Jealousy is often regarded as a toxic emotion — something clients feel ashamed to admit and therapists sometimes hesitate to explore. Yet it surfaces repeatedly in clinical work: in envy between siblings, competitiveness between friends, fear of loss in romantic partners, and even parental resentment toward a child. At its most pathological, jealousy corrodes intimacy, reinforces shame, and distorts a client’s self-worth. But even in its more subtle forms, it is a potent force in shaping identity, relationships, and internal narratives.

This distinctive video pairing brings together two compelling courses that unpick the relational, psychodynamic, and intergenerational roots of jealousy. Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn provides a sweeping clinical overview of jealousy and its impact on relationships, including cases of morbid jealousy, social media envy, and therapeutic rupture. She then joins Dr Gwen Adshead for a powerful co-led exploration of maternal jealousy — the unspoken legacy of mothers who could not tolerate their daughters’ freedom, success, or joy. Drawing on attachment theory and psychoanalytic insights, they unpack how maternal envy shapes identity formation, self-sabotage, and adult relationships.

These sessions are courageous, clinically rich, and especially relevant for therapists working with identity fragility, perfectionism, narcissistic wounds, or complicated family legacies.

What’s Included:

• The green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on. Jealousy: Manifestations, Meanings and Clinical Challenges — Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn (3 CPD / 3 CE)
• Maternal Jealousy: Breaking the Chains of Toxic Emotional Inheritance — Dr Gwen Adshead & Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn (3 CPD / 3CE)

Who It’s For:

• Therapists working with adult clients affected by parental wounds, intergenerational shame or competitiveness
• Clinicians exploring envy, rage, or identity disruption in client narratives
• Practitioners seeking to better understand the link between jealousy and attachment trauma

What You Will Learn:

• The clinical distinctions between envy, jealousy, and possessiveness — and why they matter
• How jealousy can sabotage relationships, stunt self-development, or be turned inward as shame
• How to work with morbid jealousy, including obsessive thoughts, surveillance behaviours and paranoia
• The dynamics of maternal envy — especially toward daughters — and its long-term psychological impact
• How to support clients in untangling unconscious loyalty to emotionally absent or competitive mothers

The intergenerational transmission of unprocessed jealousy and how to break these relational patterns

Course 1

The green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.

Jealousy: manifestations, meanings and clinical challenges

Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn

CPD/CE credits: 3

The interpretations of jealousy have been many and varied, throughout psychotherapeutic literature. Freud located the experience of jealousy within the drama of the Oedipus Complex while Mollon linked jealousy with shame. In its dramatic real-world manifestation, we come across morbid jealousy or the Othello syndrome as part of romantic and sexual relationships – which can show up as obsessions; sexual dysfunctions, paranoia, difficulties forming relationships and experience delusions. Even in its less acute manifestations, jealousy shows up in myriad presentations including stalking, violence and substance misuse.

Whatever the lens we see jealousy through as an emotion, we can observe in our clinical settings that patterns of jealousy, and the responses to it, present us with a number of challenges:

• Jealousy of others can make it impossible to accept anything good, and being the object of jealousy can make the individual afraid to develop and inhabit a healthier position
• Jealousy can overwhelm our clients, causing them to be disproportionately anxious about losing access to a position or person – often a loved one, leading to negative relationship loops, misdirected ire at self and others and sustained distrust in relationships
• Jealousy can prompt obsessive behaviours, actions with harmful intent and maladaptive social behaviours towards romantic partners, co-workers, friends, family and self
• Jealousy can suppress feelings of achievement of success and create opportunities for passive aggressive behaviours emanating from negative affect, or in severe circumstances show up as psychopathic affect
• In today’s world, jealousy in virtual settings (social media) can accentuate feelings of negative self-worth and create scenarios of perceived inadequacy
• Morbid jealousy, meanwhile, can lead to a destructive cycle of obsession, violence and paranoia

In almost all cases, jealousy’s maladaptive underpinnings can be perceived as active and destructive.

At this intellectually stimulating and therapeutically oriented seminar, Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn draws on practical learnings from psychodynamic, cognitive and object-relations domains – to help us delve deep into the complications that jealousy presents in our clinical settings and uses case-vignettes to specifically discuss:

• The differences between jealousy and envy and how this impacts on ways of working with morbid jealousy
• How discerning the patterns of jealousy can help us interpret and work therapeutically
• Comprehending the different elements of jealousy
• How the experience of jealousy has changed in the age of social media
• Getting to grips with the internal origins of jealousy and its destructive aims
• Understand how jealousy can attack the therapeutic process and how to manage situations where jealousy is directed at the therapist
• Working with clients who fail to recognise jealousy led attacks by others, or their own feelings of jealousy

Jan will also schedule to discuss case examples that delegates may bring and share ideas with practitioners on how they can work effectively with these clinical challenges.

Overall, the aim of the webinar is to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying nature of jealousy, with a view to guiding our therapeutic endeavours.

