An Open Conversation about Inner Child Work.

I have been avoiding writing about this. Talking about this. Expressing any of my feelings about this, because I am finding myself more and more confused each and every day.

When I started on my entrepreneurial journey, I very quickly got swept up into spirituality, spiritual coaching, and the idea of helping other people through different types of healing.

I started out as a copywriter and marketer and overtime I had evolved into an inner child educator and mentor.

While the term "inner child" felt right at the time, I realize what a dis-service I did to my clients by focusing so heavily on the concept of the inner child. How misguided a lot of my support and advice was. And how a lot of the work surrounding the inner child is only effective at bringing up the past keeping us in a cycle of introspection in the name of self discovery. How the concept of the inner child is based off of Jungian theory which has many downfalls.

I still believe in inner child work, and the power it can have on our lives.

But I am no longer going to identify as an inner child educator or mentor. I don't believe that I am TRULY qualified to lead in this space because I have not studied mental health, mental illness, and trauma in a capacity to be helping people.

I think one of the downfalls in the online spiritual and self help spaces is that we often walk a fine line between being a mentor/coach or a therapist.

The spiritual community has co-opted a ton of psychology concepts and wove it into the fabric, causing massive oversimplification of a ton of issues. Inner child work and therapy being one of them.

It has taken me almost a full year to figure out exactly why I didn't feel at home when I was focusing on inner child work: I was uncomfortable with it.

The more I kept learning, the more I realized that inner child work actually didn’t really describe the work I was doing.

My purpose, my mission, my joy, is to help individuals play and create more. While inner child work felt like the only way to do that, I know now that isn't true. That was the first thing that was suggested to me from a mentor, and I listened to their advice.

I don't like to use the word regret. But I have found that I do feel some regret in the work that I did with my clients.

Inner child work is just such a small piece while learning to play more and create more as an adult. There is so much that goes into creating fun, play, and time for imagination as adults.

I did my clients a disservice by only focusing on their inner child, and making it the focal point of my work.

I am still unlearning, relearning, and redirecting my education about the inner child, our adult selves, and our connection to our creativity.

And moving forward my work with the inner child will fall under the umbrella of my work with creativity.

I am here to help you connect with and express your creativity, and have more FUN. Play more. Inner child work is just one of the many tools I use to do that! (Right now my main tool is helping you through sustainable, playful marketing and breathwork practices. Wild how we evolve right?)

I would be super interested in hearing about your experience with inner child work and how it has effected you and your mindset. I will hopefully be creating a podcast episode about this soon! I would love to collaborate with anyone who is interested in sharing.