Ego state therapy

I’m reaching out to my terrified inner child by visualisations.

I’m currently reading this book by Anna Gerge: Hypnosbaserad Ego State terapi (Swedish for Hypnotic Ego State therapy). It’s about how you can connect with other parts of yourself (ego states). Sometimes they are cut off from you due to trauma. This therapy can be helpful for people who dissociate and have DID (dissociative identity disorder). I don’t dissociate, but my inner child is terrified and affects me daily due to PTSD after multiple traumas in my childhood and later.

I can’t do the hypnotic thing by myself, but I’m reading the book mostly to get advice about how to reach out through visualisations. I imagine approaching my inner child, hugging her and telling her my adulthood me is there for her. I imagine sitting in the lap of a (huge) caretaker and being soothed. I can’t tell myself to calm down with my reasoning voice, but I can show my inner kid how to feel safe when I visualize.

I hope my inner child will feel better soon and that I won’t feel terrified everyday when I get triggered. My body has been chronically tense for some years now and I hope it will be able to relax once I am less afraid and hyper vigilante.