About this episode

Em and Jen explore the impact of childhood pain on adult life and discuss strategies for healing the inner child.

This week on ShrinkChicks, Em and Jen explore healing your inner child and advice to give to the kid who lives within your adult self. They talk about why revisiting younger versions of ourselves can bring both compassion and anger, and how learning to care for your inner child can help break patterns that still show up in adult relationships. Listener questions dive into projection and unresolved childhood pain, how to hold empathy for your parents while still honoring anger or grief, and why becoming a parent can suddenly activate deeper feelings about how you were raised. Em and Jen also discuss the concept of the “adaptive child,” how childhood survival strategies show up in adulthood, and what it looks like to reparent yourself by identifying and meeting your own needs. Tune in to gain insight, awareness, and action! PS: Fast forward to around 5:15 to skip the intro and get straight to today’s content. ⁠ Get Matched With One of Our Therapists ⁠ at The Therapy Group! ⁠ShrinkChicks on Instagram⁠ Our ⁠Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal⁠ !! Check out ShrinkChicks on YouTube by subscribing here! ⁠https://youtube.com/channel/UCrxuhDqoL4ML3UE8b2J2BBg⁠ A special thank you to this…

People in this episode

Hosts: Em, Jen

Topics covered

• inner child
• healing
• adult relationships
• childhood pain
• empathy
• reparenting

Keywords

• compassion
• anger
• adaptive child
• survival strategies

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Know Yourself Grow Yourself Journal

Places: California

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• Nicole Pellegrino on Becoming a Mom, Grieving a Mom, and Mental Health · March 30, 2026 · 53 min
• Understanding the Many Forms of Grief · March 23, 2026 · 38 min
• The Hidden Cost of Being the “Good Kid” with Maggie Nick · March 16, 2026 · 48 min
• Trauma Responses: Understanding The Fawn Response · March 9, 2026 · 45 min

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