When we do the healing work, it is not easy to face the wound of our inner child, because shame is layered and sneaky. It is one of the more difficult emotions to work with. Other emotions are more straightforward. Sadness is sadness, you can identify it more easily. You have been sad before and have seen other people express their sadness. Same with anger. Although you might have judgments about feeling it, you recognize it as is anger, and most of the time, you know what to do to release it. Shame hides and covers up other emotions. When the original wound, for example, sadness or anger, is ignored and isn’t witnessed or validated by another loving person, or worst, if it was made fun of, ridiculed, or used for another person’s benefits, we learn that what we feel is not acceptable. We understand that being sensitive is not useful to survive, and it can actually be emotionally unsafe to be so.

 

Belonging, love, and safety are essential to the growth of a child....