Reddit reviews Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual: Trauma-Informed Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, PTSD & Substance Abuse

One idea I have for you is to explore internal family systems therapy. You may already know about this kind of therapy, also sometimes called “parts therapy“ – it basically views your self as made up of a bunch of constituent parts.
One major one of those parts would be your inner child. In this type of therapy, which you can basically do on your own, you open a dialogue with each of your different parts, get to know them.


There is a series of three videos on YouTube on IFS that starts with this one that I highly recommend:


https://youtu.be/NXimi-OP0M8

In the videos, one concept that Derek Scott brings up is the idea of a part that can “blank you out“ - basically it’s a protective part that jumps in and shuts things down when you are getting too close to the pain of an exiled part (the protective part is worried that the pain of the child part will overwhelm you). I wonder if this might be what’s going on when your connection with your inner child gets spotty.

If the videos resonate with you, I highly recommend also checking out this book on internal family systems therapy (it’s written for therapists but I found it really helpful):

https://www.amazon.com/Internal-Family-Systems-Skills-Training/dp/1683730879/ref=asc_df_1683730879/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312736349443&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1465443861342540366&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032361&hvtargid=pla-416959139490&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=63700707018&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312736349443&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1465443861342540366&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032361&hvtargid=pla-416959139490

The idea with internal family systems is that it can help you to open a dialogue with your inner child.

Other than internal family systems therapy, another thing that has really helped me get in touch with my inner child is doing visualizations. I started out using a CD of guided imagery for self healing by Dr. Martin Rossman. From there I begin just doing visualizations on my own – I kind of just invite whatever images are inside me to come up during a sort of meditation and I often get images from my inner child that help me understand what she went through.

These are a couple of the things that have really helped me. Not sure if they will be right for you, but based on your post it sounds like you are totally on the right track with connecting with your inner child. I bet that no matter which techniques you work with you will end up connecting with that inner child because you want to make it happen. As rumi said, “what you seek is seeking you.“ Wishing you beautiful healing 💜

I really liked this workbook:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1683730879/ref=sspa_mw_detail_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And to echo what someone else said, IFS is not so much related to family systems or family therapy - it’s more for trauma and split self work that can be applied to a variety of disorders.