All posts published here are presented as casual conversation pieces to provoke thought in some direction or another, they do not necessarily represent fixed opinions of the Inner Council, as our work exists beyond the spectrum of bound statement and singular clause.
Symptoms for considering Inner Child work
We are born into complex webs of relationships with siblings and other family members and we learn to use our personal strengths to protect ourselves and to attain the basic childhood needs. If we are not the strongest, we will develop psychological tricks to attract attention or to direct the acknowledgement that we need. Here in this environment we develop our character, which may be highly developed to survive within our household, but may not be compatible with the aspects of our adulthood that we would like to have for ourselves, such as emotional balance, successful relationships, stable friendships, career confidence, etc.
There are many psychological, emotional and behavioural aspects that can be understood from Inner Child work. We gain an insight into the configuration and programming that we revived in our primary developmental stages of a child. There is not always an obvious connection between single traumatic events and related traumatic symptoms. The deepest traumas often arise from long-term repeated patterns in our childhood that at first may not be perceived as detrimental or as a reason for developing a personal approach to therapy.
Inner Child work is also approached by those looking for an exploration of their early life, or a yearning to unlock a mystery of youth or discover an ancestral story. We’ve worked with people who have explored off-world energies, parallel histories with esoteric & hermetic themes. The active imagination practices that are developed during the workshop give access to a whole phenomenological world which can enrich the day to day experience of the individual. Many of our participants have also gone on to share the work with others as a developing vocation.
Primary Symptoms
Typical behaviours that have been identified as symptoms of unresolved childhood developmental traumas can include:
- Substance abuse, addiction, negative escapisms
- Low self-esteem, lack of self worth, negative thoughts of oneself
- Co-dependency, neediness in relationships
- Insecurity, neurotic anxiety
- Relationship issues, repeated patterns in break-ups
- Sexual dysfunction or anxiety around intimacy
- Issues with weight management, eating disorders, sabotage
- Depression and/or anxiety
- Mistrust and suspicion of the self and others
- Extreme anxiety in decision making and procrastination
- Confusion around direction and purpose
- People pleasing and emotional rewarding through recognition from others
- Emotionally spilling over or inability to set healthy boundaries
- Mood swings or hysterical outbursts (self-sabotage)
- Deep fear of abandonment, loneliness and isolation
- Personal shame around expressing emotions (anger, grief, sadness, joy)
Along with these primary symptoms can be some aspects of our behaviour that we may consider being personality traits but are actually dis-empowering by nature. For example…
- Repeating a negative behaviour to dwell in the mental space of negative self evaluation.
- Feeling suspicious about others to protect our own isolation.
- Returning to low vibrational mental states over and over
Deep personal work can slowly peel away the edges of ego identity to finally understand that these are not innate or genetical consequences but learned behavioural patterns that can be understood and resolved with the necessary introspection and motivation for change.
The primary motivation and responsibility in self-therapy comes from self encouragement and will. To be both willing and able to empower and author oneself through the journey of transformation. We would like to state here that whilst Inner Child work has been life transforming for those who have managed complex histories and are in self-recovery, self-therapy is appropriate and effective when one has already made positive life changes and is living in an environment which is free of immediate threats or uncertainty.
What is the Inner Child?
Inner Child work is a tangible and adaptive therapy technique that can be explained quite simply and continually developed by oneself following completion of the workshop.
Often we carry wounds and trauma from birth and childhood with us into adulthood and these wounds play out in habit patterns, behaviours, beliefs and thoughts that no longer serve us, trapping us in repeated loops and life lessons that we continually deny ourselves the ability to be free from. Our Inner Child is intuition, creativity, spontaneity, play, loving acceptance of ourselves and all beings; our pure essence within.
Re-establishing a connection with our inner child takes time, dedication, patience and this workshop provides the tools to be able to make contact with your inner child, initiate a relationship with them and learn the re-parenting techniques to be able to nurture and build a trust relationship, cultivating a life practice in self healing.
