Esther Calling - Never Been In a Long Term Relationship, Scared I Don't Know How To Do This

In this episode of "Where Should We Begin?", Esther Perel engages in a therapeutic phone call with a 42-year-old woman struggling with panic in her new romantic relationship, despite its positive qualities. The woman reveals a history of suppressing her own needs, a family culture of prioritizing others, and past experiences with bullying and a traumatic family illness, leading to a fear of intimacy and potential loss. Esther helps her identify the roots of her anxiety, reframe her perspective on these feelings as excitement and insecurity rather than panic, and recognize the different "characters" or voices within herself that contribute to her fears, encouraging her to approach them with compassion and open communication rather than self-criticism.