Setting Boundaries with Family at Christmas
For many people, Christmas with family isn’t just tiring — it’s emotionally activating.
Old roles resurface, expectations rise, and reactions feel bigger than the moment. You may notice guilt when you want space, overwhelm that builds quickly, or pressure to keep the peace at your own expense.
This course helps you understand why boundaries feel so hard at Christmas and why they matter so much. Through Tim Fletcher’s Complex Trauma-informed teaching, you’ll explore how family dynamics trigger emotional memory, how guilt and over-giving develop, and how internal and external boundaries protect your emotional health. You’ll learn to recognize early signs of overwhelm, respond to your limits with compassion, and adjust boundaries as the season unfolds.
This course is about staying connected to yourself in a season that often pulls people away from their needs — and learning to protect what’s vulnerable with clarity and care without confronting family or cutting people off.
Get Access with the EVERGREEN Membership
Get unlimited access to Tim Fletcher Co’s Evergreen library for just $30 per month, or $300 per year. With six new self-development courses added every month, you’ll always have fresh, practical tools to support your growth in areas like trauma recovery, boundaries, relationships, and personal transformation. Learn at your own pace, revisit lessons anytime, and build lasting change with guidance that’s both compassionate and deeply practical. See more details here.
*All prices are in Canadian Dollars.
Course Curriculum
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Welcome Video
Introduction
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This lesson lays the foundation by exploring why boundaries are essential, especially during emotionally charged family gatherings. You’ll examine the belief that protecting yourself is selfish and begin reframing boundaries as a form of care for what’s most vulnerable in you. Understanding your worth becomes the starting point for every boundary that follows.
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Being around family can activate emotional reactions that feel bigger than the present moment. This lesson explains how emotional memory and old family roles resurface at Christmas, often without conscious awareness. You’ll learn to recognize triggers with compassion, helping you respond with curiosity rather than self-criticism.
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For many parents, Christmas intensifies guilt and the pressure to over-give. This lesson explores how trauma and shame can quietly shape parenting choices, especially during the holidays. You’ll begin to see how healthy boundaries support connection, safety, and steadiness for both you and your children.
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Christmas adds layers of noise, stimulation, and emotional demand that can quickly overwhelm the nervous system. This lesson focuses on recognizing early signs of overload and practicing internal boundaries that protect your emotional health. You’ll learn how self-care functions as prevention, not indulgence, during high-stress seasons.
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The final lesson emphasizes flexibility and self-honesty as the season unfolds. You’ll explore how regular check-ins help you notice shifting capacity and adjust boundaries without shame. Staying grounded becomes less about sticking to plans and more about responding wisely to what you notice within yourself.
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This bonus section offers supportive, trauma-informed resources to help you understand why holidays can activate old family roles, guilt, and boundary struggles. Through accessible videos, books, music, somatic tools, and reflection practices, you’ll explore how Complex Trauma, attachment patterns, and nervous system responses shape your experience of gatherings and relationships. These resources are invitations, not expectations, meant to help you move through the season with greater regulation, clarity, and self-trust.
This course is included in the Christmas + Complex Trauma Bundle!
Save over 62% when you get all Christmas + Complex Trauma courses together! Includes:
