The wounded inner child can manifest itself in our adult life through behaviors and attitudes, such as making long faces, withdrawing during an argument, or having tantrums. In addition, the wounded inner child can generate problems in interpersonal relationships, as well as in how we relate to others and the ability to maintain a stable relationship. On the other hand, the inner child who has healed, or the people who have managed to reconnect with it, will experience how creativity and joy accompany them when they do something they like or contemplate a landscape, for example.
It is essential to understand that the wounded inner child adopted beliefs that, at that time and stage of development, allowed it to survive and adapt to specific circumstances and dysfunctional family environments to which it was exposed. These beliefs create what Ron Kurtz calls "the internal environment." This internal environment determines how we perceive our experiences and leads us to repeatedly make mistakes, such as choosing dysfunctional relationships with people with specific characteristics or attitudes. Freud called these impulsive repetitions "repetition compulsion."
Inner child therapy is a very effective therapeutic tool. It helps us re-educate ourselves in certain internal beliefs that were rooted in us during childhood. It is essential to consider the environment in which the person doing this work grew up, as stress is responsible for forming those beliefs to ensure survival.
So far, we have mentioned how the inner life or internal environment is shaped and installed in our unconscious during childhood and how these persist into adulthood, causing various problems and even depression. However, childhood memories are not the only ones that determine this belief system and affect us throughout our lives; in many cases, this begins in a uterine life.
The text "Effects of prenatal stress on pregnancy and human development: mechanisms and pathways" (published by the National Library of Medicine—NIH) explains how stress during pregnancy directly influences the formation of the fetus and the mother's health. It also describes how prenatal stress influences transgenerational transmission from an epigenetic point of view. We must also consider the social, economic, and geographical environment in which the mother carries out her pregnancy since this will be related to the stress she experiences during this stage.
From an emotional point of view, the emotional state of the embryo-fetus-baby has a link to the emotional state of the mother and her internal environment. The mother's exposure to stress can not only affect the health of the future baby but also predispose her to develop possible postpartum depression. This exposure will have even more complex consequences, as it can disrupt the emotional bond of the baby with the mother, leading to feelings of mistrust, fear, and sometimes rejection of the identity of the future adult.
Numerous causes can cause stress to the mother during pregnancy: the death or illness of a family member, economic problems, abuse, infidelity by the partner, health problems of the mother, work or financial situations, and even experiences of previous pregnancies that ended in abortion, which can cause anxiety to the pregnant mother.
The mother acts as a filter and channeler of the emotions that the baby experiences as her own. Therefore, when analyzing a person's childhood, we must also consider her intrauterine life and any circumstances that may have caused emotional instability to the mother. Everything the mother feels or thinks, that is, how her internal environment operates and the beliefs she uses, will influence the emotional records of the baby. These initial records will determine how that person will face life.
From a holistic approach, we must also consider the baby's and the mother's health and the surrounding environment. Through regressive hypnosis, it is possible to perform regressions to the uterus to relive and remember those memories that cannot be conscious, no matter how hard you try. Regressive hypnosis, then, can be a valuable tool to work on those initial records that constitute the basis of our emotional memory and our internal environment.
Author: Estefanía Cultrera-Elfring
Bibliography:
- [JESUS CASLA]; "The emotional memory of uterine life," 2020
- [JOHN BRADSHAW]; "Homecoming: Reclaiming and Healing the Inner Child"; 1990.
- "Effects of prenatal stress on pregnancy and human development: mechanisms and pathways"; Mary E Coussons-Read, Ph.D.; National Library of Medicine - NIH; online published 3rd May 2013.
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