Invisible scars of childhood are in all of us those experiences we have in our life when we felt that no one heard us, loved us, or understood us. These experiences tend to dictate the tendencies of our feelings we replicate as adults: people-pleasing, self-doubt, fear of rejection, or overthinking. The healing of the inner child is a re-identification with these injured aspects of ourselves and giving them the love, care and recognition they so lacked. Coaching practices make it possible to discontinue old patterns of emotion and provide room to newer and healthier and more gratifying modes of living.
Here in this blog, we are going to discuss how inner child healing occurs, the best ways to conduct coaching sessions that assist in the healing process and how this experience can liberate you to stop this practice of repeating.
What Is the Inner Child?
The inner child is your childish self; that part of you which still has childhood memories, feelings, and thoughts. Although the experiences of some of those were happy and nurturing, some could have been painful. These childhood damages, when they are not resolved, tend to determine your reaction to relationships, difficulties, and even a successful adulthood.
For example:
- A criticized child can develop into an adult with a low self esteem.
- An abandoned child can have trust and intimacy problems.
- When a child was made to be perfect, she or he can develop anxiety, and people pleasing.
The inner child is healed by allowing the inner child to speak, to be compassionate, to be loving, and take care of you, so that they no longer control your life in the shadows.
The Reason behind the recurrence of Old Emotional Patterns
The brain is programmed to do what is comfortable—even unhealthy. That is why a person may get into such toxic relations, respond with the same provoking anger reactions, or fight the same fear when they should know better.
These trends are subconscious, being emotional child fixations. They are active until we become aware of them, and redefine them. This is because, through the work with inner children we are able to view such patterns in a more vivid way and to re-write them with more healthier responses.
Coaching Healing the Inner Child
1. Guided Inner Child Dialogue
Another great method in coaching is chatting with an inner child. This would be the imagining of your younger self and questioning of the self such as:
- “What do you need right now?”
- “What are you afraid of?”
- “What would make you feel safe?”
Through compassion, you offer your inner child the assurance that he/she might have lacked previously.
2. Re-Parenting Childhood Beliefs.
Some of the constraining beliefs adults hold include: I am not worthy good enough or I need to deserve love. Coaching aids in reworking these beliefs by going back to the root cause of these beliefs and challenging their legitimacy. The reframing occurs as opposed to retaining the belief that I am undeserving, the reframed beliefs become: I am worthy of love and respect since I am.
3. Seeing and Creating a Safe Space.
One of the major practices in inner child healing is visualization. You can be led through a visualization of a secure and caring environment in which your inner child is loved and safe by a coach. By doing it over and over again, emotional safety is achieved, as well as stress triggers in everyday life are minimized.
4. Journaling: Release your Emotions.
The letters addressed to your inner child (or addressing it in the voice of the inner child) will help to get the trapped feelings out. A simple exercise is:
- Write to your inner child: I understand that I hurt you, and because of this reason, I did it
- Answer as you are in your adult years: I hear thee and I am here to defend thee.
This conversation fills the gap between the former suffering to the present healing.
5. Somatic Practices
The emotional patterns do not only exist in the mind but also in the body. Such practices as mindful breathing, light movement, or grounding exercises can be used to discharge the accumulated tension and inform the nervous system that it is safe to release the previous responses.
6. Affirmations to Reparenting.
Positive statements such as, I am safe now, I matter, or I am also entitled to express myself are useful in reprogramming the subconscious. In coaching, the affirmations are always specific to your inner wounded child.
The Pros of Healing the Inner Child
When you make commitment to inner child work via coaching, you start experiencing changes of tremendous dimensions:
- Healthier Relationships- You end the patterns of abandonment, criticism, or codependency.
- Emotional Freedom- Triggers no longer have their way, and you take charge of how you respond to things.
- Greater Self-Worth - You are aware of how valuable you are not by people.
- Inner Peace - You are less fearful, more relaxed and connected with yourself.
Finally, healing your inner child liberates you to live a life by choice and not unconscious injuries.
Final Thoughts
Curing the inner child is not a matter of pointing finger at the past, but getting out of it. The coaching practices are a compassionate and systematic way of finding out the old emotional patterns, developing the wounded aspects of the self and substituting them with new healthier ways of living.
Keep in mind: the small child within you does not require perfection, he only requires love, acceptance, and protection. Once you adopt the inner child healing, you are not only changing your relationship with yourself but also the rest of the world.