Is there a definitive sign in adults of childhood maltreatment? A peek inside the world of internet “therapy.”

CATEGORY: POPULAR CULTURE

Patrick Teahan, LICSW, Childhood Trauma Therapist YouTuber

Source: NBC Today
Read time: 2.1 minutes plus 30-second video
 
This Happened
In a TikTok video in August 2024, social worker Patrick Teahan asserted that there is a definitive sign of childhood trauma.
 
Who Did This?
Patrick Teahan, LICSW, is a clinical social worker who developed a large social media following by focusing on childhood trauma. His claim to expertise is based partly on his own childhood during which he endured a narcissistic parent “trauma.” His YouTube channel has dozens of videos, nearly all on childhood trauma, and 763,000 subscribers. His personal website offers a monthly subscription of $69.99 which provides twice per month Zoom calls for group Q&A sessions, access to his library of pre-recorded “E-courses,” weekly journaling prompts by email, and the opportunity to connect with other subscribers in an online “Monthly Healing Community.”
Teahan was the center of a mild controversy in July 2024 when clinicians criticized his tendency to recommend clients cut off all contact with difficult parents, what he calls “going no-contact” (see here and here)
 
The Claim
The TikTok video was a brief clip from a longer conversation during an episode on The Dr. Ramani Network, a podcast run by psychologist Ramani Durvasula, a specialist in narcissism.
 
Durvasula: What do you consider to be the definitive sign of childhood trauma?
Teahan: I think for a lot of us it’s about trying to get the difficult person to be good to us in our adult lives.
Durvasula: (Interrupting) Wait! Say that again! Say that again. That’s so important. Say that again.
Teahan: A definitive sign of childhood trauma is about trying to get a difficult person to be good to us.
Durvasula: So, that’s it, right? I mean that right there. If we stop the show right here, you just gave us wisdom for the ages, right?
 
When the video garnered over 4.8 million views and nearly 500,000 likes, a health reporter for NBC’s Today show declared, “Teahan's answer was a mic-drop moment for many.” When the reporter interviewed Teahan, he explained that individuals who grew up with difficult parents become so interpersonally warped that their “inner child” is trying to please difficult people in the present just as they tried to please their parents in childhood.

Analysis
Teahan is among a large group of clinicians who believe that almost any type of everyday stressor qualifies as “trauma.” This contrasts with the definition used in posttraumatic stress disorder in which traumas are life-threatening events. According to Teahan, narcissistic mothers who are self-absorbed and criticize their children are a form of trauma and childhood maltreatment. His overly expansive use of trauma is consistent with the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) narrative which also conflates stress with trauma.
 
There is no such thing as a definitive sign of any childhood event. The claim is logically and scientifically hollow. Many people try to please difficult people and experienced neither true childhood trauma nor narcissistic parents. Also, many people have suffered childhood trauma or narcissistic parents, and do not have trouble dealing with difficult people.
 
Teahan’s methods of reaching his audience include videos of him playing guitar and drums, singing, dancing, role playing as narcissistic parents, and dressing up as the famous painter Bob Ross. If you do not share Teahan’s worldview or disagree with his teaching methods, he seems easy to dismiss. Below is a clip from one of his videos showing his many talents:

But simply dismissing him would miss the context that he is obviously popular. A substantial portion of the population shares his worldview and desires his unique way of blaming parents for their adult relational problems.
 
Why Did This Happen?
Teahan is among a growing group of clinicians who are trying to make their living as internet experts. They do not provide therapy. Instead, they use their clinical expertise to coach, enlighten, and entertain.
The attractiveness of the TikTok video seems partly due to the underlying ideology of the claim. By asserting childhood trauma can make permanent changes to one’s personal relationship style, it assumes that humans are highly fragile. This is the same ideology of other false claims that have great appeal to a segment of the population including the bestseller book The Body Keeps the Score (see here), the contrived complex PTSD disorder, and the ACE movement (see here). These are all provably wrong but that is not a concern for some individuals whose personal worldviews are seamless with these fabricated worlds.