Have you ever wondered what it would be like to meet a younger version of yourself?
To change things for them in some way.
Taking a step to make the connection.
Connecting with your inner child isn’t impossible to do. In fact, it can be a nurturing, enjoyable experience. The connection with our inner child can be made by connecting to activities that bring out the playfulness and child-like joy that you may have once experienced. It could also be met using journaling or meditation.
Some of the qualities of the inner child include:
· Playfulness.
· Innocence.
· Joy.
· Wonder
· Sensitivity.
What is the inner child?
Our inner child is based on captions of memories, feelings, and patterns from significant childhood events in our past. Although we change and grow into adults, the child within us can still influence the choices we make based on our experiences in childhood. Seeing the inner child as a separate entity helps. The person shows compassion towards the inner child and empathises with what they are going through.
What is the goal of inner child work?
The goal is re-parent the inner child to provide nurture, acceptance, and forgiveness. This in turn supports the adult in healing early life trauma and improves their internal working model; how they see themselves through the eyes of others.
How can inner child work help you change the way you treat yourself?
There are several ways inner child therapy can help including:
Helping you to learn to trust others.
Help you validate the feelings you had when you were a child.
Help you to vent shock and anger at how you were treated by parents/carers in early life and how this has affected you in adulthood.
Inner child work helps to process sadness about the loss of childhood if the person had to deal with adverse childhood experiences or enmeshment, the role reversal of parent and child where the child takes on responsibilities of the parent.
Being remorseful about being abandoned can be an important part of the inner child process, acknowledging this and working to accept this and move on will help you in adult life.
Acknowledgement of feelings of loneliness as a child due to their childhood experiences.
Accepting the shame which may be tagged to this, can encourage you to move forwards by accepting yourself and in turn, this develops trust in yourself and self-belief.
At The Haven, we combine Havening Techniques with inner child work to support our clients in accepting the past and making positive changes for the future. Our members area has mini-programs to connect with your inner child. For more information on our Havening Sessions which explore Inner Child Work click here.