Toxic Parents: Rewriting the Script using the Drama Triangle
Friendship Therapy
Emma Reed Turrell
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to the first episode of Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life’s stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help.
This week, our listener dilemma involves ageing parents in a toxic marriage, and an only child who often gets stuck in the middle of their conflict.
How do we manage responsibility for people we love and care about, while also remaining true to ourselves? How can we do things differently to get us closer to the outcomes we actually want?
In this episode, we explore the listener's dilemma through the lens of the drama triangle, highlighting the three roles we play in conflict: the Rescuer, the Persecutor and the Victim. We discover what the healthier alternatives to these roles might be, how to change the script, and how to navigate highly emotional family responsibilities while maintaining personal boundaries and self-identity.
If you have a dilemma for Emma, please fill out this form.
---
Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.
---
Social media:
Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell
Dial Emma @dialemmapodcast
Email: [email protected]
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | At Boots, we've got your summer sorted whatever the season has in store. |
| 0:04.0 | From skin care must-haves to unlock your summer glow, |
| 0:07.0 | to dry shampoo for your day three festival hair, |
| 0:10.0 | sunscreen to protect your skin all summer long, |
| 0:13.0 | and deodorant to keep you feeling fresh, long into the night. |
| 0:16.0 | Save up to half price on all your summer essentials, |
| 0:19.0 | and don't forget to collect points with your boots advantage card every time you shop. |
| 0:23.5 | That's your summer, sorted. |
| 0:25.3 | Boots with you for life. |
| 0:27.4 | Our friends, first of July, normal advantage card, teas and teas apply. |
| 0:31.2 | Hello and welcome to Dial Emma, the podcast where your dilemmas meet my therapeutic insights. |
| 0:37.8 | I'm Emma Reid-Torrell, psychotherapist, author, and well-recovering people-pleaser. |
| 0:42.4 | Each week, I'll be unpacking real-life questions from listeners just like you. |
| 0:46.9 | The big ones, the small ones, the ones that keep you up at night, |
| 0:50.5 | offering practical tools and gentle truths to help you find your way through. |
| 0:55.3 | So if you've got a question, you don't know how to ask out loud. |
| 0:58.7 | You've come to the right place. |
| 1:09.4 | Our first dilemma is all about aging parents in a toxic marriage as an only child. |
| 1:18.8 | My parents are in their 70s and they are in a very toxic marriage, which has been this way for as long as I can remember and I don't envisage any change on that front. |
| 1:29.5 | My dad is emotionally unavailable and stone walls in any difficult conversation, for example, when I try to get them to sort their wills, or when my mum asks me to ask him to do things around the home. |
| 1:41.3 | My mum is the opposite, and lives in a world of very heightened emotion or |
| 1:45.7 | emotional instability. They're starting to show signs of health issues which are inevitable in old |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 13 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Emma Reed Turrell, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Emma Reed Turrell and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.