Hey Greeneyes I don't know any books to recommend but I just wanted to give you some support. This is something I am facing too and it is excruciating. Just talked with T today about how wounded I was as a child and how that has reverberated throughout my life.

thank you daggers

and dear turtle, i am so sorry you're going through this hell at the moment too. Feel free to PM me anytime

Hey Green Eyes,

There are books like you and Draggers mentioned (Bradshaw and Whitfield) that were useful to some extent. I think they both key in a lot on dysfunctional family dynamics and intergenerational legacies. As I have journeyed into the wounded inner child work, some books that have helped me tremendously are:

* Emotionally Absent Mother, Jasmin Cori (lots on attachment, what a good mother and EAM looks like, working through healing with a chapter on inner child work...excellent and my fav!)
* Recovery of your inner child, Lucia Cappachione (uses dialoguing, art, writing with non-dominant hand, etc...book I have gone back to again and again.)
* Coping with Trauma related Dissociation, Boon, Steele, van der Hart...outstanding and very practical w/tools, from a struc. dissoc. context)

This last one I mention b/c it had some good stuff but I didn't like their categorizations that felt too stereotypical (and not explicitly inner child but clearly deals with how childhood forms our development):
* Healing developmental trauma, Heller and LaPierre

All are available through amazon.com

Hey GreenEyes

I've done a lot of inner child work, and come through the other side...it's not easy,
in fact it was heartbreakingly agonising.
I found Bradshaw really irritating. He knows his stuff but I just felt patronised
and kind of "icky" reading it. However I really found Robert Burney's work
helpful. He's written Codependence:the dance of wounded souls and Codependency
Recovery:wounded souls dancing in the light.
He also has a website with lots of stuff from his books in it.
I think it's Joy2MeU.com

I can't write more now but if you wanted to know anything else I
will try to get back here over the weekend!

The healing and peace I have found through doing this work has
been life-changing. I'm thinking of you and everyone who is
struggling with this

Hi GreenEyes,

I don't have any book recommendations for this. I have read a lot about general attachment in therapy but not specific to inner child work. I did want to send my support your way because I feel like my entire therapy process is about inner child work, healing my inner child, talking to my inner child, feeling as if I AM my inner child.

I have been going through a long dark period of inner child work more recently and I am going to post a new thread because I don't want to hijack yours. I just wanted to send you my hugs because this is, IMO, by far, the hardest work I have ever done in therapy. It is so painful at best. If you ever want to PM me, please do!

I totally agree ...the hardest work ever. It takes great courage. We are all very courageous to face our demons, which are so crippling, and no doubt in addition to the wounded child some/all of us have a massive inner critic too which ridicules me for behaving in such a pathetic way!
I still need to learn to be nice to myself....that no doubt sounds familiar too!