What happens in a session?

At your body’s pace, we blend guided hypnotherapy, somatic awareness, and compassionate dialogue to witness and reparent the younger self. Safety and self-trust become the new baseline.

How is this different from talk therapy?

Beyond talk alone, it integrates body-based work and subconscious re-patterning so change is not just cognitive but embodied.

Schedule A Call

🧸 Inner Child Healing London

Q: What is Inner Child Therapy?

Inner Child Therapy reconnects you with the parts shaped by early experiences of love, safety, and belonging. Trauma-informed, somatic, and hypnotherapeutic tools release shame, fear, and abandonment held in the body.

Q: Who is Inner Child Healing for?

Anyone who feels too sensitive or unseen, struggles with people-pleasing, perfectionism, emotional reactivity, or repeating painful patterns — especially after heartbreak, burnout, or chronic anxiety.

Q: How many sessions will I need?

Many begin with a six-week Emotional Recalibration Therapy container with deep inner child work and integration. A free discovery call can help you choose.

Q: Can I work with you online?

Yes — sessions are available in London and worldwide via Zoom.

🎧 Alt - Stella Dove, trauma-informed inner child healer, speaking gently to camera, in her therapy space, surrounded by bookshelves, as she explains how trauma keeps the amygdala overactive and how healing restores nervous-system safety

What is Inner Child Therapy London?
Reclaim The Self You Were Meant To Be

Your inner child is not a fantasy - it’s the living memory of who you were before life taught you to hide. In my London-based practice, Inner Child Healing sits at the heart of Emotional Recalibration Therapy, a trauma-informed blend of hypnotherapy, somatic awareness, and nervous system regulation. Together, we meet the parts of you that learned to survive through silence, perfection, or people-pleasing — so you can finally feel safe, seen, and whole again.

When painful things happen in childhood - abandonment, inconsistent love, shaming, screaming, physical fear, or being left to cope alone, the developing brain adapts.

It doesn’t choose - it survives.

Your “inner child” is not a fantasy - it is the living memory of who you were before life taught you to hide.
It carries your earliest experiences of love, safety, joy… and pain.

When those early needs for nurture, acceptance, and protection are unmet, the child self stores the wound.

You grow up, but that pain remains - often silently shaping your choices, relationships, and self-belief.

This three and a half minute video explains a bit more.

The Neurological Impact of Childhood Trauma - From Confusion to Clarity.

Childhood trauma doesn’t just live in memory — it reshapes the brain itself. From the prefrontal cortex, where calm thinking lives, to the amygdala, where fear is born, early emotional pain can rewire how we think, feel, and respond. Full transcript at the end of the page.

Does This Sound Like You?

I struggle to trust closeness - even when I crave it.
I feel invisible or misunderstood in relationships.
I say “yes” when I mean “no” - and it exhausts me.
I was told I was “too sensitive” or “too much.”
I hide how I feel, over-explain, or avoid conflict to keep the peace.
I have intense emotional reactions I can’t always explain.
I fear that expressing my needs will push people away.
I worry something is fundamentally wrong with me.

If this feels familiar, your inner child may still be carrying the pain your adult self is trying to manage.

It may help to read my article, What is A Highly Sensitive Person? to see if it resonates with you.

If you are seeking Inner Child Healing London or online, this may resonate with what your heart is carrying.

How Childhood Pain Shapes the Adult Self

Trauma is not always a single catastrophic event.

Sometimes it is a slow erosion:

A parent who was emotionally absent.
A sibling who mocked or belittled you.
A teacher who shamed you in front of others.
A home where love had conditions.

These experiences shape your nervous system:

Your brain’s alarm system stays on high alert.
Safety feels fragile, fleeting, or out of reach.
Self-worth becomes tangled in fear and self-blame.

Your adult patterns — people-pleasing, self-abandonment, perfectionism, emotional numbness — are not personality flaws. They are adaptations you made to survive.

Read more about how Childhood Trauma Alters Brain Development

Healing the Father Wound
(Inner Child Work in Adulthood)

For many people seeking inner child healing in London, the deepest ache comes from what’s known as the father wound — the emotional imprint left by a father who was absent, unavailable, cruel, or simply unable to love and protect in the ways you needed.

This isn’t just grief over a man — it’s the inner child’s unanswered question:

“Why wasn’t I worth staying for? Why didn’t you protect me — from your temper, your silence, your indifference… or even from my mother?”

