Inner Child Therapy

What is Inner Child Therapy?

Inner Child Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that works with the Inner Child — the emotional and psychological part of a person who feels like a little boy or girl. It’s a way to help adults deal with stress, trauma, and past experiences by connecting with their younger selves.

The psychologist Carl Jung is most commonly credited with coining the term and the “Inner Child” concept. Inner Child Therapy is also known as reparative therapy, emotional healing, and as a form of trauma therapy.

Who Can Benefit from Inner Child Awareness?

The Inner Child represents our emotional self. Our emotional self is where we store all our unresolved hurts, fears, and traumas. The Inner Child can also be called our “wounded self.” It is the part of us that experiences all the emotions and feelings we’ve had as children but doesn’t understand how to handle them as an adult. The idea behind Inner Child Therapy is that if you can discover and heal these forgotten memories, you can also heal your present-day issues.

The core theory is that when you were young, you may have been traumatized by some event or series of events in your life and blocked out those painful experiences. However, your “inner child” still remembers these painful experiences as an adult. Inner Child Therapy can be effective in treating anyone with deeply rooted trauma from childhood, whether that be adolescents or adults repressing the active acknowledgment of the trauma.

How Can Inner Child Work Help?

Repressed childhood trauma can be challenging, especially if the trauma is ongoing. Some people may feel that the only way to deal with this type of trauma is to suppress it and try not to think about it. However, this can be very difficult on both a mental and emotional level.

Inner Child Therapy works on two levels: the conscious and subconscious levels. This means that you will learn how to deal with your inner child on both levels to feel more balanced, stable, and happy overall.

The subconscious level consists of repressed memories from childhood that were too painful to deal with at the time because they were stressful or traumatic in nature (e.g., abuse). These memories are stored in the subconscious mind as feelings and emotions, which then become toxic energy blocks that affect behavior as adults in ways people often don’t even realize!

The conscious level occurs after acknowledging and processing the trauma inflicted upon the Inner Child. Only then can one begin to understand how that damage has affected behaviors as an adult and, with loving kindness and patience, start the process of reprogramming responses and reactions to triggers. The process is long and not necessarily a linear pathway that is the same for every person.

The Approaches Used In Inner Child Therapy

Inner Child Therapy practitioners believe that our emotions are often stored in our bodies, resulting in physical symptoms such as headaches, muscle tension, stomach problems, and back pain. Inner child therapy helps people reconnect with their inner child, a part of themselves that may have been neglected or suppressed.

The most widely known technique used in inner child therapy is Age Regression, which involves mentally and emotionally taking clients back to their childhoods so they can relive painful experiences from their past. This helps them actively recognize the specific damage that was done and how it was done and learn how to resolve the issues that stem from that trauma in their lives today.

Other therapeutic approaches include art therapy, play therapy, and sand tray therapy, which all use different methods to help patients explore their emotional states and communicate their feelings effectively.

The goal of Inner Child Therapy is to help clients heal from past trauma by connecting with their wounded inner children so they can get in touch with their feelings and express them appropriately without being overwhelmed by them.

Ways To Begin Inner Child Exploration

Your Inner Child isn’t a single entity but rather a complex collection of emotions, needs, and desires. It is not always easy to know what the inner child needs because persons who have experienced damaging trauma in early childhood are usually taught to ignore their feelings from an early age — especially when they are negative ones like anger or sadness, or fear. But if you want to start getting in touch with your inner child, here are some questions that might help:

• What did you love doing as a child? What were your favorite toys? What games did you play? What kind of activities did you enjoy doing with your family?
• What did you feel like as a child? Were there times when you felt happy and safe? Or were there times when things seemed overwhelming and scary? Did it seem like life was unfair or out of control at times? Or did it seem like there was nothing good in the world at all?
• How do these feelings affect you today? Do they show up in your relationships with other people, at work, or even just when you’re alone at home?

