The concept of the inner child was first developed by psychologist Carl Jung with his “divine child archetype”. Today, the inner child is regarded as a subconscious personality consisting of your younger self’s learned behaviors and experiences. Jung attached this personality to “memories of innocence, playfulness, and creativity, along with hope for the future”. When this child is wounded due to trauma experienced, it can negatively impact our conscious adult selves in ways that we don’t realize.
Jungian Psychotherapy assists in healing this inner child through a process called “reparenting”. During the reparenting process, you uncover the traumas your inner child is suffering from, and actively work to change the patterns of behavior this trauma manifests as in your everyday life. Reparenting your inner child allows you to free yourself from pain and baggage that you’ve been subconsciously carrying, and see the world in the lighthearted way your child self would have, had they not encountered the challenges they did.
Even without a licensed psychotherapist guiding you through it, there are small things you can do on your own in your daily life to help you slowly reparent yourself. You can indulge in activities you used to enjoy but left behind due to outside criticism or being told you were “too old”, validate and allow yourself to feel your emotions, or my personal favorite, play. Interning at Game Genius this summer has given me the opportunity to connect back with my inner child through play, and I could not be more grateful. Their mission to make social impact fun is a perfect way to allow adults to do good while satisfying the child inside of them being refused playtime. Through this organization, I have been able to satisfy my adult self’s passion for social justice and making a difference with my child self’s love and hunger for fun.
The projects I have been a part of during my time as an intern have allowed me to blend creativity with logic. As a child, card games were always my favorite, and being able to assist with designing the box for Splash Down was an incredible way to connect back with old hobbies. My inner child will forever be grateful for the experience I had as a Game Genius intern this summer.