Unhealed, the father wound often shows up in adulthood as:

Fear of abandonment or rejection
Mistrust of men / masculine energy
Attracting emotionally unavailable partners (read more about this in What is Gaslighting?)
Over-achieving to “earn” love
Needing constant validation to feel secure

In my Inner Child Healing London practice, we work gently with this wound by:

Releasing inherited shame (“It must have been my fault”)
Building emotional safety in the nervous system
Reparenting the inner child so she no longer needs to earn love
Redefining father energy on your own terms - nurturing, protective, devoted

You cannot change what didn’t happen in your childhood — but you can stop abandoning yourself in the present.

Ready to go deeper? Here's more information on: What Is the Father Wound?

Healing the Mother Wound
(When Nurture Was Not Safe)

This isn’t just grief over what wasn’t given — it’s the inner child’s broken belief that “I must not be worthy of care.”

The mother wound is often the hardest to name, because it lives beneath layers of conditioning: mothers are sacred, mothers are love. When your lived experience doesn’t match the myth, it can leave you drowning in shame — convinced that you are the problem.

You may have lived with a mother who was…

– Emotionally absent or preoccupied with her own pain
– Highly critical, enmeshed, or easily triggered
– Loving one moment, unpredictable the next
– Consumed by body-image, anxiety, control, or resentment
– Capable of providing physical care — but not emotional safety

Inner Child Healing helps to reach the roots of this wound so it stops silently running your life.

Ready to go deeper? Here is more information on: What Is The Mother Wound?

How the Mother Wound Shows Up in Adulthood

– Fierce self-criticism and perfectionism
– Anxious attachment and fear of abandonment
– People-pleasing and over-functioning
– Emotional eating / body issues (trying to soothe the pain or control the chaos)
– Resentment, guilt, or deep ambivalence toward your mother
– Difficulty trusting your own intuition and needs

What Changes Through Inner Child Healing

Together we:

Face the reality of what your younger self truly experienced (not just what you were told)
Separate your worth from your mother’s wounds
Cultivate a new, internal source of mothering rooted in compassion and safety
Release shame and anxiety stored in the nervous system, reconnecting you to your body and voice

This isn’t about blaming. It’s about unlocking the love you never stopped longing for - from within yourself.

💭 If you resonate with this, you may also wish to explore Emotional Recalibration Therapy - many clients experience relentless overthinking and hyper-vigilance rooted in a mother wound.

Reparenting Therapy (Becoming the Parent You Needed)

Reparenting is the heart of inner child healing — because for many of us, the love, protection, or permission we needed simply wasn’t there.

We don’t blame ourselves as children. We adapt.
We become quiet, helpful, high-achieving, or emotionally numb — not because it’s who we are, but because it’s how we learned to survive.

These adaptations got you here.
But now, they may be costing you your peace, voice, and truth.

Signs You May Need Reparenting Therapy

– You struggle to soothe yourself without external validation
– You speak to yourself harshly and expect perfection
– You feel like an anxious child in adult situations
– You find it hard to make decisions, trust yourself, or feel proud of yourself
– You long to feel safe, but don’t know how to create that safety internally

What Reparenting Therapy Does

Together, we peel back the expectations and adaptations — not to blame your parents, but to reclaim your power. Reparenting therapy helps you:

Hear the needs of your younger self, instead of silencing them
Speak to yourself with warmth, clarity, and encouragement
Create healthy boundaries and soothing routines your nervous system recognises as safe
Become a steady internal mother/father voice — firm, kind, dependable

Ultimately, reparenting is about becoming the adult your younger self needed — so you no longer look to partners, friends, or work to fill the void.

This deeper inner child work often radically transforms anxious attachment, self-abandonment, and emotional overwhelm - .

In my practice, Inner Child Healing London is not a standalone tool - it is the heart of Emotional Recalibration Therapy.

Together we:

Witness the child self without judgment — naming the pain you were never allowed to voice.
Reparent with truth, compassion, and nervous system safety.
Integrate so your adult and child selves no longer fight, but walk side by side.

This work is gentle but powerful.

We move at the pace your body allows, combining somatic regulation, guided inner journeys, and practical boundary work so healing is not just emotional — it is embodied.

What You May Discover

Confidence and clarity in your relationships.
The courage to express your needs without guilt.
Relief from shame, anxiety, and old emotional storms.
A deeper sense of calm, play, and self-acceptance.
An end to the loop of “I’m too much” or “not enough.”
A new relationship with your body, your worth, and your voice

You Were Not Made This Way - You Became This Way
And if you became this way, you can become differently.
Not perfect. But more present. More true. More free.

🧸 FAQs — Inner Child Healing London

What is Inner Child Therapy?

Inner Child Therapy helps you reconnect with the parts of yourself shaped by early experiences of love, safety, and belonging. Using trauma-informed, somatic, and hypnotherapeutic tools, it supports you to heal shame, fear, and abandonment wounds stored in the body — so you can live with more confidence, clarity, and self-worth.

