The new school year comes with new challenges such as dusting off those old study books. My challenge began with starting my Diploma in Inner Child Healing.

WHAT IS THE INNER CHILD?
The term inner child refers to the childlike aspect within our unconscious mind, like a ‘sub personality’. This is a side of our character that can take over when we are faced with a challenge. The inner child reflects the child we once were in both negative and positive aspects. The repressed emotions could be all the things we were taught as a child not to feel if we wanted to be loved. For example, if we were only offered attention when ‘good’, we might find the inner child holds rebellion, sadness, and anger. Or, if we experienced trauma or abuse, we might have learned to hide pain and fear to survive. The inner child can also hide all of the things we were taught to think about ourselves by parents, or other adults such as “We better not say what we think”. “Don’t try because we aren’t smart enough”. “Big boys don’t cry”.

WHY IS IT AN IMPORTANT CONCEPT?
Addressing our inner child enables us to find the roots of our issues as an adult, and discover and release repressed emotions that may be holding us back. Connecting with our inner child can also enable us to resolve unhelpful patterns and open up the possibility for increased self-care, inner curiosity, and our capacity to love ourselves as we are.