In this episode of Cubs Out Loud, it’s time for another Landscape of Relationships. Dr. Edward Angelini-Cooke joins the cubs again to discuss the psychological concept of the inner child. Initiating from a conversation about Bluey (who knew?), the idea of finding connections to your inner child to heal from the potential harm caused by trauma comes to the forefront in this installment. Listen in as Ed leads the guys on ways to cope with and celebrate with their inner child to bring about healing and growth.
Show Topic
Landscape of Relationships: Healing Our Queer Inner Child
Our Inner Child is a self-state part of us that is still experiencing and processing emotions, thoughts, and memories from that time but also is playful, spontaneous, and creative. Erik Erikson’s stages of development suggests that we have MULTIPLE inner children/adolescent/emerging adults within us.
Inner Child is a common topic in therapy
- Writing letters to your childhood self
- Engaging in playful, creative, and spontaneous behaviors
- Mindfulness or meditation
Current topic re: Inner Child “Bluey”
Queer Authenticity
“Queer people don’t grow up as themselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimize humiliation and prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves that are truly us and which parts we created to protect us.” -Alexander Leon
How can we heal our queer inner child?
- First, talk to a therapist
- Start asking yourself what you needed growing up and do that
- Edward’s Disney adventure
- Music
- Concerts
- Playing games
- Watching cartoons
- ….get creative!
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