Aug 292 min read

WORKSHEET: Emotions - our inner children.

An emotional regulation practice focused on inner child / parts work.

I made this worksheet for a wonderful client of mine who has struggled with very intense childhood trauma.

For a lot of us who’ve been through childhood trauma, emotions might be a hard thing for us to deal with. Especially if we’ve had to spend a lot of time suppressing or disassociating these emotions away back then and across the years too.

Know this though, it’s not your fault - we did all of this to survive - we and these past versions of ourselves had to somehow find a way to deal with all this pain.

However, what you’ve probably learnt is that over time and in your healing, we can’t ignore or avoid our emotions any longer. To do so is to continue to neglect ourselves, which we never deserved to happen to us in the first place. And what you further learnt was that the long-term avoidance of these emotions don't actually make them go away. They remain - as symptoms, intense emotions - all parts of us stuck in the past carrying a heavy burden.

Each of us, we all deserve to feel so we can heal. So let’s some time to goin.

Let’s practice:

1. Which emotion is showing up because of today?

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E.g. I'm feeling a lot of anxiety today.

2. What happened to "trigger" this emotion? What is it trying to worried or upset about? What is it trying to say?

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E,g. I learnt that there was a new deadline for a presentation I have to give in two week.s It's telling me that it's worried we won't be able to prepare in time. And that even if we did, it's worried that people might not find it helpful - and we might get judged, criticised, or even shamed.

3. Where do you think it's coming from? Was it from childhood, adolescence? From which time?

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E.g. It feels like a past teenage version of me who was very scared of what people think and thought about them. There was a time when I was 13-14 years old and I had to a show-and-tell in class. I was so nervous and shaking. Then another part of me in uni when I was giving a presentation. My hands and voice were shaking then too.

4. What do you think it needs right now?

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E.g. Both there versions of me just want to feel SAFE. That nothing is going to happen to them.

Then turn to that inner child of yours who needs you okay?

Right now, I'm telling them that they are safe, that I will handle it in time. And that we don't need to be so anxious now as we do have a lot of time to prepare ahead.

Instead, what I want to do is feel peace today and do what matters to me.

So let's go do that okay?

Take care,

Hernping

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