Inner Child Healing: Where Psychology Meets Soul Work
Pro-tip:
Guided meditation and hypnotherapy can help you access your inner littles.
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Have you ever found yourself reacting in a way that feels… disproportionate? Like you know you’re safe, but your body is screaming otherwise? Or maybe you’re the high-functioning one—always “fine,” always pushing through—but deep down, there’s a whisper that something just isn’t right. That whisper may not be coming from your present-day self at all. It could be your inner child calling out for help.
What Is Inner Child Healing?
Inner child healing is the process of reconnecting with the younger parts of ourselves, specifically the versions of us that experienced emotional pain, neglect, trauma, or unmet needs during childhood. It’s not about blaming our parents or rehashing old wounds for the sake of it. It’s about acknowledging that certain patterns, fears, and beliefs we carry today didn’t just show up randomly. They were learned in moments when we were too young to process pain in a healthy way.
These inner child parts are often frozen in time, stuck in emotional memory. And until we bring them into awareness and offer them what they truly needed back then, they’ll keep showing up in our adult lives through anxiety, self-sabotage, people-pleasing, codependency, or even perfectionism.
Inner child work is a gentle yet powerful path back to wholeness.
Where Did This Work Come From?
While the idea of a “wounded inner child” has gained traction in modern spiritual and wellness spaces, its roots trace back to early psychology. Carl Jung first introduced the concept of the “Divine Child” as a powerful symbol of hope, potential, and the psyche’s capacity for growth.
Later, psychologists like John Bradshaw and Alice Miller brought inner child theory into mainstream healing. Bradshaw’s seminal work in the 1980s—Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child—introduced millions to the idea that repressed childhood wounds could explain adult dysfunction. Miller, a psychoanalyst and author of The Drama of the Gifted Child, explored how children suppress their authentic selves to win approval from caregivers, often carrying the emotional consequences for life.
In more recent years, inner child work has evolved beyond the clinical and into the holistic and spiritual realms. Therapists, somatic practitioners, energy healers, and coaches now use it to help people access buried emotions, release trauma from the body, and reprogram subconscious beliefs.
How Inner Child Work Helps Heal Trauma Today
Trauma isn’t just about catastrophic events—it’s also about the absence of what we needed: safety, love, attunement, validation. Inner child healing allows us to name and nurture those unmet needs. And in doing so, we begin to reparent ourselves.
Reparenting means giving ourselves now what we didn’t receive then. That might look like:
Setting boundaries that we were never taught to set
Allowing ourselves to rest and play without guilt
Speaking to ourselves with kindness instead of criticism
Listening to our body instead of overriding it
Creating rituals of care and connection that make us feel safe
Modern approaches to inner child healing often include tools like:
Guided meditation and visualization (to meet the inner child)
EFT tapping (to clear emotional blocks)
Somatic work (to release trauma held in the body)
Journaling and expressive arts (to access the subconscious)
Parts work or IFS (Internal Family Systems therapy, which views the inner child as one of many parts within us)
The goal? Integration. Instead of letting our wounded child run the show—or exiling them altogether-we—we welcome them home. We give them a seat at the table. And when our inner child feels safe, seen, and soothed, our adult self becomes more resilient, empowered, and free.
This Is Soul Work
Inner child healing isn’t always easy. It asks us to slow down, feel old emotions, and be radically honest about the ways we’ve abandoned ourselves. But it’s also deeply liberating.
Because underneath the fear, the perfectionism, the shutdown… is a child who still knows how to play. Who still believes in magic? Who remembers how to love without armor?
That part of you isn’t gone. They’re waiting. And healing isn’t about becoming someone new—it’s about coming back to who you truly are.
If you’re curious to explore this work in a guided and supportive space, join me for our Soul Observation Session on Inner Child Healing on May 1st at 5:30 PM PT. We’ll explore the origins of this work, move through a powerful EFT sequence, and meet your inner child in a healing meditation.
🌀 You’re not too late. You’re right on time. Let’s come home together.
