What would you say if a person went to counseling session and the therapist had them do an exercise where they envision themselves as a child and visualize giving to their inner child the love and comforting words they need, and the patient ends up getting very emotional but was never able to find just what it is from their childhood that has made them a “haunted” person much of their lives? What kind of trauma would it most likely be, small insidious little things, one major event from before the age of memory retention, or just not getting the kind of love and bond they needed from the primary caregiver during the early formative years?
“What kind of trauma would it most likely be?”
I try not to speculate, but much prefer to go right to the stored memory of the event and see what it is. This usually only takes me about 30 seconds as they are physical to me.
The technique your therapist is using is good as the emotional subconscious can not differentiate between imagination and reality, thus it has powerful healing abilities. However, I have the person imagine that they are holding a newborn baby that is actually themself. I have them massage the baby’s back while they hold it against their chest, smell the bay’s hair and whisper into the ear of the baby that is them, “I Love You.” It is a very powerful healing tool when there are abandonment or rejection issues.
Frequently I have found the problem is created when a mother has the next child before the older child goes through their terrible two’s. That is when the child creates separation with the mother. Prior to that stage, the older child often feels very rejected and can’t trust Love as the mother’s attention is necessarily switched to caring for the newborn.
I have found this pattern most frequently in men who constantly feel the need to cheat on their relationships as they can’t trust Love. The closer they get to intimacy the greater their fear of rejection becomes.