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In the international bestseller The Child in You, psychologist
Stefanie Stahl shares her proven approach for working with – and
befriending – our inner child. Powerful, imaginative and practical –
with clever exercises, from the three positions of perception to over-

Out Your Authentic Self

writing old memories – she shows how by renouncing our ‘shadow

Method for Bringing

The Breakthrough
child’ and embracing our ‘sun child’, we can learn to resolve conflicts,
form better relationships and find the answer to (almost) any problem.
The Breakthrough
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 penguin books

THE CHILD IN YOU

CR R
ED TE
I T: R AS
O S W IT H A K

Stefanie Stahl is a clinical psychologist and the best-

selling author of more than ten books. She has had her
own psychotherapy practice in Germany for more than
twenty-five years and conducts seminars about self-
twenty-five
esteem, love, and the
love and the fear
fear of commitment. The Child in
You has sold more than a million copies in Germany,
the number
where it was the #1 bestselling nonfiction
one bestselling book for
non-fiction
three for
book consecutive years, and
three consecutive has been
years, translated
and has into
been trans-
more into
lated thanmore
twenty languages.
than twenty languages.

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Copyrighted Material
 THE
CHILD
IN
YOU
The Breakthrough Method for
Bringing Out Your Authentic Self

Stefanie St ahl
Translated by Elisabeth Lauffer

PENGU I N L I F E

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 PENGUIN LIFE
UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
India | New Zealand | South Africa
Penguin Life is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies
whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

Originally published in German as Das Kind in dir muss Heimat finden:

Der Schlüssel zur Lösung (fast) aller Probleme by Kailash Verlag, Verlagsgruppe
Random House GmbH, Munich 2015
First published in English as The Child in You in the United States of
America by Penguin Books 2020
First published in Great Britain by Penguin Life 2021
001
Copyright © Kailash Verlag, 2015
Translation copyright © Kailash Verlag, 2020
The moral right of the copyright holders has been asserted
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.
The authorized representative in the EEA is Penguin Random House Ireland,
Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–0–241–47337–5

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 For my friends

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Copyrighted Material
 Contents

The Child in You Wants to Find a Home 1

Models of Our Personality 7

The Shadow Child and the Sun Child 11

How Our Inner Child Develops 15

Side Note: A Plea for Self-Awareness 19

What Parents Should Keep in Mind 21

The Four Basic Psychological Needs 25

The Need for Connection 25

The Need for Autonomy and Security 27

Side Note: Autonomy and Dependence in Conflict 28

The Need for Pleasure 30

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 The Need for Bolstered Self- Esteem
and Acknowledgment 33

How Childhood Shapes Our Behavior 35

Mom Gets Me! The Parental Capacity for Empathy 36

From Genetics to Character:

Other Factors Influencing the Inner Child 38

The Shadow Child and Its Belief Systems 41

The Spoiled Shadow Child 44

Criticizing Your Own Parents? Not as Easy as It Sounds 45

Side Note: In a Bad Mood? It Could Be Genetic 49

How Beliefs Determine Our Perception 51

We Cling Fiercely to Childhood Experiences 54

The Shadow Child and Its Beliefs:

The Dynamic Downer 57

The Shadow Child, the Adult, and Self- Esteem 60

Discover Your Shadow Child 63

Exercise: Uncover Your Beliefs 64

Exercise: Sense Your Shadow Child 72

Uncover Your Core Beliefs 73

How to Snap Out of It 75

Exercise: The “Feelings” Bridge 77

Side Note: Problem Dodgers and Non- Feelers 78

What Can I Do If I Don’t Feel Very Much? 81

Our Projections Are Our Reality 83

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The Shadow Child’s Self- Protection Strategies 88

Self- Protection Strategy: Repressing Reality 94

Self- Protection Strategy:

Projection and Feeling Like the Victim 95

Self- Protection Strategy: Perfectionism,

Obsession with Beauty, and Yearning for Recognition 98

Self- Protection Strategy: Keeping the Peace and

Overadjustment 101

Self- Protection Strategy: Helper Syndrome 104

Self- Protection Strategy: The Power Hungry 107

Self- Protection Strategy: The Control Freaks 111

Self- Protection Strategy: Aggression and Attack 114

Self- Protection Strategy: I’ll Remain a Child 116

Self- Protection Strategy:

Flight, Withdrawal, and Avoidance 121

Side Note: The Shadow Child’s Fear

of Closeness and Being Monopolized 125

Special Case: Descent into Addiction 128

Self- Protection Strategy: Narcissism 132

Self- Protection Strategy: Disguise, Role-Play, and Lies 137

Exercise: Find Your Personal Self- Protection Strategies 141

The Shadow Child Is Always There 143

Your Reality Is What You Make It 144

Heal Your Shadow Child 146

Exercise: Find Inner Helpers 148

Exercise: Strengthen Your Adult-Self 149

Exercise: Accept the Shadow Child 151

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 Exercise: Consoling the Shadow Child 153

