Managing Mental Health Symptoms through Supporting Your Inner Child

Beneath the surface of many of your mental health symptoms is your inner child trying to help you navigate your adult life based on the experiences you had as a kid. Just because you have gotten older each year doesn't mean the younger versions of you are just gone. They become ingrained the fabric of your psyche and influence many of your actions, decisions, behaviors, etc.

My clients find it helpful to pause when they notice a pattern in their life. Then, in the space of that pause, try to respond to their inner child with whatever they feel the child needed to hear in the past, but didn't.

Figuring out which response will be the most effective depends on what sort of wounds you carry from your childhood. For some, the child needs to hear that it is ok to make mistakes or just that they are loved and accepted, unconditionally. For others the inner child needs reassurance that it is ok to have feelings and that their feelings are real. For many they need to hear that it is ok to be carefree and playful now rather than overly responsible.

By responding directly to the inner child, you cut to the source of why the surface level symptom is happening repeatedly. When the inner child is reassured, the symptoms relax and don't come on as strong in the future with repeated self-validation and reassurance.

I encourage you to give it a try! If you would like help figuring out what wounds your inner child is responding to, it can be helpful to work with a trauma-informed therapist to guide your through the process of connecting with and reparenting your inner child. It is deeply profound and transformative work!

Take care as you try this practice and reach out through the contact page if you need any support along your cycle-breaking journey.

Alyssa