Course 2

Maternal Jealousy:

Breaking the Chains of Toxic Emotional Inheritance

Dr Gwen Adshead & Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn

CPD/CE credits: 3

A mother-child relationship has always been idolised as being a cocoon of love and safety. The mother, being the primary caregiver, has always been upheld as a model of unconditional giving and nurturing. In putting mothers on this exalted pedestal, we collectively forget that mothers are human – just like us, with their own insecurities, traumas and unfulfilled dreams and desires. When there are daily reminders of looking at a growing child, who lives a carefree, fulfilling life that recalls their own thwarted ambitions, brings out their relational insecurities, and triggers their traumas – envy and jealousy can easily become the dominant emotions for mothers.

Sexism and patriarchy that limited a mother’s life can be one of the strongest root causes of maternal jealousy. The children, especially daughters, become their mother’s uncomfortable mirror. When a mother experiences daily comparisons of the educational opportunities, career choices, freedoms from restrictive gender roles, and increased love and support from partners that the mother didn’t have and couldn’t conceive of as possible, this creates deep channels of grief, jealousy and envy for the life she could never have. A mother grieves her unfulfilled dreams, unrealized talent, and unsupported life. And in being put on a pedestal of being a good mother, society expects her to not only ignore her grief but never even whisper it, and to live her whole life being happy for her children.

Equally, narcissism can be a strong factor at play. A narcissistic mother may perceive her offspring, especially a daughter, as a threat. If the child’s achievements draw attention from the mother, the child will most likely suffer retaliation, put-downs, and punishments.

As Peg Streep puts it wisely, “Jealousy and anger are highly personal in a very specific sense because these emotions reflect the self, not the object of the emotions. Because these feelings are self-referential, the more self-involved or narcissistic the mother is, the more likely it is that she will be jealous or envious.”  The mother can be especially jealous of her daughter for many reasons—her looks, her youth, material possessions, accomplishments, education and even the girl’s relationship with the father.

A strong relationship between the father and child, especially a strong father-daughter relationship, can be an area especially fraught with insecurity and jealousy on the mother’s part. A child needs to have a healthy relationship with both parents. However, if the mother is jealous of the father-child relationship, especially a loving father-daughter relationship, then what repercussions does that carry? The daughter wants both parents to love her. So, who does she please?

What complicates this dynamic further is the question of what stance the father takes. Often men in relationships with female narcissists choose to bow to the mother’s wishes so as to maintain the adult relationship. The father is then unable to connect with his daughter. This leaves the daughter not only confused but also with a lack of emotional connection with both parents.

Almost in every case of maternal jealousy, the child is left with little or no support during her growing years. She feels unloved, unsupported, constantly undermined and full of self-doubt. The scars left by maternal jealousy tend to run deep. The ramifications of maternal jealousy extend far beyond familial dynamics, permeating every facet of a child’s life. Inadequate emotional support, constant criticism, and emotional manipulation perpetuate feelings of unworthiness and self-doubt. At this webinar, we will we recognize the pervasive influence of maternal jealousy on relational choices, career trajectories, and self-esteem.

This seminar will examine how these behavioural patterns:

• Influence the relationships formed by the individual (our client) with their partners / lovers, friends and colleagues
• Influence wrong choices in career and the failure to succeed in it
• Lead to underplaying their achievements in life and career
• Self-sabotage their life and goals

How then, does the individual, cope? How do they come out of this intergenerational play of narcissism, unfulfilled life and trauma?

At this cutting-edge, therapeutically-oriented webinar, Dr Gwen Adshead and Dr Jan McGregor Hepburn delve into Attachment Theory and Psychoanalytical concepts, uncovering how maternal jealousy manifests, its impact on familial dynamics, and strategies for breaking the cycle of toxicity. They then offer a transformative approach to dismantling intergenerational patterns of toxicity. By fostering self-awareness, setting boundaries, and challenging societal norms, individuals can liberate themselves from the intergenerational cycle of maternal jealousy. Through case illustrations and vignettes, Dr Adshead and Dr Hepburn will explain how practical exercises and psychoeducational interventions can empower our clients to reclaim agency, cultivate self-esteem, and foster healthy relationships in their adult lives. Evaluate the psychological effects of maternal jealousy on offspring, exploring patterns of self-sabotage and identity formation.

Overall Programme Learning Objectives for two sessions:

• Explain the internal origins of jealousy, its destructive aims and discuss the differences between jealousy and envy and how this impacts on ways of working with morbid jealousy
• Discuss how the experience of jealousy has changed in the age of social media
• Discuss how jealousy can attack the therapeutic process and how to manage situations where jealousy is directed at the therapist
• Distinguish between envy and jealousy, elucidating their nuanced impact on interpersonal dynamics and analyse the interplay of narcissism with envy and jealousy, unravelling its implications for familial relationships
• Examine the role of repetition compulsion in perpetuating intergenerational trauma, particularly in relational contexts
• Implement therapeutic strategies to mitigate the effects of maternal jealousy, promoting healing and closure in the mother-child relationship

© nscience UK, 2025 / 26