It also helps make sense of relationship dynamics - why certain things feel so triggering, why you keep ending up in the same stuck places, and how to move forward with more compassion.
Rather than trying to fix these strategies, we support healing - by identifying and fulfilling your core desires: the emotional longings that didn’t get met when your strategy formed.
You might already have a sense just from the names. Which one do you think might be your most dominant one (you might have more than one)?
Stay tuned for more about each one of those characters.