In the middle of a heated board room discussion, in an argument with your partner, or in other stressful situations, do you sometimes feel like many of the people in the room have just regressed back 30+ years in their maturity level? Most of the destructive patterns we play out, including jealousy, defensiveness, anger, self-pity, overindulgence in various substances, co-dependency etc. are a result of 3-16 yr old "inner children" playing out their fears through adult bodies.

The inner child acts out in any area of one's life - relationships, career, success, money etc. - where there was a physical or emotional trauma or block of some sort at an earlier age that prevented the person from effectively moving forward in their emotional development. This can be compartmentalized to just one area (for example, someone could be completely mature and effective in a work environment, but be childish and irrational in intimate relationships) or it can affect all areas of their life (for example, playing out the victim role in all relationships) depending on the type of early wounding and how they reacted to it.