In today’s polarized world, it can feel especially painful when the people we love hold political beliefs that contradict our values—especially when those beliefs impact our identity, rights, or lived experience. Whether it’s a parent who dismisses LGBTQ+ rights, a friend who disagrees with reproductive freedom, or a sibling who sees the world through a completely different lens, navigating these differences can be deeply challenging. It can stir up deep emotional pain, confusion, or even fear.
At Brickel & Associates, LLC, we take a trauma-informed, inclusive, and nonjudgmental approach to these challenges. We affirm your full humanity—and that includes your emotional responses, your lived experiences, and even your uncertainty. You don’t have to minimize your beliefs to keep the peace, and you don’t have to cut relationships that feel complicated. Therapy can help you make sense of the conflict and chart your own compassionate, values-aligned path forward.
1. Honor Your Feelings—They’re Valid
When someone you care about holds views that feel harmful or dismissive, the emotional response can be intense. It may bring up grief, anger, anxiety, or past trauma. These reactions aren’t “overreactions”—they’re rooted in real-life experience, and they’re deeply human.
If you’re someone who has experienced marginalization or trauma, those political disagreements can feel like emotional re-wounding. If you’re not sure what you believe or feel caught in the middle of polarized views, that uncertainty deserves just as much care and compassion.
It’s okay to feel angry, hurt, disappointed, or even betrayed. When political differences touch on fundamental parts of your identity or safety, it’s not “just a difference of opinion”—it can feel personal, because it is.
You’re allowed to grieve the gap between who you hoped someone was and who they reveal themselves to be. Therapy offers a safe, nonjudgmental space to process these emotions without being told to “just agree to disagree.”
In therapy, there’s no pressure to take sides or defend your position. There’s simply space to feel and process without judgment.
2. Clarify and Honor Your Boundaries
Boundaries are not about cutting people off or being “unforgiving”—they’re about staying safe, grounded, and emotionally intact. A trauma-informed lens helps you notice where your nervous system feels overwhelmed, where communication becomes unsafe, and what kind of interaction is tolerable for you.
Ask yourself:
- What conversations leave me feeling dysregulated or unsafe?
- When do I feel myself shutting down or dissociating?
- What kinds of limits help me stay present, connected, and regulated?
It’s okay to say, “I can’t talk about that with you right now.” It’s okay to take space. And it’s okay to change your mind about how you want to relate to someone.
Boundaries are a way of staying in integrity with yourself—even if others don’t understand.
Boundaries are an act of self-trust and nervous system care.
3. Reconnect with What Grounds You and Honor Your Values
Therapy can help you explore your values with curiosity, not judgment—so you can reconnect with your own truth, not someone else’s expectations.
When the people around you question or challenge your values—or when you’re unsure what your values even are—it can feel destabilizing. Grounding doesn’t mean being certain or rigid. It means reconnecting with what feels most true for you in this moment, even if that’s still evolving.
Consider asking yourself:
- What do I know what matters to me?
- What does justice, compassion, or equality mean to me?
- When have I felt most aligned with my values?
- How do my beliefs connect to my lived experience?
- Who helps me feel safe, curious, or supported when I explore difficult topics?
When others question or reject your values, it can shake your sense of stability. Grounding yourself in what you believe, and why, can be a powerful form of resilience.
You don’t need to convince everyone else to agree with you to feel valid or safe in your truth. Community, activism, art, and therapy can all be ways to reaffirm what matters most to you.
4. Decide What Kind of Connection Is Possible—For Now
Some relationships can survive political differences—especially when there’s a foundation of mutual respect, open-mindedness, and emotional safety. Others may need to shift, pause, or end. A trauma-informed approach understands that both can be acts of healing.
If connection still feels possible, it may help to:
- Focus on shared experiences, goals, or values
- Agree on respectful communication rules
- Prioritize curiosity, not conversion
- Practice empathy without abandoning your own truth
If connection feels harmful or retraumatizing, it’s okay to step back. Sometimes love and distance go hand in hand.
5. You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
Whether you’re grieving the loss of closeness with a loved one, uncertain about your beliefs, overwhelmed by political tension, or triggered by past experiences—you deserve support.
At Brickel & Associates, LLC, we walk with you—not to fix or persuade you, but to support your emotional well-being with care, compassion, and curiosity. We’re LGBTQ+ affirming, pro-choice, and committed to trauma-informed therapy for everyone—including those who feel unsure, conflicted, or caught in the middle.
You are welcome here.
Your feelings are real. Your healing matters. And your story deserves to be held with care.
Let us help you stay connected to yourself—even when the world feels divided.
Your values matter. Your identity matters. And your emotional well-being matters.
We’re here to support you—especially when the world feels divided.
You deserve a space where your truth is seen, respected, and held with care.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash
Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.
Robyn is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with 20+ years of experience providing psychotherapy, as well as the founder and clinical director of a private practice, Brickel and Associates, LLC in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. She and her team bring a strengths-based, trauma-informed, systems approach to the treatment of individuals (adolescents and adults), couples and families. She specializes in trauma (including attachment trauma) and the use of dissociative mechanisms; such as: self-harm, eating disorders and addictions. She also approaches treatment of perinatal mental health from a trauma-informed lens.
Robyn also guides clients and clinicians who wish to better understand the impact of trauma on mental health and relationships. She has a wide range of post graduate trauma and addictions education and is trained in numerous relational models of practice, including Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT), and Imago therapy. She is a trained Sensorimotor Psychotherapist and is a Certified EMDRIA therapist and Approved Consultant. Utilizing all of these tools, along with mindfulness and ego state work to provide the best care to her clients. She prides herself in always learning and expanding her knowledge on a daily basis about the intricacies of treating complex trauma and trauma’s impact on perinatal distress.
She frequently shares insights, resources and links to mental health news on Facebook and Twitter as well as in her blog at BrickelandAssociates.com
To contact Robyn directly:
www.BrickelandAssociates.com
