CHAPTERING

Chapters are guided meditation narratives that allow our inner child to present and perform chronological episodes. Within these episodes our inner child can bring almost anything to our attention for consideration and resolution using symbols and metaphors that give us the appropriate distance to attune to the message and meaning being presented. A standard chapter is 3 sessions, given over an agreed period of time. This also allows our inner child to incorporate lessons and activities between the sessions. If held correctly, the length of the chapter is decided by the inner child who will often bring us back to the place we started and promptly make a courtly departure.

It is my intention in this document to share the information that is required in order for you to effectively demonstrate chapter work directly with your inner child and to guide your clients through successfully concluded chapters. I also intend to guide you in empathetically tuning in, holding space, encouraging your clients and knowing when and what to share during the sessions. I shall also give some examples for interpretation and a series of case studies which capture the essence of chapters.

“Western psychology and neuroscience teach us that imprints from our earliest years give rise to personality patterns that may endure for a lifetime. By reflecting on your relationships and family dynamics, you can gain powerful insights into both the gifts and the challenges that you have inherited. Remember: when you act to heal any harmful legacy of your ancestors—including patterns in your personal life—you bring honor to the ancestors and, hopefully, more happiness to yourself.” – Daniel Foor, Ph.D.

Chaptering arose from a blend of separate inner child activities. We regularly balance inner child work equally between work and play, so an adventure is a good way to balance up in between regressions. At a certain point in the work we also tend towards ancestral work and this is where the blended narrative became a complete practice of open adventure with an ancestral scope. This work, play and archetypal adventure became a platform of exciting exploration for the inner child with a deep interpretative reach. We are continuing to analyse the typical content structure alongside folkloric oral ancestral tales from tribes worldwide, and although we’re not in a place to anthropologically match these patterns on a scientific level, we may find a rewarding parallel which indicates a deeper reason why ancestral inner child work through Chaptering does show up with a familiar form.

Chaptering work can begin when you feel that the skill-sharing aspects of mentoring are in place, the relationship to the inner child is in harmony and where there is more attention to content. If you begin chaptering too early, then the inner child may not utilise the container for a chapter but continue to present areas which can be improved before the work can go deeper. This may include bringing attention to specific areas where the inner child relationship can be improved. Fear of abandonment, attitudes that do not align to the spirit space, misheld principles, lack of personal attention or care, lacking the tools for energetic cleaning etc. As you progress with a client where these messages are being given, you can continue through the container which will allow the space for her to reiterate these considerations. It would then be wise to identify if adjustments have been made so that deeper work can be accessed during the following chapters.

As a container is a framework for a chapter, if the inner child is not ready to go into a chapter she will use the container for chapter preparation. This preparation may be a consideration of our immediate environment and circumstances before we feel it’s time to connect to the narrative of the story. Imagine a mother, who has settled her child down for a bed-time story and all seems well, teeth are brushed, pyjamas are on, etc. but as the mother begins reading the first page of the book the child asks ‘momma, why didn’t papa have dinner with us.’?

Our life is a story, a long one. Along the way our story can become interrupted. Psychologically we experience a disconnect between the body and the soul, which affects our relationship with protective mechanisms and identity. Neurobiologically trauma activates “fast track” survival and stress response neural-circuitry in subcortical brain regions, below the level of verbal language and consciousness. Trauma responses over-ride rational decision making parts of the brain. Trauma in that sense can be considered as a free floating and independent phenomenological energy which behaves contagiously.

Trauma is defined as any event that overwhelms the individual’s mind and central nervous system to the extent that he or she is incapable of assimilating and integrating the experience into daily life. During inner child work we work with a part of ourselves that represents the authentic self to reclaim parts of our identity that can guide us back to the central path of our story. In order to do this we need to learn a method of communication. The language of journey is symbolic narrative. This means we need to build a set of symbols for communication that have been collectively understood since ancient Greek as archetypes or more simply forms.

Often trauma is an interruption of our story and we need to find our way back to our story. This is the essence of all fairy tales. Once upon a time > Happily ever after is a symbolic, chronological integration. Kronos is the symbolic ruler of this world. Upon integration we blend back into a timeless kingdom. There are many ideas from academics that memory is not chronological and that time is an illusion.

This module is delivered over a 3 month period, 1 hour weekly sessions (12 hours in total) £570/$730/€665*

*These prices are a guide for practitioners, please contact your practitioner for their prices.