Post Induction Therapy: healing the wounds that shaped how you love
Experiential therapy for the childhood wounds at the root of codependency, relational patterns, and self-worth.
What is PIT?
Post Induction Therapy (PIT) is a specialized trauma treatment model developed by Pia Mellody at The Meadows that addresses the childhood relational wounds underlying codependency, low self-worth, and dysfunctional relationship patterns. By working experientially with the inner self-states that formed in response to early neglect, abuse, enmeshment, or abandonment, PIT helps adults develop the healthy adult self-state needed to reparent their wounded inner child. The goal is lasting change at the root rather than managing symptoms at the surface.
If you grew up in an environment where your emotional needs weren't consistently met, where boundaries were crossed or nonexistent, or where you learned to earn love by taking care of others, those early adaptations likely still shape how you show up in your relationships today. Often in ways that cause real pain. PIT helps you understand where those patterns came from, feel what you weren't able to feel then, and build the internal resources to live and love differently.
Unlike traditional talk therapy that focuses primarily on insight, PIT is experiential. We don't just talk about your childhood. We work with it directly through a carefully guided process that honors your nervous system and your pace.
I trained in this model directly at The Meadows, where I worked as a clinician. PIT training is now available exclusively to therapists who have worked at The Meadows directly, making practitioners with this credential genuinely rare in private practice. I use PIT alongside Somatic Experiencing to support deep, embodied healing.
“Healthy self-esteem is the internal experience of one’s own preciousness and value as a person.”
- Pia Mellody, developer of Post Induction Therapy
Pia Mellody's five core symptoms of codependency
Pia Mellody identified five core areas where childhood relational trauma disrupts healthy development. PIT works directly with each of these.
Self-esteem
Difficulty experiencing your own inherent worth, either feeling less than others, or compensating with grandiosity and perfectionism.
Boundaries
Trouble protecting yourself from others or containing your own energy, leading to walls, collapsed limits, or difficulty saying no.
Reality
Difficulty knowing and honoring your own thoughts, feelings, and needs, or struggling to distinguish your reality from others'.
Dependency
Trouble meeting your own needs and asking for help appropriately, swinging between neediness and fierce self-sufficiency.
Moderation
Difficulty with balance, showing up as all-or-nothing thinking, intensity in relationships, compulsive behaviors, or difficulty experiencing life in the middle ground.
Who benefits from PIT?
PIT may be especially helpful if you:
Struggle with codependency or chronic people-pleasing, giving endlessly while quietly losing yourself
Have difficulty setting or maintaining limits in relationships, at work, or with yourself
Feel responsible for other people's emotions and find it hard to separate their feelings from yours
Repeat painful relationship patterns that feel familiar but that you can't seem to change
Feel "too much" or "not enough": too sensitive, too needy, too intense, or fundamentally flawed
Were parentified or took on a caretaking role in your family growing up
Struggle to get to the root of addictive or compulsive behaviors and maintain lasting change
Want to heal your relationship with yourself, not just manage your symptoms
How PIT unfolds
PIT is woven into our work together gradually. It isn't a protocol we jump straight into, but a framework that emerges as trust, safety, and capacity are built over time. Early sessions focus on understanding your history, identifying your patterns, and developing the internal resources you'll need for deeper work. As that foundation grows, we begin working more directly with the parts of you that were shaped by early relational wounding.
As the work deepens, sessions may involve connecting to a younger part of you that carries shame, grief, or unmet longing, and offering that part something it didn't receive then. It might involve practicing what it feels like to have a limit, to say no, or to receive care without deflecting it. It might involve working with the healthy adult part of you that is learning to show up for the younger, wounded parts in a new way.
The experiential process
When the time is right, and only when you feel ready, PIT builds toward a powerful experiential process. In this work, you connect to your inner child and, from the grounded presence of your functional adult self, give voice to what you needed as a child and didn't receive. Using an empty chair process, you are able to express what was left unsaid, reclaim what was taken, and offer your younger self the care and validation that was missing. For many people, this is one of the most profound and transformative experiences of their healing journey.
A note on pacing and safety
This work can be tender and at times intense. But it is always guided, always boundaried, and always paced to honor what your system can hold. You are never pushed faster than feels safe, and I am with you every step of the way.
What to expect
FAQs
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Codependency is a set of patterns that develop when a child grows up in an environment that doesn't consistently meet their emotional needs. Rather than learning to know and honor their own feelings, needs, and limits, they learn to focus outward: managing others, earning love, or disappearing altogether. In adulthood this shows up as chronic people-pleasing, difficulty with limits, low self-worth, enmeshed or chaotic relationships, and a persistent sense of not being enough. Codependency isn't a personal failing. It's an adaptation. And it can be healed.
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No. Pia Mellody's model recognizes that relational trauma doesn't require dramatic abuse or crisis. Emotional neglect, inconsistent attunement, a parent who struggled with their own wounds, or a family system where certain feelings weren't allowed are all experiences that can shape the five core symptoms of codependency. Many people come to PIT saying "nothing that bad happened to me" and find that this work speaks directly to their experience anyway.
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PIT and IFS share some overlapping concepts. Both work with inner parts and both recognize that self-states formed in response to early wounding. PIT is specifically rooted in Pia Mellody's codependency framework and emphasizes the five core symptoms, reparenting, and the development of a functional adult self-state. It is also more explicitly somatic in its approach, which is why it pairs so naturally with Somatic Experiencing. We can work with the body and the inner child simultaneously.
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Most talk therapy works with insight: helping you understand your patterns, recognize where they came from, and develop strategies to manage them differently. That understanding is valuable. But for many people, especially those with relational trauma, insight alone isn't enough to create change. You can know exactly why you do something and still not be able to stop. PIT works at the experiential level, with the parts of you that hold the original wounds, which is often where the real shift happens.
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Yes. PIT can be done effectively via telehealth. The experiential work translates well to a video session. What matters most is the quality of the relationship and the safety of the container, both of which I work to cultivate carefully regardless of format.
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It varies considerably depending on the depth of the wounds and your goals. Some clients notice meaningful shifts within a few months. Deeper patterns rooted in early childhood trauma often benefit from longer-term work. We check in regularly on your progress and I'll always be honest with you about where we are and what I think would serve you best.
You don't have to keep repeating the same patterns.
If something here resonated, if you recognized yourself in the five core symptoms or in the "who benefits" list, I'd love to connect. Schedule a free 20-minute consultation and we'll talk about what you're carrying and whether PIT might be the right next step.