HEALING ThE INNER CHILD

Chances are you have experienced your share of physical or emotional trauma through the course of your life. It’s quite possible those events triggered emotions that seemed overwhelming, particularly if they occurred when you were very young.

The child you were at the time may have been unable to handle the fear or loneliness she felt. As a result, she was unable to move beyond the trauma, and remains hidden deep in your psyche, waiting to be reunited with you. She may feel abandoned, hurt, or angry, and her disconnected presence longs to be seen, felt, and heard. She may emerge during stressful situations, causing you to feel unworthy or perhaps to self-sabotage. Unacknowledged, that inner child prevents you from experiencing all that life has to offer.

Using relaxation techniques such as hypnotherapy and guided imagery, I will take you on an inner journey where you might meet that child or other parts of yourself that have been hiding out in your subconscious, but who speak through you from time to time. I will help you to create a safe, comfortable inner landscape where you can meet, talk with, and embrace those aspects of yourself, where they at last have an arena in which they can be acknowledged.

Together we will explore what they have to say about the trauma that caused them to disconnect, so they can be reunited into totality with you. Through this process, you will move from being an outsider to becoming the best parent they could ever imagine.

Typically, the work of healing the inner child takes somewhere between five and fifteen sessions. First I talk to you a bit about what is going on, what you want to change, where you feel “stuck” or “lost.” Then I help you to relax, allowing you to go deeper within.

There are two things that I feel are important to say:

First…in my early life I experienced many emotional and physical challenges, and I have succeeded in bridging some very deep chasms inside of myself.
Second…this work is in no way traumatizing or dramatic. You might shed some tears, or release some energies, but mostly you will feel lighter, stronger, and much more connected and whole.

I promise to be compassionate, and to listen deeply.

Your well-being is sacred to me.

HEALING THE INNER CHILD — EARLY TRAUMA THAT IS UNRESOLVED

"Marsha" had been my client for close to a year before she told me she had been molested by her father. She had very little memory about exactly what had happened but at 35 years old, she was not able to enjoy sex with anyone. She decided that she would like to try “Healing the Inner Child," which is a process of healing approached through hypnotherapy.

Entering a hypnotic state, I relaxed Marsha deeply and took her to a safe place where she relaxed even more. At this place was an altar that had symbols of her childhood. In a trance-state voice, she described what she saw, which included a white rose, a child’s ballet slippers, and a pink lipstick. I asked her to invite toward her the parts of herself that these symbols stood for. A three-year-old Marsha came forward, as well as an eight-year-old Marsha, followed by a very rebellious teenager.

Over the hour session, she spoke with each of her disparate selves, each able to give her information about the molestation. She held each one in her arms and comforted them (especially the teenager who was at first very angry and resistant). She then envisioned a special home where all three could have there own bedrooms with whatever they needed to feel loved and protected. She promised she would visit them every day and that there would be a wonderful dog who would be there, always watching over them. They all were delighted and went to their rooms.

When Marsha came out of the hypnotic state she looked ten years younger. She expressed a loving compassion for herself and a desire to take care of herself at a much deeper level. In the following two sessions, I asked her to visualize her father standing in front of her (with the three, child parts of herself standing next to her.) With great courage, Marsha confronted her father during the visualization. She took the action that should have been taken long ago. She called the police, who came and took him away. She opened her eyes at the end of the session feeling greatly relieved and with a new sense of personal power. It was the beginning of a great body of work that she completed triumphantly over two years.

Marsha is now married with two children of her own.

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