Inner Child

“The wound is not my fault, but the healing is my responsibility”, Denice Frogman. Within mental health disorders, one common theme seems to be healing the inner child. As professionals, we want to help our clients reach their full potential. To help them reach their full potential we have to re-evaluate ourselves and any area that we need to heal. To assist our clients, we need to lead to have healed our own inner child. The inner child continues to live within us, yet we have to understand that they cannot take control of our emotions. Healing the inner child starts with looking within our childhood and asking the question, “what did I need from myself?”. This could lead to many answers. From these answers we explore our inner child and learn to listen to it. “Did you feel secure in your household?” “How were finances handled in the house?”, “How was love demonstrated to you”, “Did you trust your parents/guardians around you?” A wounded inner child comes with guilt, unhealthy relationships, fear of abandonment,and neglect. Individuals who have trouble saying the words “no”. Feeling codependent with others or left out when a friend does not invite you out.Describing yourself as a “people pleaser” or super “achiever”. Answering these questions would determine the position of your inner child. Art can be used as a technique to see how your inner child looks to you. Analyzing how you drew your inner child and details of it. “What are your feelings when looking at the picture?, “would you change anything?”, “have you forgiven yourself?”. If you haven’t forgiven yourself then what challenges are you facing that need to be discussed. Healing starts differently for each of us. It could be re-visiting old hobbies or places we used to go to as children. As professionals, do we need to take a step back to watch the clouds go by, enjoy nature, or simply eat our favorite childhood candy. Affirmations that could continue to provide the love and support needed. Looking at an old picture and being able to repeat these affirmations could engage our inner hcild. To add on, being able to censor our inner critic allows us to be present with our feelings. Although life can be busy, what time can be taken to give back to our inner child. Embracing our inner child and learning to understand, forgive and love this child is a step towards healing.

Written By: Jessmary Echevarria, LMHC

Jessmary is a LMHC in Orlando. She currentlyworks in a mental health agency with kids,teenagers, and adults. She specializes in workingwith depression, Bipolar, and Post Traumatic StressDisorder. She is certified in EMDR and has taken trainings to betterher understanding of the human brain.