03 Feb What Is Inner Child Work? – Therapy in Illinois and Louisiana
What Is The Inner Child?
If you’ve ever started crying when someone yelled at you, or gotten disproportionately angry when you were denied something, or if you cling to the relationships in your life and are terrified to lose them, you’ve seen your inner child at work. When you become an adult, your younger self, with all their joys and fears, doesn’t just disappear in a puff of smoke. They become a part of your grown-up self, and they have influence on how you live your life. This can be beneficial; your inner child can help you remember to have fun, or make sure you take time to experience life’s wonders. If your inner child is well integrated into your sense of yourself, they can be a real asset to you as you navigate adulthood. On the other hand, if you experienced trauma as a child, and couldn’t work through it in a healthy way, you are still carrying the baggage from those traumas. Wounds from childhood play out in adulthood, and they can impact how we respond to stress, how we behave in relationships, how much we value ourselves, and so much more. If your inner child is still dealing with old pain and causing feelings from your past to dictate how you behave in the present, it will be very difficult to move forward. This is why it’s important that you work on healing your inner child; the you then, and the you now, deserve to be stable and safe.
How Do You Help Your Inner Child?
The goal of inner child work is to help you build a relationship with your inner child, so you can heal the wounds you’ve carried into adulthood. Often, most of the trouble caused by this part of you happens because that child has needs that weren’t met back then, and which are still not being met now. They are stuck in the past, reliving their pain, and lashing out in any number of unhealthy ways to be heard. The child inside all of us wants to be loved and cared for, but people fail to acknowledge and work on this part of themselves. During inner child work, you will change this pattern. You will spend time learning to listen to your inner child, exploring your past to learn why they didn’t feel safe and fulfilled, and finding ways to help them meet their needs. You will slowly develop a relationship that’s built on a foundation of trust, so that the child inside you will let you help them reach a happier and healthier place. The term for this is ‘re-parenting’. You are stepping in to be the caretaker for this younger aspect of yourself. You know what this part went through because it’s a part of you. So, once you learn to connect with it again, you can offer it the comfort and compassion it needs. Inner child work isn’t about getting rid of your inner child, it’s about healing them, and you, so that they can coexist as an enriching part of your inner world. Everyone wants to feel safe and loved, even the individual parts of us.
Who can benefit From Inner Child Work?
More than half of the population in the United States has experienced some kind of childhood trauma. Inner child work is one of the best ways to heal from these wounds. It doesn’t matter if it was a major traumatic event or a a complex network of small hurts that added up. If it left a lasting impression on you, or caused you to feel unsafe or unwanted, it impacts the person you become. There are many different types of childhood trauma, and they are all valid, and they all deserve compassionate healing. Even if you feel like your childhood wasn’t very turbulent, we often endure things when we’re young that are simply difficult to process. If you feel something like this is holding you back, or making anything in your life more challenging, it’s worth it to take the time to revive the playful, creative child inside you. Building a strong connection between your inner child and you can create a host of positive changes that will make it easier for you to live the fulfilling life you deserve.
It can be helpful to find a therapist to help you start the process of working with your inner child. They will guide you and help you learn how to listen and care for yourself in constructive and caring ways. If you want to start working to heal the wounds from your past, so you can have a healthy future, reach out to us at Issa Counseling. Our therapists will be glad to help you start your journey.
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