Anyone explain the inner child therapy?

[Theinnerchild]

I’ve been referred to counselling for anxiety. There is a definite cause of this and I need coping strategies to get me through. My councillor talked about using the inner child therapy. I can’t grasp it, I’ve googled it and it seems to be used where there has been childhood trauma and I don’t identify with this. Does anyone have experience of this or can explain it to me?

I don't specifically know about 'inner child therapy' but in my view this would mean that we are all products of our childhood and in order to heal our traumas we need to reconnect to the wounded inner child within each of us and show them the love and connection that was missing when we were young. And show them we can now be protective adult figures that we may have lacked at certain points in our childhoods. If you are not sure you can ask your counsellor to explain again, or it may become clearer the deeper you go into therapy.

Thank you. I think the info I found is similar to the way you have explained and I didn’t have trauma as a child or feel unloved. I am wondering whether this is her go to theory as she didn’t ask about my childhood before suggesting this.

However I don’t see her for another couple of weeks so I hoped maybe someone could help me figure it out before I go back in case it is helpful.

I thought it was loving and cherishing your inner child ie your damaged deeper feelings, so you treat your distressed feelings as if they were a small helpless child. If that makes any sense.

Hmm I will try this, like comforting myself as I would if a child was anxious. I know what is causing my anxiety and I cant change the situation but need to deal with it better so that I can move on.