Wounded Inner Child
Re-parenting the Hurt Child That Resides Within
Written by Randi Fine, Narcissistic Abuse Expert
Narcissistic Abuse Awareness and Guidance with Randi Fine
The expression, “wounded inner child,” may sound like a bunch of psycho babble to you. I did not always give credence to inner child psychology, but have come to understand the crucial role it plays in our adult lives.
The inner child is a powerful entity, separate from our waking conscious minds, that carries the wounds of past traumas and impacts much of what we say and do as adults. It is a protective device, similar to a defense mechanism, triggered by reminders of these wounded aspects of our selves.
The inner child is an innocent, playful child that dwells within us; our concealed true self, the way we once were. It is a part of our personality that still feels childlike and reacts just as a child would.
Our inner child is the summation of everything we learned and experienced in pre-adolescence; a part of our psyche believed to have retained every impactful sensory impression from our childhoods.
Our inner child is hidden for a reason—it conceals traumatic feelings and memories; experiences that caused us to suffer but were never emotionally dealt with because we were not equipped. We buried those feelings and memories deep within and they have remained there for decades.
It is painful to face the child that resides within us; a child who may have felt unloved, unaccepted,or unprotected; a child who may have been physically, emotionally, or sexually