These are just starting questions to jumpstart that process, but, in essence, Inner Child Work must begin with the acknowledgment of that inner part of yourself that has been ignored for far too long.

The Importance of Inner Child Work In Recovery

Inner Child Work is an essential part of rehabilitation and recovery. We have all experienced trauma at some point in our lives, as you likely know. It could be something that happened as young children or even later on in life.

When we experience trauma, our inner child becomes damaged and often begins to live within us due to this experience. This early childhood damage can spiral into debilitating substance abuse issues in terrible cases. For this reason, in recovery, it can be critical to do Inner Child Work to truly and definitively heal.

There are many different ways in which Inner Child Work can be used in rehabilitation and recovery programs, including but not limited to:

• Assisting clients in understanding their own history and trauma.
• Working through trauma by releasing “stuck” energy with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy.
• Helping clients release negative beliefs about themselves through self-compassion therapy techniques.
• Strengthening self-esteem through a mindfulness meditation practice.

Working On Your Inner Child in A Holistic Rehab

A holistic rehab can help someone work on their Inner Child in several ways. It can provide them with the tools needed to address all aspects of their lives, including physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. A holistic approach treats the whole person, not just one aspect of their life.

Holistic rehabs help people deal with past traumas, learn new coping mechanisms and build healthy relationships with themselves and others. This can be an essential part of recovery for an addict since addiction is often a result of trauma, often trauma that stretches back to childhood.

A trauma-informed approach helps people get to the root cause of their addiction. Techniques like yoga, meditation, and breathwork are often used to help patients focus on their inner well-being and being at peace.

When a person works on their inner child, they’re working on healing these wounds from their past. They’re also learning how to forgive those people who hurt them so that they can move on with their lives. Inner child therapy can be a valuable and critical method of reaching into the psyche of a long-term substance use disorder victim.

Keep in mind that this type of therapy is often used in conjunction with other types of evidence-based addiction treatment programs like medication regimens and psychotherapy.

Long Term Sobriety with A Holistic Foundation

Long-term sobriety is a goal that is often elusive for people in recovery from alcohol and other drugs. So many addicts have relapsed after achieving “sobriety” for some time, only to go back out there and drink or use again. The temptation to relapse can be overwhelming, especially if an individual hasn’t put in the hard work required to achieve long-term sobriety.

The good news is that it is possible to achieve long-term sobriety with the right tools and support! The following steps can help one achieve long-term sobriety with a holistic foundation.

The holistic approach to recovery focuses on simultaneously healing the mind, body, and spirit. In the 21st century, the traditional 12-step model of addiction treatment has been criticized for focusing too much on the spiritual aspect of recovery and neglecting other important aspects of wellness. An excellent holistic approach considers all aspects of a person’s life to treat their addiction: mental health issues, physical health issues, emotional pain, social pressures, and even, where applicable or appropriate, spiritual needs.

The truth is that the holistic path to sobriety is a journey in itself. It requires a complete shift in lifestyle, perception, and thinking. The holistic approach to sobriety is not just about quitting drugs or alcohol but also about changing one’s entire outlook on life.

A holistic approach to recovery may include any number of different therapies or counseling sessions, including:

• Mindfulness meditation
• Yoga
• Art therapy
• Massage therapy
• Acupuncture
• Nature therapy
• Nutritional and Dietetic consultation/counseling

It is important to remember that these techniques or practices are usually done in parallel with evidence-based treatments or programs. It is critical to remember that holistic treatment does not claim that psychotherapy and medication are unnecessary.

An excellent holistic recovery program will work in parallel with whatever evidence-based treatment programs are deemed necessary for the ultimate benefit of the patient in getting back to a state of balance.

Emerald Isle Recovery can boast one of the most caring and thoughtful holistic recovery regimes in the state. Our practitioners take the well-being of their patients into account through every single process. If you are ready to experience Inner Child therapy delivered by professionals in an environment that is conducive to healing, contact us today. Our doors are always open!