What is Inner Child Work? Definition, Benefits, and How to Get Started
Imagine you’re 5 years old, running around on the school grounds playing tag with your friends. However, an unfortunate slip sends you sprawling on your face. You’ve scraped your knee, your uniform is completely ruined, and people are laughing at you.
Fast forward to adulthood; you may not remember what happened, how old you were, and who was there. But that feeling of shame and embarrassment, the memory of tears, and the pain of the scraped knee will remain.
You’ve dragged the scars into adulthood. Yes, even after 20 years, that inner five-year-old is still running some part of the show. Sometimes, it works to your advantage, but even then, you can’t shake off what happened on the playground.
This is where inner child work comes into the picture. Read on to learn more.
What is Inner Child Work?
None of us are born into adulthood. We have to learn the ways of life as we grow.
Children do that in two incredibly effective ways – play and experience. Adults don’t have the liberty.
However, adults who want to keep learning, growing joyfully and reconnecting with that inner child may be highly efficacious.
However, like the example illustrated above, no life is perfect. Some, in their quest to access their childlike learner, also have to confront the difficult feelings that come with it. And the feelings may have taught us lessons that impede adaptation and open learning.
As children, we experience our thoughts, feelings, and experiences through play.
Then comes adolescence, a time of discovery but also of suffering. We have broken hearts, dreams that just don’t materialize, and frustrations. At some point, the playing stops, and our real-life experiences dictate what we want and who we are.
That connection with the inner child breaks. But reconnecting with them is an important part of healing your wounded inner child and unleashing your passion and potential again.
Also Read: Career Guidance For Teenagers
Defining Inner Child Work
Many child psychologists in Mumbai view inner child work as an effective way to recognise and heal childhood trauma. It addresses the fact that our behaviors as adults stem from childhood experiences.
This intervention focuses on recognising our unmet needs by reparenting ourselves, opening doors for self-discovery and insights into our triggers, wants, needs, and behaviours.
When we work on healing our inner child, we come face to face with a part of ourselves that is impressionable and vulnerable. We can be both the child and the grown-up, providing unconditional self-compassion, self-support, and self-love.
Benefits of Inner Child Work
Self-awareness is one of the most important virtues inner child work helps you develop. In many coaching sessions with our child psychologists in Mumbai, we at Faculty Minds found that mental fitness develops in a certain manner.
The first step of this journey is introspection, as it forms the foundation for all kinds of personal and professional growth.
Once the practice is set and you begin developing better self-awareness, many additional benefits unlock, including:
- Better emotional intelligence and regulation.
- Reconnecting to dormant dreams, talents, and passions.
- Understand how your present behavior is dictated by past traumas.
- Feelings of empowerment, safety, and control
- Building of healthy coping mechanisms for managing trauma and emotion.
Parting Thoughts by Faculty Minds
There’s a chance that if you’re angry, feeling stuck, or frustrated, your inner child might be asking for help. You can help yourself better by understanding how traumatic experiences impact your choices today.
Inner child work indeed has great emotional benefits and can make a big difference in your work, relationships, and life in general.
At Faculty Minds, our adult counselors help people lead better lives, ones with more purpose, dignity, passion, and clarity. Because that’s how kids live their lives— even if there’s a lack of purpose, there certainly is passion and clarity.
Connect with that lost passion with inner child work at one of the best mental health therapists in Mumbai, Faculty Minds. Get in touch with us to know more.