Exercise: Catch and Release 157

Exercise: Overwrite Old Memories 160

Exercise: Connection and Security for the Shadow Child 163

Exercise: Write Your Shadow Child a Letter 164

Exercise: Understanding Your Shadow Child 166

Exercise: The Three Positions of Perception 169

Discover the Sun Child Within You 174

You Are Responsible for Your Own Happiness 176

Exercise: Discover Your Positive Beliefs 180

I. Positive Beliefs from Childhood 181

II. Turning Around Your Core Beliefs 183

Exercise: Discover Your Strengths and Reserves 184

How Having Values Can Help Us 186

Exercise: Define Your Values 191

It Comes Down to Mood 193

Use Your Imagination and Body Memory 196

Exercise: Anchor the Sun Child Within You 197

The Sun Child in Everyday Life 199

On Self- Protection and Self- Reflection Strategies 202

Our Happiness and Unhappiness

Revolve Around Our Relationships 203

Exercise: Once More for Good Measure:

Catch and Release 207

Differentiate Between Fact and Interpretation 211

Exercise: Reality Check 213

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Find a Good Balance Between Reflection and Distraction 214

Be Honest with Yourself 217

Exercise: Say Yes to Reality 220

Practice Goodwill 222

Praise Your Neighbor as You Would Yourself 226

Just Good Is Good Enough 228

Enjoy Your Life 231

Don’t Be Good, Kid— Be Authentic 235

Learn to Deal with Conflict and Shape Your Relationships 239

Exercise: Practicing Conflict Management 241

Recognize When It’s Time to Let Go 246

Practice Empathy 250

Just Listen 255

Set Healthy Boundaries 260

Side Note: The Shadow Child and Burning Out 263

Exercise: Allowing Your Feelings to Dissolve 267

Learn to Say No 269

Trust in Yourself and in Life 271

Regulate Your Feelings 276

Side Note: The Impulsive Shadow Child 279

Cow Meditation 282

Exercise: A Little Lesson in Quick-Wittedness 283

Go Ahead— Disappoint People 286

Side Note: Self- Reflection Strategies Against Addiction 288

Shake Off Your Lethargy 297

Exercise: Seven Steps Against Procrastination 302

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 Break Down Your Resistance 304

Pursue Your Hobbies and Interests 307

Exercise: Find Your Personal Self- Reflection Strategies 311

Exercise: Integrating the Shadow Child and the Sun Child 312

Let Yourself Be Yourself 315

References 321

Index 323

Meditations available for download:

For more intensive work with your inner child,
Stefanie Stahl recorded two imaginary journeys:
The Shadow Child Meditation and The Sun Child
Meditation. You can download them for free at
stefaniestahl.com.

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Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing
in one’s own sunshine.

—ralph Waldo emerson

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The Child in You

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 The Child in You Wants
to Find a Home

E
verybody needs a place where they feel protected, se-
cure, and welcome. Everybody yearns for a place where
they can relax and be fully themselves. Ideally, the
childhood home was one such place. For those of us who felt
accepted and loved by our parents, our home provided this
warmth. It was a heartwarming place—the very thing that
everybody yearns for. And we internalize this feeling from
childhood—that of being accepted and welcome—as a fun-
damental, positive attitude toward life that accompanies us
through adulthood: we feel secure in the world and in our own
life. We’re self-confident and trusting of others. There’s the
notion of basic trust, which is like a home within ourselves,
providing us with internal support and protection.
Many people, however, associate their childhood with

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u

largely negative experiences, some even traumatic. Others had

an unhappy childhood, but have repressed those memories.
They can barely recall what happened. Then there are those
who believe their childhood was “normal” or even “happy,” only
to discover, upon closer examination, that they have been de-
luding themselves. And though people may attempt to repress
or, as an adult, downplay childhood experiences of insecurity
or rejection, there are moments in everyday life that will re-
veal how underdeveloped their basic trust remains. They have
self-esteem issues and frequently doubt that they are welcome
and that their coworkers, romantic partner, boss, or new friend
truly likes them. They don’t really like themselves all that
much, they have a range of insecurities, and they often strug-
gle in relationships. Unable to develop basic trust, they there-
fore lack a sense of internal support. Instead, they hope that
others will provide them with these feelings of security, pro-
tection, stability, and home. They search for home with their
partner, their colleagues, in their softball league, or online, only
to be disappointed: other people can provide this feeling of
home sporadically at best. Those who lack a home on the in-
side will never find one on the outside. They can’t tell that
they’re caught in a trap.
When we talk about these childhood influences—which,
along with our genetic makeup, largely define our character
and self-esteem—we are discussing a part of our personality
referred to in psychology as the “inner child.” In other words,

