Originally Posted by
Tuffgirl 
So how are you supposed to "work on" sharing your true self with others? Did the therapist give you some tips/homework?
Inner child work has a lot to do with working through the things that have happened as a child (and created the wounded child) as well as recognizing the things that the wounded child did to survive (things that don't work anymore as an adult but may have worked as a child)...then you can become the loving adult to yourself that you didn't have. Not sure if I explained that right. So you can be the loving adult you didn't have - and it doesn't always come from an alcoholic family - it could be any situation where the parent was leaning on something outside of themselves and not emotionally available to the child (food issues, work-aholic (sp), narcissism etc)...or something like that. There are a lot of good resources online if you google inner child....I just wasn't sure what I was allowed to post.
I do know in ACOA meetings there is a lot of focus on the inner child - some of the Alanon meetings I really like are when the speaker addresses inner child issues....those are the ones I relate to.