What Is the Inner Child?
And how do three different somatic therapies connect with it?
4 min read
If the emotions and thoughts that you are struggling with seem to be impacted by your childhood, it may be worthwhile to connect with your inner child. The inner child is the child that we once were that continues to exist within us as we navigate adulthood. We might most easily recognize it as the part of us that maintains our childhood affections– our love of comics, hobbies, collectibles, games, and other types of play. Our inner child might also surprise us when we feel like throwing a tantrum or curling up with a soft blanket in response to difficult life events.
Studies like the CDC-Kaiser’s Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACES) have demonstrated how childhood abuse, neglect, and unstable home environments have lasting negative impacts on health and overall well-being. Many therapies, including somatic therapies, engage the inner child to understand and help resolve many of these long lasting impacts on people’s current mental health.
Tamiko Nishita-Hawkinson, therapist at Downtown Somatic Therapy, shares that, “It can be a very emotional experience for people to interact with their inner child for the first time. They might have talked about things that happened to them before, but interacting with the inner child is very different. They discover insights about who they are and who they’ve been. Often, they also find that the inner child is still longing for attention, comfort, and safety, and it can be very empowering to recognize the ways that the adult self can now give support in the present moment.”
“The inner child is still longing for attention, comfort, and safety, and it can be very empowering to recognize the ways that the adult self can now give support in the present moment.”
Inner child techniques vary depending on the therapy style that a therapist uses. Below you will find some information on how Somatic Internal Family Systems, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy all integrate inner child work into therapy.
Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) views every person as a system of different parts, like members of an internal family, to understand people in a full and holistic manner. IFS reaches out to the inner child (or inner child parts) directly. People are able to talk with their inner child, ask it questions, listen to it, and provide needed care, healing messages, and opportunities for change and corrective experiences.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP), in comparison, takes a far more embodied approach to connecting with the inner child. SP’s Movements of Play enables people, who could not safely engage in play during their childhood, to do so now as an adult. SP finds that these playful movements increase a person’s feelings of safeness within themselves and around other people. SP’s Acts of Triumph can also enable the inner child to complete body movements that they were unable to complete prior. For example, someone can gain relief by doing a defensive movement that they wish they had been able to do in the past.
Lastly, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) focuses on helping a person connect with core affect (or core emotions) that they have been unable to experience and move through so far. AEDP corrective emotional and relational experiences can engage the inner child in an emotional state (e.g. sadness, anger, or fear) and support the inner child in feeling safe, cared for, and understood. Doing so can also help a person express stifled emotions and meet attachment needs that were unmet during childhood.
“Doing so can help a person express stifled emotions and also meet attachment needs that were unmet during childhood.”
Regardless of the therapy style, inner child work has been found to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and improve emotional regulation, interpersonal relationships, comfort with being authentic, and child-like sense of wonder. Although it may seem novel and perhaps even surprising to engage with our inner child, each part of us is important and deserving of expression and recognition, and somatic therapies can help nurture your inner child to support mental health healing and growth.
Consider reaching out to one of the therapists here at Downtown Somatic Therapy if you feel like you could benefit from doing inner child work with a somatic therapist. We are here to support all of the parts of you, including your inner child!