Question 1

What is a core wound in psychology?

Accepted Answer

A core wound is an original psychological injury — typically formed in childhood — that creates a lasting belief about yourself, others, or the world. Core wounds are not single traumatic events but accumulated experiences that teach you something is fundamentally wrong with you or the world. They drive adult patterns, defences, relationship choices, and emotional reactions in ways that feel automatic and unavoidable.

Question 2

What are the most common core wounds?

Accepted Answer

The most commonly identified core wounds include: abandonment (fear of being left or rejected), unworthiness (belief that you are fundamentally not good enough), shame (the sense that something is wrong with you at a deep level), betrayal (difficulty trusting after trust was broken), powerlessness (the felt inability to create safety or control outcomes), invisibility (feeling chronically unseen or unheard), and rejection (feeling fundamentally unacceptable to others).

Question 3

How do core wounds affect adult life?

Accepted Answer

Core wounds manifest in adult life through relationship patterns, emotional reactivity, defence mechanisms, self-sabotage, and the stories we tell ourselves under pressure. Someone with an abandonment wound may cling desperately in relationships or leave before being left. Someone with a shame wound may overachieve or isolate to hide the perceived flaw. Someone with a betrayal wound may never fully trust. The wound shapes the personality from the inside out.

Question 4

Can core wounds be healed?

Accepted Answer

Yes — core wounds can be substantially healed, though not through surface-level positive thinking or simple reframing. Genuine healing requires understanding the original wound, recognising how it operates in present patterns, reparenting the wounded part, and building new experiences that contradict the wound's core message. This is exactly what AXIS Method's 90-day coaching program is structured around.