During ceremony support we often encounter themes in participant’s intentions where a blockage is often identified as an echo of a previous experience and who are generally looking for an improvement in self understanding and trust. Where we’ve identified an opportunity to explore the participants relationship with their past self or inner-child, we’ve understood increasingly that there is more to this deep investigation that can identify and resolve challenges with emotional control, self direction and trust.
We were delighted when our paths crossed with Henk Meulendijks, an experienced Reiki Master, Inner Child expert who offered us an immersive workshop on Inner Child connection to recognise and develop a healthy relationship with the beautiful child that we all harbour within.
Henk decided to share his knowledge and experience throughout 3 dedicated workshops of around 2 and a half hours each split into three periods of childhood, from birth to around 18 months, 18 months to 3 years and from 3 years up to 7 or 8 years of age. It was explained that some participants may require more work individually following the initial sessions, in order to initiate more receptive interconnection with their inner child.
The Inner Child Workshop
Workshop one was a beautiful explanation of Henk’s own path with inner child workings and his training with Annie Kropman, who authored most of the material that we were using and who’s supportive stories cropped up occasionally. An intention was set around finding harmony and equilibrium, forming happiness with our inner child, healing and allowing ourselves to explore anything that may be required for our success in our forward journey.
The workshops involved beautiful explanations and examples of how and why creating a connection with the little person within us can provide a path to resolution. They explained episodes where we previously struggled to understand, or were unaware of emotional or energetic struggles, questionable behavioural patterns or in our understanding of ourselves. The practical elements were exercises and meditations where we engaged directly and embraced our inner child, gave support and asked for forgiveness. Our first exercise was a letter to our parents with our non-dexterous hand, explaining how they could have been more supportive in their role in understanding our frustrations as children, then reading our letters to the group. This exercise was to highlight the emotional pains that continue to resonate with us today and opened our individual understanding for therapeutic support of connecting with our inner children.
The second session dealt with the period of our development where we build our sense of self and expressively explore, this is where we learn to reject requests and say no to our parents. This causes great difficulty for our parents and when feelings of guilt and shame are formed. If there is a lack of intimacy between our parents, this could also be when one parent transfers the feelings to their special child for their emotional needs. We also begin to condition the conformity and rebellion behaviours during this developmental stage, or we become lost as to how to satisfy the demands of our parents. We write a letter to our inner child during this session and begin opening up the trust and acceptance of our former selves, resolving the emotional pains that we experienced during a difficult episode. We also practice a regression meditation to consult and console our inner child, feeling for the first time the receptivity that we receive to our adult selves from our little selves. For some people this can be a difficult initiation, maybe the inner child doesn’t show up, or is despondent to our approach. This is a normal indication of a detached understanding, a sign for healing and progress. Our group had mixed responses from their inner child and we shared the stories of our regressive experiences.
The third session, the preschooler stage moves on to our initiation with automatic conditioned responses. Assumptions begin to become our default form of action and we guess responses to situations we haven’t previously encountered. A new school environment brings mixed messages and a sense of competition, we may feel exposed and intimidated especially if we are obliged to express ourselves to others. For the meditation we concentrated on these experiences personally and chose a painful scene from our past, we were guided through a dialogue of repatriation and forgiveness aimed at resolving the anxiety of the scene. Again we felt the opportunity to interface with our inner-child, this time with more purpose and direction and awareness of the potential for us to be healers of our own past-selves. Our final exercise was to write a fairy-tale version of our own lives, enchanted with fun and magic, exciting and invigorating our memories and ultimately empowering our ability to bring change into our precious personal narrative.
The tools provided during the workshop were not solely for use in the workshops, but were the beginnings of building a healthy and enjoyable relationship with our playful inner-child, who clearly influences our adult behaviours and feelings. Through these exercises, it was explained that we can work towards an empowering wholeness of trust and harmony, to foster a more nurturing relationship within ourselves and those around us and to honour the playful attitudes that can rise within us from time to time.
It was a humble task for each of us in the group to show the gratitude we felt for the insights shared by Henk and the incredible opportunity we had been given. We would like to recommend these workshops, that Henk generously offers online and show our respects by giving this small insight to the immense journey we shared together during these workshops.
