Identify and Heal Your Childhood Wounds: A Guide to Inner Child Healing

Understanding the wounds of your childhood is a powerful step towards emotional healing. Early experiences shape our emotions, behaviours, and thought patterns, and becoming aware of these patterns gives you the ability to work through emotional pain with compassion.

Common Childhood Wounds and How They Show Up in Adulthood

• Rejection Wound:
  As a child, you may have felt unseen or unaccepted. As an adult, this can lead to avoidance, isolation, or difficulty trusting that people care for you. Healing begins with recognising these patterns and practising self-validation.

• Abandonment Wound:
  Experiences of parental absence or neglect can create a fear of being alone. Adults with this wound may cling to relationships, create conflict for attention, or tolerate unhealthy dynamics. Inner child work helps cultivate independence and a sense of self-worth.

• Humiliation Wound:
  Feeling ridiculed or shamed in childhood can lead to over-prioritising others’ needs at the expense of your own. Healing involves recognising your worth, practising self-compassion, and learning to meet your own needs without guilt.

• Betrayal Wound:
  Broken promises or inconsistent care can make adults hyper-vigilant and controlling in relationships. Healing requires gently allowing trust to develop and establishing healthy boundaries built on respect rather than fear.

• Injustice Wound:
  Experiencing strict or cold treatment can create perfectionism, suppressed emotions, or over-reliance on achievement for validation. Healing involves expressing emotions authentically and practising self-compassion even when you make mistakes.

Journaling Prompts for Inner Child Healing

Using journaling as a tool, you can explore these wounds and begin the process of emotional healing:

• Rejection: Write about a childhood memory where you felt unaccepted. How does it influence your adult relationships?

• Abandonment: Reflect on times you felt unsupported and explore how this shapes your fear of being alone.

• Humiliation: Recall moments of shame and consider how you can care for yourself without guilt.

• Betrayal: Journal about broken promises and how they affect trust and boundaries today.

• Injustice: Examine past experiences of unfairness and how they impact your emotional expression.

If you want to go deeper, the Inner Child and Teenage Healing programme includes guided exercises and journaling practices to help you release childhood and adolescent wounds safely.

Steps to Heal Your Inner Child

1. Reparent Yourself: Treat yourself with the love and care you needed as a child. Create routines and practices that bring comfort and joy.

2. Emotional Expression: Use journaling, art, or therapy to process suppressed feelings and cultivate emotional wellbeing.

3. Mindfulness and Self-Awareness: Stay present with your thoughts and emotions to respond consciously rather than reactively.

4. Self-Compassion: Speak to yourself with kindness and patience, as you would to a close friend.

5. Boundaries and Self-Care: Learn to prioritise your needs and assert boundaries in relationships without guilt.

6. Gratitude and Positive Affirmations: Celebrate your progress and reinforce a healthy self-image with gratitude practices.

By exploring your childhood wounds with compassion and intentional practices, you can reduce emotional triggers, increase self-awareness, and create healthier patterns in your relationships. Inner child healing is a journey — and every step you take nurtures your emotional wellbeing.

Take care,

Carlotta