The Caretaker Partner
When your partner is in difficulty, your natural response is one of compassion. You don't want to see your partner suffer, so you do all you can to help him or her. When it comes to short lived difficulties like, say, a bout of influenza, you can ideally shift in and out of a caretaker role easily and in a way that serves your relationship. When your partner is in difficulty over a period of months or years, you might take on the role of caretaker and lose track of yourself and your own needs.
Being in the role of caretaker can meet needs for contribution, acceptance, and having a sense of value or competency in the relationship, but over time this role is held onto at cost to other needs.
At some point you realize that being a caretaker for your partner isn't working. When you are more unconscious about it, this realization shows up as a sudden impulse to get out of the relationship. Internally it can seem like a life or death matter. You imagine that the only way to survive is to get out of the relationship. Some relationships end at this juncture.
If you are able to bring more awareness and catch yourself in the caretaker role before you are completely depleted, you choose to stay in the relationship and begin to set firm boundaries. At first you might set extra firm boundaries tinged with resentment because you don't trust yourself to meet your own needs and you blame your partner for not meeting your needs in the past. For your partner who has been cared for by you for so long, your boundaries and resentment might be experienced as a shove or a wall.
At this stage in the transformation process you are moving away from what you don't want (losing yourself) with the belief that your survival is being threatened. There is a sense that you have to fight to have your needs met. Trust builds as you become more conscious of the caretaker dynamic and express your needs and requests and find your partner responsive to meeting your needs once he or she hears them clearly and understands your requests.
As this trust develops and your needs are met consistently the energy of fighting relaxes and you can come back to center. Living openly from your center you can moved toward what you want to create rather than away from a perceived threat. Creating what you want from a connected place means recognizing interdependence and the need for collaboration. At this stage you no longer have the impulse to set extra firm boundaries. You can trust yourself and your partner to have a dialogue and negotiate with caring until a way for meeting all needs is found.
Practice
This week watch for situations in which you are tending to your partner and giving up your needs with resentment or a sense of submitting. If you can't express your needs in the moment, take time later to identify them and come up with a request for your partner.
Being in the role of caretaker can meet needs for contribution, acceptance, and having a sense of value or competency in the relationship, but over time this role is held onto at cost to other needs.
At some point you realize that being a caretaker for your partner isn't working. When you are more unconscious about it, this realization shows up as a sudden impulse to get out of the relationship. Internally it can seem like a life or death matter. You imagine that the only way to survive is to get out of the relationship. Some relationships end at this juncture.
If you are able to bring more awareness and catch yourself in the caretaker role before you are completely depleted, you choose to stay in the relationship and begin to set firm boundaries. At first you might set extra firm boundaries tinged with resentment because you don't trust yourself to meet your own needs and you blame your partner for not meeting your needs in the past. For your partner who has been cared for by you for so long, your boundaries and resentment might be experienced as a shove or a wall.
At this stage in the transformation process you are moving away from what you don't want (losing yourself) with the belief that your survival is being threatened. There is a sense that you have to fight to have your needs met. Trust builds as you become more conscious of the caretaker dynamic and express your needs and requests and find your partner responsive to meeting your needs once he or she hears them clearly and understands your requests.
As this trust develops and your needs are met consistently the energy of fighting relaxes and you can come back to center. Living openly from your center you can moved toward what you want to create rather than away from a perceived threat. Creating what you want from a connected place means recognizing interdependence and the need for collaboration. At this stage you no longer have the impulse to set extra firm boundaries. You can trust yourself and your partner to have a dialogue and negotiate with caring until a way for meeting all needs is found.
Practice
This week watch for situations in which you are tending to your partner and giving up your needs with resentment or a sense of submitting. If you can't express your needs in the moment, take time later to identify them and come up with a request for your partner.
LaShelle Charde
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