April 18, 2024
Many people have had positive and transformative experiences with psychedelic medicine. However, these aren’t the only types of experiences...
Read MoreMany individuals benefit from inner child therapy, including people with substance use disorder. Often, one or more situations from someone’s childhood plays a role in the development of a person’s addiction. Your inner child is the inner or true self — that is, the one you may have hidden away due to external negative experiences during childhood. Ready to start healing? Call us at (866) 750-0763 today.
What Are the Benefits of Inner Child Therapy?
Inner child work offers many benefits for people from all walks of life, including those with substance use disorders. Several of these advantages include:
- Increasing self-awareness.
- Understanding the effect past events and trauma have on present substance misuse behaviors.
- Reconnecting with your talents, passions or dreams that you ignored while using substances.
- Improving current coping mechanisms.
- Increasing emotional understanding and regulation.
- Enhancing self-esteem and self-compassion.
Honoring your inner child is a useful holistic approach often used as part of larger treatment plans for addiction and substance misuse.
Approaches Used for Inner Child Work
If you need to heal your inner child, working with a licensed practitioner can help. They can help guide you through the process so it is effective for addiction treatment and recovery. The approaches used for inner child work include:
- Acknowledge your inner child’s presence: You must open yourself up to the idea of having an inner child so you can form a relationship with them. This process often involves accepting painful parts of your childhood.
- Lend a listening ear: Recognize the emotions that arise when you feel triggered by situations that bring discomfort or memories of old wounds. You may find vulnerability, anxiety, insecurity, anger or guilt, among other strong emotions. Look back at your childhood to see if there is a connection between these reactions and past events.
- Write to your inner child: Many therapists will suggest writing a message to your inner child. You may write about childhood memories from your current perspective or share realizations about the past. You will also start a dialogue with yourself, offering support and kindness.
- Meditate: Once you ask your inner child questions and begin building that relationship, meditation can be an excellent practice for searching for answers. Meditation can help you feel more self-aware and mindful of your emotions, including those that make you uncomfortable.
- Attend therapy: Cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy are two ways to explore inner child work with a professional’s guidance.
How Healing Your Inner Child Can Help With Recovery
Inner child healing can help with recovery because it helps you heal from your past. It can help you understand the root cause of your addiction or trauma and open up to recovery. Healing your inner child can also remind you that you aren’t alone and that many people care for you.
Heal Your Inner Child At The Sanctuary at Sedona
If you are looking to see how childhood trauma may have impacted your substance use, The Sanctuary at Sedona can help. We offer inner child therapy and other holistic treatment methods to treat your entire being and get to the root cause of the issue, which can often be found starting with childhood.
Call (866) 750-0763 to speak with one of our counselors today.
