Inner child therapy.
 

I started private counselling today and my counsellor at the end of the session said that she thinks inner child therapy will be the best for me, and she is going to bring dolls in next session to work with.

To be honest it all sounds a bit silly and I dont really know how it's going to work. Has anyone had any experience with it?

Or maybe it's going to uncover something traumatic. God I hope not.

There was a big uproar years ago about therapists "uncovering" traumatic experiences. Turned out most of them were false memories.

Do you really think that there is anything there to uncover? I know memories can be repressed but I think most people have some idea of "something" bad that happened even if they have no memory of what it is.

Go into it with an open mind and give it a go. I don't think it can do any harm and it might do some good. It's probably just a way to get you thinking about and clarifying how you felt at certain times in your childhood. e.g. mum and dad doll are splitting up, how does baby doll feel?

Maybe the thinking is that it'll be easier to talk about in abstract terms rather than saying "i felt like this" or " i don't remember".

I dunno much about it but good luck.

I work with the feelings and experiences of my child state, insofar as they pertain to my experiences, behaviours and feelings in the present, within therapy. Which isn't inner child therapy though.

There is a site. Penny Parks.

Hmm sunds interesting! Not had it. I think I wouldbe feeling the same re. the dolls though!

Good luck, hope it works!

x

erm... just to point out inner child therapy is not regression therapy... regression therapy is to help uncover things (and by the way there is VERY little evidence of false memories, in fact many people accused of them never even had therapy so god only knows ho therapy could have inplanted them) inner child therapy, however, is about the validation of feelings from childhood which were ignored and "swept under the carpet" at the time

I had play therapy, which sounds similar to this because of the dolls part, but... then again, I was a young child, so I guess that'd make sense lol.

Umm... I actually would quite like it myself, but, I can understand why you may feel really uncertain about it, but I think it's to nurture the child within, perhaps due to past abuse/neglect you weren't properly cared for/nurtured/etc, so maybe that's why this may help?

I'm not sure, but nonetheless, let us know how it goes(if you choose to do it), and goodluck with it. :)

Well I'm sure in myself nothing happened in my childhood, however I always get the "are you sure you werent abused" from professionals because apparently most people with BPD have been abused which is why they act that way.

Hazel that sounds very interesting. I was told at one hospital that self harming stems from that sort of thing.

My therapist loved trying a similar method out haha. Initially I found it incredibly strange - she kept asking me how "little Kirsty" would have felt, or ask me to imagine my younger self was in the room with us, and asked how she felt if we spoke about X Y or Z etc. I think the main thing to do, is enter it with an open mind. It was interesting I suppose...but I just found it made me anxious and embarassed having to pretend to view each fresh situation from "young Kirsty"'s viewpoint. After a few sessions, I explained how I found it uncomfortable, and we switched to just chatting away again. Give it a shot, but if you're sitting there thinking it's silly and not really helping (which I think is totally normal!), just let your therapist know and I'm sure you won't have to continue.

It sounds like it might help me, I have a really hard time dealing with my childhood...

I did inner child therapy. I found it very very difficult and stopped because it was just so distressing for me. But it may be diffeernt for you, as long as you go in with positive attitude and a want to try it, then that's all you can ask of yourself :) good luck and tell us how it goes xx

if its park's inner child therapy then having a read through the following descriptive may help...

http://www.ppfoundation.org/pict.aspx

however, it may be a looser term for what your therapist may want to offer you similar to what folks above have described

dollwork can be incredibly powerful through externalising past and or present experiences, relationship dynamics and issues around how you attached to significant people

if you have a traumatic past then it may be helpful to ask your therapist to describe their approaches in detail and what goals these approaches typically have. i believe that clients should be informed customers

i had something similar for one session with my old counselor. it was a bit odd at first, but i could definitely see it being helpful. mine was i think i had to do a guided imagery type thing that i don't remember very well. i think i left with positive feelings toward it. maybe if you're nervous ask her to describe it to you and maybe ask her what she thinks you'll gain from it? i can't see any harm though, it may be a bit awkward at first but it can be a good thing to try and put both your present state with your child state as it's easy to forget childhood experiences/feelings that can really help you in understanding your life and just your relation to the world.