@jimhd Jim, Linda and I were talking more about the inner child work each of us did. There was one more concept that I remembered that I did not get across adequately. If you don't mind I'd like to just mention that because it is, as I say, a crucial point.

When I did the work on myself, and I sat quietly trying to bring up in my memory some instance of trauma that occurred to me, the way I was able to "give myself love" was to view myself as me, my adult self, viewing me as my child self. Rather than the child self trying to give itself love, it's actually the adult you that is seeing the hurt being done to the child and giving that love out to the child. It's the adult "you" giving love to the child "you".

Once you have relived that experience of hurt from the past (and you really have got to bring it up clearly in your mind), and you have seen that inner child experiencing the hurt, and have given that love to your inner child, that is when the "it" or the crux of inner child work, happens. The way that it happened for me was by the adult giving total love to the child.

I just thought I should make that clearer, and I hope I have done justice to the process. It's been so long since I did it. The other thing Linda wondered is how drugs (such as anti-depressants) might affect inner child work, or if they would. Just something to be aware of.

Hope all is well. Hank

PS: when you said your driveway is 1/4 mile long I was stunned. That is a LONG driveway. 😬