Have you ever been triggered by something or someone and suddenly out of nowhere you become overpowered by your emotions? Perhaps it is your inner child—your former five-year-old playing out an emotional wound from your past.
According to Freud and many Psychologists today the inner child is a psychological reality that relates to an unconscious part of ourselves and is made up of our accumulated childhood experiences. This innocent part of ourselves holds both the joyful positive experiences as well as the traumas and hurts of our negative experiences. When our healthy inner child appears, we may feel playful and full of awe. However, when our wounded child is triggered, we can feel overwhelmed by anxiety, anger, sadness, and/or a myriad of other difficult emotions.
Over the years I have been tormented by my wounded inner child’s anxiety, anger, and abandonment issues. My daily mental strategies to push aside and/or banish these past wounds enraged my unconscious child within until eventually, it transformed into my shadow and sabotaged my life at every turn.
By remaining unconscious, this dissociated child within me was empowered to take over my adult self until I decided to courageously go within to connect, acknowledge, and listen to her.
When I authentically became present to this innocent part of myself and compassionately began to unconditionally love and validate her experiences and feelings, my inner child started to feel safe, acknowledged, and loved. As her wounds healed, she eventually was able to release the suffering that no longer served me. I realized by deepening my relationship with my inner child and becoming the parent to her she never had, I was truly able to heal my own heart resulting in a greater sense of well-being, lightness, and integration.
If you are haunted by past wounds and your coping strategies are no longer effective, perhaps it is time to connect with your inner child. Through my Neurofeedback practice, I often assist clients in connecting with this innocent part of themselves that is often deeply hidden in the subconscious mind. Neurofeedback can gently help to illuminate these buried traumas allowing you to more easily connect and heal the wounded child within. For more information please contact Lesley Young at 250-533-9797.