The Father Wound

Your earliest relationship with your father, or the absence of one, shaped something fundamental in you. Your sense of what you are worth. Whether you are safe in the world. What you believe you deserve. And in the deepest and most significant way, what you believe about your Heavenly Father.

In this deeply personal and faith-rooted episode, Kristen addresses the father wound with the same compassion and clarity she brought to the mother wound in Episode 13. This conversation is not about dishonoring our fathers. It is about bringing what was formed in us into the light so we can receive the healing that is available and step into the fullness of who God created us to be.

Kristen shares honestly from her own ongoing journey with this work, names the specific ways the father wound shows up in worth, income, relationships, and faith, and offers a five-step healing practice that includes a spoken declaration of forgiveness and a reminder of who you truly are: a Daughter of the King.

In this episode you will discover:
What the father wound is and how it forms, even in relationships where your father was present
How the absence of a father creates its own profound wound
The most significant dimension of the father wound, how it shapes your relationship with God as Father
How each type of father wound creates a specific filter through which you approach God
What Psalm 68:5 and Romans 8:15 declare about who God is as your Father
How the father wound shows up in your income, your relationships, your ambition, and your relationship with authority
Five powerful things that become available when you begin healing the father wound
A five-step healing practice including a spoken declaration of forgiveness for your father and for yourself

How the father wound may be shaping your relationship with God:
Critical or hard to please father, striving endlessly to earn God’s approval
Absent or emotionally unavailable father, difficulty trusting that God is truly present and paying attention
Harsh or frightening father, approaching God with fear rather than love
Inconsistent father, fluctuating faith that never quite settles into deep trust
Father who left or abandoned, deep unconscious fear that God will do the same

Your Five-Step Healing Practice:
Step 1: Name what was there and what was missing, journal honestly about what was present and absent in your relationship with your father
Step 2: Trace how it has shown up, identify where the father wound is visible in your relationship with God, your worth, abundance, love, and authority
Step 3: Separate the wound from the truth, his limitations were not the truth about your worth
Step 4: Let God refather you, bring your specific wounds to God in prayer and read Psalm 68:5 and Romans 8:15 out loud over yourself
Step 5: Extend honor and release, say out loud: Dad, I forgive you for... Today I am choosing to forgive you, release you and bless you. Then: I forgive myself for partnering with those hurts. I forgive myself, I release myself and bless myself.

Scriptures referenced in this episode:
Psalm 68:5 — A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
Romans 8:15 — The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father.

Mentioned in this episode:
Episode 13 — The Mother Wound: Healing What Shapes How You Love, Lead, and Connect
Private 1:1 Coaching with Kristen — contact@kristenivanov.com
Connect with Kristen on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn
Visit kristenivanov.com

Your action step from this episode:
Work through the five-step healing practice this week. Be gentle with yourself. Speak the forgiveness declarations out loud — for your father and for you. And remember: whatever your earthly father was or was not, your Heavenly Father has never stopped seeing you, delighting in you, and calling you His own. That has never changed. And it never will.

Did this episode move you?
Share it with a woman in your life who needs to hear this. And if you are enjoying She Leads with Intention, a review on Apple Podcasts helps more women find this show. Thank you so much for being here.

Choose Brave. Lead with Intention.