Inner Child Work and Psychodrama

This chapter centers on using psychodrama as a method for engaging in inner child work. Traumatic stress is characterized by past feelings, sensations, beliefs, and images emerging in the present moment – which can be conceptualized as a traumatized inner child. Psychodramatic inner child work is particularly relevant for survivors of complex trauma and CPTSD. Through psychodramatic inner child work, the unmet needs and unexpressed feelings from the past can be expressed and fulfilled in an embodied experience. The protection and nurturing that were missing at the time of the trauma can be psychodramatically provided. The process of differentiating, integrating, and engaging in a relationship between the adult self and child self will be discussed, as it relates to cultivating a relationship to self characterized by understanding and self-compassion.