How do I help my anxious child feel safe when I'm still healing from my own trauma?

You're asking the question that takes courage: how much of my unfinished business am I accidentally handing to my child? The honest answer is: some will leak through, and that's not a failure. It's the human condition. Your anxious child may have inherited predisposition, or they may have sensed your unease and learned it, or both. What matters now is this: you don't have to be completely healed to help them feel safer. You just have to be conscious. When you recognize your own anxiety rising—because your child's fear activated your fear—you can name it without shame: "My body is remembering something old right now. This is about me, not you. You're safe." Your child needs three things: to see that anxiety is survivable (because you're surviving yours), to feel that their feelings won't destroy you (so they don't have to manage your emotions), and to know they're loved unconditionally (not when they're calm, but always). That last one is pure devotion—the kind that doesn't expect good behavior in exchange. Find one small practice that calms your own nervous system. Not to be perfect, but to be honest. Breathing together. Walking outside. Sitting in silence. Let them see you returning to yourself. That's the legacy that breaks cycles—not parents without wounds, but parents willing to be witnessed in their healing.