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🧸 Inner Child Healing Exercise
- Stella Dove PDCH MBSCH
- Sep 1
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 24
🧸 A Photo Exercise to Reconnect with Your Younger Self
This practice is simple in form, but profound in impact. It doesn’t need to be long, but it does need to be spacious. Healing does not move by the clock - it moves by presence.
We all carry the echoes of our younger selves. The child who once laughed freely, cried openly, loved without hesitation. The child who sometimes learned too early to hide their quirks, to dim their light, to please others in order to belong.
That child is not gone. They live within you still — in the body, in the nervous system, in the voice of the inner critic, in the way you respond to love, rejection, and belonging.
Healing the inner child is not about pretending the past never happened. It’s about returning to those parts of yourself with tenderness, safety, and truth. It’s about bringing that part of you into the light again, so they know they are safe, seen, and never betrayed.
The Inner Child Photo Exercise may feel awkward the first time, but stick with it. Over time, it can become a ritual of return - a way of recalibrating your emotional truth and honouring who you have always been
Inner Child Healing Photo Exercise
Here’s how to begin: This practice is simple in form but profound in impact. You will need privacy, stillness, and enough time to go slowly. Ten to twenty minutes is a natural rhythm for many, but there is no clock on this work. Take the time you need.
Step 1: Choose a photo.Find a photo of yourself as a child. Place it somewhere you can see it clearly.
Step 2: Breathe and arrive.Take some deep, cleansing breaths. Let yourself settle into calm presence.
Step 3: Gaze into the eyes of your younger self. Notice what you see — maybe sadness, maybe light, maybe both. Sadness, joy, innocence, loss, all is welcome nothing is better or worse; it just is. Let yourself feel it.
Step 4: Make a promise. Whisper, silently or aloud: “I will never betray you again.”
Step 5: Remember joy. Bring to mind the things that child loved. Ask yourself: Am I still doing them?
When I do this practice with my own nine-year-old self, I remember yoga and meditation (yes, even then), afternoons spent in knick-knack shops, collecting miniatures of anything, films, chocolate, books. I also remember how quirky I was — and how I tried to hide it, so I could belong, be accepted, fit in. That hiding was people-pleasing, not authenticity.
Why This Practice Matters
Looking into the eyes of your child self is not just nostalgia. It is nervous system work. It’s a way of building safety within, of showing the body that it is no longer abandoned.
Many of us silenced our quirks, our longings, our truths to win approval. Over time, this becomes self-betrayal. We ignore our instincts. We exhaust ourselves in roles. We live as half-selves.
This easy exercise interrupts that pattern. It reminds you that you are still the bookworm, the dreamer, the dancer, the child who loved what they loved. And those qualities are not flaws. They are your essence.
It is a tender practice. Sometimes it will bring up sadness. Sometimes relief. Sometimes both. All of it is welcome.
✨ If this practice speaks to you and you’d like to go further, you can explore more about Inner Child Healing in London — how childhood wounds shape our patterns today, and how this work supports recovery from people-pleasing, abandonment wounds, and emotional disconnection.
Bringing It Into Your Life
You don’t need to wait for the perfect moment. You can keep that childhood photo on your desk, by your mirror, or tucked in your journal. When you pause for breath during the day, let your eyes meet. Repeat your promise. Remember one thing they loved, and give it back to yourself.
End each practice with gratitude. Thank that child for surviving, for dreaming, for being quirky, for carrying you this far. Thank yourself for showing up now, for no longer hiding, for reclaiming your truth.
Healing does not move by the clock.
It moves by presence.
Even two minutes a day can create a profound shift. You may notice your inner critic soften. You may feel more able to set boundaries. You may rediscover joy in simple things.
This is not therapy in itself, but it is a doorway. A way of beginning the conversation with yourself again.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Inner Child Photo Exercise?
It’s a gentle practice of looking at a childhood photo and meeting your younger self with presence, compassion, and truth. By gazing into your own eyes and offering reassurance, you begin repairing the bond between who you were and who you are now.
Why is connecting with my younger self important?
Your younger self still lives in your nervous system and shapes how you respond to love, fear, and belonging. Meeting that part with tenderness reduces self-criticism, softens shame, and builds an inner sense of safety and trust.
How do I practise the Inner Child Photo Exercise?
Find a photo from childhood, breathe, and settle. Look into the eyes of that child, notice what arises, and whisper a promise such as “I will never betray you again.” Recall what they loved and re-introduce one of those joys into your life today.
What can I expect to feel during this exercise?
Feelings often range from sadness to relief, warmth to grief. All are welcome. Emotions surfacing are signs of reconnection, not regression—the body recognising it is finally safe to feel what was once suppressed.
How does this help inner child healing?
The exercise rebuilds safety and belonging within. Each moment of eye contact and self-assurance rewires survival patterns like people-pleasing or self-abandonment, teaching the nervous system that authenticity is now safe.
Can this replace therapy?
No. It’s a supportive doorway, not a substitute for professional care. For deeper integration, trauma-informed modalities such as Emotional Recalibration Therapy combine somatic work, guided reflection, and nervous-system regulation.
A Step Toward Deeper Healing
Inner child healing is a foundational part of Emotional Recalibration Therapy. It helps us release survival strategies like people-pleasing, reclaim our voice, and return to the authentic self we abandoned long ago.
If this Inner Child Healing Exercise speaks to you, I invite you to:
Soothe your system and reconnect to your body and breath.
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Final Word
Look into the eyes of your younger self today. Whisper your promise. Remember their joy.
You are not too much. You are not broken. You are becoming.
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