Working with children and teens greatly enhances my work with adults as I understand more about how our early attachments and experiences shape the person we become later in adult life. I am reminded daily of how important the life process we have as children and teenagers creates the adult us. While it isn’t the end all be all, it certainly is a factor in creating who we become.
Patterns from childhood emerge in adulthood whether we like it or not. For example, let’s say you grew up in a home where you were not free to express emotions. Where nobody ever talked about what they felt and negative emotions were taboo. Now let’s imagine one carrying that pattern into an adult relationship. See how that could become a problem?
In the above example, I can help children and teens learn to express themselves and families learn to allow for it. The adult who comes to therapy can learn how to break this cycle and develop a trusting relationship with the therapist and try on this new way of being. The teen can work to break this pattern why it is still early and not entirely solidified. All with the intention that what happens in the therapy room emanates out into other relationships and creates a better way of relating and a better overall quality of life.
Our young selves lives inside each of us. Some people are good at keeping it hidden while others display these parts of themselves on their sleeves. Many shut off from the younger parts for both conscious and unconscious reasoning. Irregardless, the young in us exists, and we can often be in touch with it if we listen closely. Sometimes this younger self is where healing needs to happen in order to move forward in our lives.
Giving attention to the younger parts of ourselves can help us get unstuck and move on to feeling better about who we are and our lives. Therapy with children, teens, and adults can be an invaluable resource to getting there.
AFFIRMATION
I listen to what is inside of me that is asking to be healed.
