Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 4, Issue - 8, 1 February 2020 | Page 7

Inner child work is the process of contacting, understanding, embracing and
healing your inner child. Your inner child represents your first original self
that entered into this world; it contains your capacity to experience wonder,
joy, innocence, sensitivity and playfulness.
Unfortunately we live in a society that forces us to repress our inner child
and “grow up.” But the truth is that while most adults physically “grown up,”
they never quite reach emotional or psychological adulthood. In other
words, most “grown ups” aren’t really adults at all. This leaves most people
in a state of puerile fears, angers and traumas that fester away in the
unconscious mind for decades.
When we deny and snuff out the voice of the child within we accumulate
heavy psychological baggage. This unexplored and unresolved baggage
causes us to experience problems such as mental illnesses, physical
ailments and relationship dysfunction.
In fact, it could be said that the lack of conscious relatedness to our own
inner child is one of the major causes of the severe issues we see in today’s
society. From the brutal way we treat the environment, to the cruel way we
talk to ourselves, we have become completely separated from our original
innocence.
4 Simple Ways to Work With Your Inner Child
Learning to work with your inner child isn’t about becoming childish again, it
is about reconnecting with your childLIKE side. In other words, there is a big
difference between being childish and childlike.  Being childish can be
thought of as behaving in an immature or naive way. Being childlike on the
other hand, can be thought of as a state of purity and innocence.
We all have the capacity to experience our original innocence; that period in
our lives when we saw the world with openness and wonder.  In order to
remove the guilt, shame, fear, hatred, self-loathing and anger that we carry
with us, we have to heal the child within. To do this, we must earn the trust
of our inner child through love and self-nurturing.
Here are 4 of the most powerful ways to perform inner child work:
1. Speak to your inner child.
Acknowledge your inner child and let it know that you’re there for it. Treat it
with kindness and respect.
Some self-nurturing  things you could say to your inner child include, for
example:
3