Who is Inner Child Healing for?

This work is for anyone who feels “too sensitive,” over-responsible, or unseen in relationships. If you struggle with people-pleasing, perfectionism, emotional reactivity, or repeating painful patterns — your inner child may be guiding you toward healing. Many clients begin this journey after heartbreak, burnout, or chronic anxiety.

What happens in an Inner Child Healing session?

Sessions unfold gently and at your body’s pace. We combine guided hypnotherapy, somatic awareness, and compassionate dialogue to help you witness the younger self you once had to silence. You’ll learn to reparent yourself with warmth and boundaries — so safety and self-trust become your new baseline.

How is Inner Child Healing different from traditional therapy?

Unlike talk therapy, Inner Child Healing doesn’t rely only on analysis or memory. It integrates body-based awareness, subconscious reprogramming, and emotional recalibration — so transformation is not just cognitive, but deeply embodied. This approach addresses the root, not just the response.

What shifts can I expect from Inner Child Healing?

Clients often notice calmer reactions, improved relationships, deeper sleep, and clearer boundaries. You may feel softer inside your body, kinder in your self-talk, and freer in love. Most of all, you’ll learn to meet yourself with compassion — not criticism.

How many sessions will I need?

Every journey is unique. Many clients begin with my six-week Emotional Recalibration Therapy container, which includes deep inner child work, integration sessions, and ongoing support. You’re welcome to explore if this is right for you in a complimentary Discovery Call.

Can I work with you online?

Yes. Inner Child Healing is available both in-person in London and worldwide online. The somatic and hypnotherapeutic tools I use are equally effective over Zoom, creating a safe and connected space wherever you are.

What if I’m not ready for a full program?

You can start gently. Flexible payment options — including Klarna instalments — are available, and I also offer shorter workshops and a free weekly newsletter, Stories with Stella, to help you begin at your own pace.
👉 Join Stories with Stella

Reclaim your voice. Restore your self-worth. Rewrite the story.

To learn more about Inner Child Healing London

Please schedule a free call

What Childhood Trauma Does To Your Brain (and What You Can Do About It) Full Video Transcript

If you've ever wondered why you overreact to certain things, freeze under pressure, lose time in spirals of worry, or feel constantly on edge, the answer might not be who you are. It might be what happened to you. Childhood trauma doesn't just linger in the heart. It lodges in the brain, reshaping how we think, feel, and respond. And unless it's addressed with care and compassion, it can impact every area of your life, relationships, focus, self-worth, even your physical health. Research shows that emotional trauma in childhood alters brain development. From the preffrontal cortex, our planning, logic, and regulation center, to the amygdala, our fear, and survival alarm bell, the brain adapts to keep us safe. But in doing so, it can begin to misfire. This rewiring can lead to emotional overwhelm and sudden outbursts, struggles with concentration and impulse control, chronic anxiety or emotional shutdown, time blindness, forgetfulness, and shame spirals, a constant sense of being too much or not enough. If you've experienced childhood trauma, your amygdala likely developed in hypervigilant overdrive. Neurological research confirms that early trauma can override the typical development of the executive brain, leaving your nervous system disregulated. This means you may react intensely to small triggers, struggle to regulate emotions, shut down or explode, feel overwhelmed by your own reactions. Many survivors also develop over responsibility for others feelings, often absorbing pain that isn't theirs to carry. This pattern, sometimes called toxic empathy, can keep the nervous system in a constant state of alert. Inner child therapy helps you gain your sovereignty over your emotions. Seatic awareness grounds you in your body and calms your nervous system so you can begin to think clearly. This includes understanding and working with the vagus nerve, the body's key to communication channeling between the brain and the body, essential for regulating stress responses. Meditation helps you sit beside your feelings without fearing them. Emotional recalibration therapy supports you to rewire thought patterns, challenge belief systems, and heal emotional imprints, not by chasing happiness, but by finding presence, peace, and clarity in the now. Most people don't know what happiness is because they're chasing it like it's a product on the shelf. But happiness isn't something you get. It's something you are when you remember who you are. Instead of chasing joy, you seek calm and truth and peace. Happiness lives there.

Emotional Recalibration Therapy
in Central London

with

Stella Dove PDCH MBSCH

A trauma-informed pathway blending inner child healing, somatic awareness and hypnosis to soothe grief, rebalance the nervous system and bring your heart back to peace.

Book a complementary 30 minute discovery call

This is our chance to feel if my work is the right fit for you. I promise to be honest — if I feel someone else could serve you better, I will say so with care.