When we feel grounded, centered, and secure, we are able to take risks that grow our life experience. We are comfortable with experiencing our creativity, sexuality, and play. We can relax into presence, and are comfortable being alone as much as with others. We can trust ourselves to take good care of ourselves, make positive self choices, and listen to our feelings and intuition. Even in the best of childhoods, few of us learned what it looks like to take good care of ourselves and how to make ourselves happy.

For trauma survivors, the more we were abused, the worse we feel about ourselves, and the harder it is to value and advocate for our needs and believe we are worthy of love and care -- even from ourselves. The Inner Child is the aspect of our personality that is soft, vulnerable, creative, intuitive, and feelings-orientated. It is our natural personality, our core self. As Adults we can learn the process of Inner Bonding to connect our Inner Child and give ourselves, each and every moment, what we never had or learned as children. Cultivating this relationship can help create a sense that we are finally "home" -- the safe haven where protections aren't necessary, actions do not have to be guarded, and love is unconditional. This ideal state is where we can re-member our own value and worth, what is loveable about who we truly are, and open up to greater inner power and more love of self and others.

Using the lenses of Margaret Paul's "Inner Bonding," and Richard Schwartz's "Internal Family Systems (IFS)," we will learn and experience techniques to connect and dialog with our Inner Child. We will discuss the experience of trauma in the nervous system as it relates to "parts work" in IFS, and the spiritual tradition of "calling back" the soul fragments that occur during traumatic events. We will also experience trauma-informed breathwork, gentle movement, journaling, and a special Yoga Nidra practice designed to connect and facilitate healing with your inner little one. This workshop is designed with love and honor for wherever you are in your process. You do not have to identify as a trauma-survivor to benefit, however, special attention will be given to discussion of trauma, PTSD, and C-PTSD.