My research, my own experience, and my experiences with women all around the country have made one fundamental truth very clear: At the core of every un-empowered woman, there is a child who grew up in a dysfunctional family and thus did not learn the skills necessary to have a healthy, happy adult life.

Of course, everyone’s experience is not the same.

Of course, we are all on our own journeys.

Of course, there is a very wide spectrum of dysfunction – so one dysfunctional family does not look the same as the next.

But in those families with deep-rooted dysfunction, and among those women who grew up in them, we do find many similarities.

Take a look at the Empowered Woman’s Bill of Rights I have refashioned for my coaching program. You may find that many of the problems you face now as an adult are expressed in one or more of these statements. Read through these statements slowly, and if one or more of them tug at your heart a bit, take some time to reflect and consider why it may be speaking to you today. Give yourself permission to fully embrace any or all of these statements as you make your own way towards empowerment.

The Empowered Woman’s Bill of Rights

1. I have a right to reclaim all of those good times I missed when I was a child.
2. I have a right to the joy of life that was stolen from me.
3. I have a right to relax and have fun in a way that’s not destructive to me or others.
4. I have a right to actively seek out people, and situations that will help me with my transformation process.
5. I have the right to say “no” whenever I feel something isn’t safe or I’m not ready.
6. I have a right to decline participation in the dysfunctional behavior of my parents, siblings, and others.
7. I have a right to take calculated risks and to experiment with new strategies in my journey to becoming empowered.
8. I have a right to be who I am, even if it means criticism from family or others.
9. I have a right to mess up, to make mistakes, to fail, and to fall short of the mark.
10. I have a right to graciously leave the company of or end conversations with people who deliberately or inadvertently put me down, lay a guilt trip on me, manipulate or humiliate me. This includes my dysfunctional parents, or any other member of my family.
11. I have a right to reclaim my childhood.
12. I have a right to experience all of my feelings.
13. I have a right to trust my feelings, my judgment, my hunches, and my intuition as I work on becoming fully empowered.
14. I have a right to develop myself as a whole person emotionally, spiritually, mentally, physically, and psychologically.
15. I have a right to express all my feelings in an appropriate way and at an appropriate time.
16. I have a right to as much time as I need to become fully empowered.
17. I have a right to challenge and sort out everything that my parents told me, accepting what is truly good for building my new life, and discarding the rest.
18. I have a right to a mentally healthy, sane way of existence, though it will deviate in part, or in whole, from my parents’ prescribed philosophy of life.
19. I have a right to carve out my place in this world.
20. I have a right to follow any of the above rights, to live my life in the way I want to, and not wait until my dysfunctional parents gets well, gets happy, seeks help, or admits there is a problem.

Are you ready to begin your journey towards empowerment and healing in earnest? Your next step is to complete my online assessment. It’s free and only takes a few minutes! Together, we’ll use your responses to assess where you are on your journey and help us set goals for your path forward. Hope and empowerment await you!