The year after I got serious about recovery, John Bradshaw published Homecoming: Reclaiming and Healing Your Inner Child. My therapist at the time recommended that I read it, and I did, and before I knew it everyone around me in recovery was reading it too.
The premise of the book was that we each carry within us a wounded inner child who is seeking attention and healing. Our inner child's needs can be met when we learn how to reparent ourselves, to give ourselves what we didn't receive as children.
It sounds complicated, but it works. The one thing that my inner child lacked most was knowledge that she was loved.
Figuring that out was instrumental in my early recovery, and Bradshaw's work helped me give that little girl what she needed. I could close my eyes, picture little me, and tell her that she really was loved; her parents just didn't know how to show her love in a way that she would recognize.
It was such a healing process, and I've continued to nurture little Dawn for these past many decades. Have you met your inner child and helped her process her past?