← All stories
Psychology

Boundaries Expert Says Adults Carry Childhood Inability to Set Boundaries into Adulthood

Begin Again with Davina McCall · How Childhood Shapes Your Boundaries and How to Change! · July 16, 2026
Boundaries Expert Says Adults Carry Childhood Inability to Set Boundaries into Adulthood
Begin Again with Davina McCall
Begin Again with Davina McCall
How Childhood Shapes Your Boundaries and How to Change!
"Having boundaries requires emotional safety. Or at least physical safety. Yeah, so for kids who are not emotionally safe where they have a caregiver who understands, respects, listens, shows some level of concern, they can't have boundaries. There are some people who grow up in households where where, you know, parents might even say to them, 'You can't say that to me. You have to listen to me. You can't question this.'"
Nedra Glover Tauab explains that children raised without emotional safety cannot develop healthy boundaries, and this deficit persists into adulthood. She reveals that authoritarian parenting styles that forbid children from questioning or pushing back create adults who struggle with assertiveness. Tauab emphasizes that much of her therapeutic work involves teaching adults they now have permission to set boundaries they were denied as children.
From this episode
Begin Again with Davina McCall
Begin Again with Davina McCall

How Childhood Shapes Your Boundaries and How to Change!

August 3, 2026 · 1h 3m · 5 Egleze moments
Read episode summary and key points →

More moments from this episode

PsychologyTherapist Reveals Silent Treatment as Emotional Neglect Tactic Used by Her Alcoholic FatherPsychologyTherapist Says Hyper-Independence Is an Awkward Superpower Born From Childhood NeglectPsychologyTherapist Warns Codependency Becomes Particularly Damaging When It Spans Multiple Relationships SimultaneouslyPsychologyPsychologist Reveals Parents Project Their Own Childhood Trauma Onto Children Who Resemble Them
More stories More from Begin Again with Davina McCall