In our previous alumni blog, we took a look at the role an inner child plays in our world and how trauma can keep our inner child stuck until we do the therapeutic work to heal this broken relationship. Even years into our recovery after trauma treatment and ongoing trauma therapy, we can be met with new inner children we didn’t know before, new traumas to heal with an inner child we’ve already met, and be prone to the occasional inner child take over. Here, we’ll take a deeper look into the inner child, how to communicate, and how to continue making peace with our inner child.
What Can We Do To Communicate With Our Inner Child?
Through treatment and trauma therapy, we learn different ways to find, communicate with, and ease the nerves of our inner child. There are many different psychotherapeutic approaches to calling our inner child to attention and communicating with them. One of the better known and well used practices is creating a safe place where we feel we can trust ourselves.
If we’re having an inner child takeover in our recovery after treatment, we can always go back to this safe place and have a conversation with our inner child. Like any child, our inner child needs to know they are safe, they are loved, they are cared for, and that they are protected.
We start by thinking about one of our favorite places in the world where we feel the most peace, happiness, or safety. Calling that place into our memory, we visualize it in as much detail as we can, settling into the sensations we experience there- how it sounds, how it smells, how we feel in our body there, and how we feel in our mind there. Once we feel settled into our safe place, we can do one of two things to anchor ourselves in the moment. First, we can plant a tree in the middle of this safe space which acts as a vessel for our inner child, or inner children, to make an appearance. Visualizing the tree, we can ask our inner child to come out from behind it. Or, we can call upon a protective spiritual guide in the form of an animal or a family member we love, trust, or feel protected by, to bring or carry our inner child into view.
First, we check in with our inner child to see what has been coming up for them. How do they look? What emotions do we sense from them? How are they handling the way we are handling life? Are they angry? Scared? Sad? Disappointed? We can tell them we love them, we’re so thankful they’ve come to talk to us, and we’re sorry that we haven’t been caring for them the way that they need to be cared for. We work in our mind’s eye to embrace our inner child, tell them that we are here for them to protect them and love them, and that though we can do this thing called life together, we the adult are, in fact, in charge.
Setting Our Authority
Having the confidence to set our authority with our inner child takes work, time, and compassion. As much as we communicate with our inner child to work together to take on life, our inner child also has to know that we are the adult and we are the ones who need to handle life first. By being the loving, nurturing parent that our inner child needs, and that we need, we can create an authoritative harmony to help us operate through life.
We don’t just tell our inner child that we love them, but we are in charge. We create no conditional love for our most fragile, needy selves. Throughout our trauma recovery, we can practice different narratives with our inner child, learning what we need to hear the most. Our inner child needs to hear specific words of support and security from us. We also need to hear ourselves be able to tell our inner child what they need to hear.
In our next alumni blog, we’ll look at different things our inner child may need to hear, and what we can tell ourselves in becoming our own loving parent.
When you graduate trauma treatment, the rubber meets the road, as it is said. To live successfully in recovery from trauma, addictions, or related mental health issues, we need the care and professionalism of an experienced, specialized staff who provide us excellence in treatment. Our alumni learn how to thrive in their lives not in spite of trauma, but because of it. We’re always here to welcome those in need of help at The Guest House Ocala. Call us today for information and resources: 1-855-483-7800