Inner Child is a friendly and, above all, very effective form of therapy. In Poland, the Inner Child appears as an addition to work with ACoA (Adult Children of Alcoholics). Although in psychology this term appeared in the work of Carl Gustav Jung and Eric Berne, the “mother” of the Inner Child in psychotherapy is Penny Parks, an American who has lived in Great Britain for many years. Penny developed and introduced into therapeutic use a model called “Parks Inner Child Therapy” (PICT). And this is the very model I use in my work with the Inner Child. To discover and later apply the Inner Child in therapy, Penny Parks drew upon her own childhood experiences. She developed her therapeutic method from start to finish, offering therapists and their patients a wonderful tool for “very effectively dealing with problems.” Her method is currently at the forefront of effectiveness in working on traumas and resulting problems such as: depression, low self-esteem, addictions/dependencies, phobias, and various types of defense mechanisms.
Parks Inner Child Therapy combines elements of other therapeutic approaches such as: Transactional Analysis, Psychoanalysis, NLP with a deep understanding of how the human brain functions in both conscious and unconscious realms. It is a very advanced form of therapy, but presented to the patient in an easy, interesting, and most importantly, pleasant form.
PICT is based on the statement that problems we are unable to solve consciously, as adults, have their sources in the unconscious, and therefore the sources reach back to childhood, i.e., the period in which knowledge is absorbed unconsciously, without analyzing or questioning it. Additional information is the fact that we feel safe when something is familiar and predictable to us, and therefore our brain rejects what doesn’t fit this known and simultaneously recognized as “safe” pattern. This is why it is so difficult to change old habits and beliefs, even if we know they are unfavorable to us.
PICT allows one to understand and change false and simultaneously harmful beliefs, such as “I am inferior,” “I am not good enough,” “I will never be safe,” “I must get someone before they get me,” “What will people think?” “I won’t succeed anyway,” “There’s something wrong with me,” etc.
PICT uses, among other things, visualizations to simultaneously introduce desired changes by the patient into both consciousness and unconsciousness. As a result, the patient understands why, until now, despite often having extensive psychological knowledge, they were unable to cope with everything. They are able to make decisions independently and behave assertively, according to their own expectations, without forcing themselves into submission. Aggressive people are finally able to reach the source of their aggression and overcome it.
I learned Parks Inner Child Therapy at the source, studying with Susan Osborne, under the watchful eye of Penny Parks herself. Directly from Penny, during several courses she conducted, I was also able to acquire valuable knowledge in working on all kinds of traumas and abuses, including sexual abuse. This is all the more important to me because Penny Parks no longer teaches, enjoying a well-deserved retirement. I recommend this method to anyone who has tried other therapy that was not entirely effective, as well as to anyone who wants to “Live life to the fullest and use their full potential.” Every therapist I know (including myself), after acquiring knowledge in PICT, states: “How could I have worked before without this knowledge, this understanding, and these skills?”
