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Where do I start healing my inner child?
Healthline says merely acknowledging your inner child is the first step to healing and that it is “a process of self-discovery.” Mindfully embrace the inner child with self-compassion. Mindfulness is simply being present and in tune with yourself. Sit with the inner child. Professionals use inner-child therapy to help people connect to and communicate with their inner child and to process trauma or other maladaptive states. Their overall goals are to help people heal from early traumatic events, fully integrate psychologically, and improve their general functioning as adults. “Each one of us has an inner child, or way of being,” says Dr. Diana Raab, a research psychologist and author. “Getting in touch with your inner child can help foster well-being and bring a lightness to life.” While there are many signs of a wounded inner child, here are some of the most common: People-pleasing behavior, such as trouble saying no. Difficulty setting and enforcing boundaries. Feeling guilty for standing up for yourself. Avoiding conflict at every chance possible. When children are emotionally and mentally injured, neglected, or even abused in childhood, those inner wounds never heal. The child may act out, including having temper tantrums, facing challenges in making friends, and remaining suspicious of the motives of others. The inner child is a direct representation of yourself in your early years. Ideally, the inner child would represent playfulness and fun. However, not everyone associates their childhood with playfulness. If you experienced trauma of any kind, your inner child may seem vulnerable, small, and afraid.
What type of therapy heals inner child?
Inner child work can be found in many types of therapy. To name a few, the inner child lens can be found in trauma therapy, Parts Work, Internal Family Systems, EMDR, sensorimotor psychotherapy, somatic work, Gestalt work, art therapy, and story or narrative therapy, notes Phillips. Many schools of therapeutic thought acknowledge the childlike side to our personalities that ‘the inner child’ refers to. they can call it anything from ‘the child archetype’, “the child within”, the “wonder child”, or ‘the wounded child’. Unlike some therapies, which may take months or even years, Inner Child Therapy can, on average, be completed in 10 two hour long sessions. Unlike some therapies, which may take months or even years, Inner Child Therapy can, on average, be completed in 10 two hour long sessions.
What happens when you heal your inner child?
Inner child healing is important because it recognizes past trauma and provides the necessary tools for moving forward. Understanding where certain behavior patterns stem from is an important step in the recovery process. Inner child healing helps individuals access their pain in a way that is productive and gentle. You can heal the child by re-parenting it, using your supportive and loving adult self to provide comfort and protection/security. Through developing a healed inner child, you can step out of some of those intense emotional reactions, maladaptive behaviors, and self-criticisms that plague you as an adult. In some cases, that wound to our inner child could be the result of trauma, abuse, or abandonment. In other cases, the source of the pain may be more subtle – experiencing unmet emotional needs, the illness of a parent or sibling, growing up in a broken family, or even a childhood friend moving away. In some cases, that wound to our inner child could be the result of trauma, abuse, or abandonment. In other cases, the source of the pain may be more subtle – experiencing unmet emotional needs, the illness of a parent or sibling, growing up in a broken family, or even a childhood friend moving away. People with wounded inner children can often experience persistent and chronic feelings of emptiness, helplessness and hopelessness. They might feel that they are existing as a false self and that their life lacks a sense of aliveness or spontaneity. They might also feel deeply disconnected from others.
What happens after you heal your inner child?
The goal of inner child healing is to eventually reach a point at which you can better identify your own needs, behaviors, and triggers. Healing your inner child fosters a deeper sense of self-compassion and supports your mental health. The qualities of the inner child Here’s a few: trust, liveliness, innocence, curiosity, joy, boldness, clarity, wonder, lightness, purity, playfulness, openness… Qualities we recognize in young children (making them so adorable) but that we somehow seem to have left behind in the process of growing up. A healthy inner child is rich in love, connections, mentally, feeling fulfilled in their sense of meaning and able to tolerate the pains of ups and downs of life. Successful people aren’t just those who are smart and “made it”. You lose your inner child at the point when you think that you do not need it anymore. You lose it when you succumb to the pressures of society, when you get a little too conscious, and when you think that others might begin to laugh at you. We all know that one of children’s major needs is for love and nurture. Moms today are very intentional about developing a close attachment with their babies so they develop a sense of emotional security, belonging, and safety—factors that foster children’s healthy development behavior throughout their lives.
Can a person heal your inner child?
Becoming more aware of the inner child through therapy or a personal journey can help unearth that pain and ultimately offer healing. Acknowledging the inner child involves recognizing and accepting things that caused pain in childhood, bringing them to light to understand their impact now (Raypole, 2021). The goal of inner child healing is to eventually reach a point at which you can better identify your own needs, behaviors, and triggers. Healing your inner child fosters a deeper sense of self-compassion and supports your mental health. In some cases, that wound to our inner child could be the result of trauma, abuse, or abandonment. In other cases, the source of the pain may be more subtle – experiencing unmet emotional needs, the illness of a parent or sibling, growing up in a broken family, or even a childhood friend moving away. When children are emotionally and mentally injured, neglected, or even abused in childhood, those inner wounds never heal. The child may act out, including having temper tantrums, facing challenges in making friends, and remaining suspicious of the motives of others.