Jonice Webb
Licensed psychologist who identified and named Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN), the largely invisible wound created when parents fail to respond adequately to a child's emotional needs.
About
Jonice Webb is a licensed psychologist in private practice who coined the term Childhood Emotional Neglect to describe a specific and largely invisible wound: not what parents did, but what they failed to do — respond to a child’s emotions in a way that made the child feel seen and valid. Her insight is that CEN leaves no memories to point to, which is precisely why so many adults carry its effects without understanding their source. Webb developed a self-assessment and recovery framework through her clinical work and has written two books on CEN — Running on Empty (2012) and Running on Empty No More (2016) — along with a widely used online questionnaire that has reached millions of people who recognize themselves in her description of emotional numbness, chronic self-sufficiency, and difficulty knowing what they feel.