At the STAR retreat for our sexual trauma clients, I ran a workshop on Inner Child work. Carl Jung (1875-1961) ,a psychodynamic psychiatrist who worked alongside Sigmund Freud, developed the concept of The Inner Child Archetypes. He spoke of the Wounded Child, The Orphaned Child, The a magical Child, The Nature Child, The Eternal Child, The Needy Child, and The Divine Child.
Adverse and Traumatic experiences in Childhood known as ACES can shape how we see the world. It can influence our perceptions of how we experience the world and the environment we live in. It can limit our ability to understand the reality of life and the way our lives change and evolve.
Understanding our inner child is important for self-healing, developing healthy interpersonal relationships, building self-worth, self-esteem and being kind to ourselves.
These distorted perceptions we inherited from childhood can be changed and altered.
It is vital to acknowledge and hear the inner child and validate their feelings. Re-parent your inner child, write a letter to your inner child, reassure them that you are here for them, allow them space to vent.
So using this concept, I used the Matryoshka dolls to explain this concept to the clients and they were able to each create their own unique and individual inner child persona. We also danced, laughed , used words we were not allowed to use as children, and we sang. There were a few tears but hopefully these were cathartic rather than painful moments.
As a counsellor experiencing freedom in the clients who have felt shackled for so long was very humbling and reaffirming.
Although I remained person-centred in my approach, the creative process allowed the clients to focus more effectively on their own agendas and had a very positive impact on their ability to reflect on what they were experiencing/feeling.