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u Wa n t s t o F i n d a H o m e

the inner child represents the sum of impressions made on us

as children—the good and the bad, experienced through our
parents and other important figures. We don’t consciously re-
member most of these experiences. They are, however, perma-
nently etched on our unconscious mind. It’s safe to say that the
inner child is a significant part of the unconscious. It’s the fears,
concerns, and adversities we have experienced from the cradle
onward. On the other hand, it also represents all the positive
influences from our youth.
The negative influences are what primarily plague us as
adults. After all, the child within us works hard not to relive
the humiliations and injuries it suffered during childhood. At
the same time, this child still yearns for the feelings of security
and approval that came up short back then. These fears and
desires are active in the recesses of our consciousness. On the
conscious level, we are independent adults living our lives. On
the unconscious level, however, our inner child exercises sig-
nificant sway over our perception, behavior, and ways of feel-
ing and thinking. It’s far stronger than our intellect, in fact. It
has been scientifically proven that the unconscious is an in-
credibly powerful mental force that steers upward of 80 to 90
percent of our experiences and actions.
An example to illustrate: Michael loses his temper every
time his partner, Sarah, forgets something that’s important to
him. She recently forgot to buy his favorite kind of chips while
grocery shopping, and he completely flipped out. Sarah was

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u

stunned—to her, it was just a bag of chips. To Michael, mean-

while, it was as if the world were ending. What was going on?
Michael doesn’t realize that it’s his inner child that feels
disregarded and disrespected when Sarah forgets something
important to him, even if that’s just a bag of chips. He doesn’t
know that the reason for his rage isn’t Sarah and the forgotten
snack, but rather a deep wound from the past: namely the fact
that his mother did not take his wishes seriously when he was
a child. With her shopping mistake, Sarah unwittingly poured
salt in this old wound. Since Michael doesn’t see the connec-
tion between his reaction toward Sarah and his experiences
with his mother, however, his own influence over his feelings
and behavior is limited. The fight about chips isn’t an isolated
event. Michael and Sarah fight frequently about mundane
things, because neither is aware of what their disagreements
are truly about, and because—like Michael—Sarah is governed
by her inner child. Her inner child is sensitive to criticism, be-
cause when she was young, she could rarely do anything right
for her parents. As a result, Michael’s outbursts trigger old child-
hood feelings in Sarah, making her feel small and worthless,
irritated and offended. Sometimes Michael and Sarah even
think it would be better to split up, because they bicker so
frequently and hurt each other so deeply.
If each were attuned to what their inner child desired and the
pain it felt, though, Michael and Sarah could share these insights
rather than fighting superficially about a forgotten bag of chips

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u Wa n t s t o F i n d a H o m e

or an overly critical remark. They would certainly get along

much better, growing closer instead of attacking one another.
That said, ignorance of the inner child doesn’t cause con-
flict only in romantic relationships. Whenever we’re aware of
the backstory, it’s plain that most disagreements aren’t two
self-possessed adults collaborating to solve a problem; instead,
it’s two inner children duking it out. For example, when an
employee responds to the boss’s criticism by quitting. Or when
one government reacts with military force to another state’s
border violation. Ignorance of the inner child causes many
people great unhappiness with themselves and their lives, and
allows interpersonal conflicts to arise and often escalate un-
controllably.
This is not to say that people who had a happy childhood
and gained basic trust are just strolling through life without a
care or problem in the world. Their inner child has also sus-
tained certain injuries, because there is no such thing as per-
fect parents or a perfect childhood. In addition to the positive
influences gained from their parents, these people have also
inherited difficult traits that can cause problems later in life.
These issues may not be as obvious as Michael’s outbursts.
Perhaps they struggle to trust people outside the family, or
dislike making big decisions. Maybe they would rather play it
safe than go out on a limb. Whatever the case may be, negative
influences from childhood limit us, hindering both our per-
sonal development and our relationships.

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u

Ultimately, this applies to most people: only once we have

met and befriended our inner child will we come to recognize
the deep desires and scars we carry within ourselves. Only
then can we accept this part of our soul, and even begin to
heal to a certain degree. As a result, our self-esteem can grow,
and the child within us will finally find a home. This is the pre-
requisite for forming friendlier, happier, and more tranquil
relationships. It is also the prerequisite for leaving relation-
ships that are bad for us or even make us sick.
This book aims to help you meet your inner child and
become friends with it. It will help you shed the old patterns
that always lead to dead ends and hard times. It will show you
how to acquire helpful new attitudes and behaviors instead,
which you can then use to build a much happier life and rela-
tionships.

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 Models of Our Personality

O
n the surface of our consciousness, our problems of-
ten appear complicated and difficult to solve. It can
also be hard for us to understand other people’s be-
haviors and feelings. We lack the proper perspective, whether
on ourselves or others. The human psyche, however, isn’t ac-
tually that complicated a structure. Simply stated, it is possible
to divide the psyche into various parts: there are the childish
parts and the adult parts, the conscious levels and the uncon-
scious levels. When you become familiar with this personal-
ity structure, it becomes possible to work with it and solve many
of the issues that once appeared insurmountable. In this book,
I intend to explain how this is done.
As I wrote earlier, the inner child is a metaphor for the
unconscious parts of our personality that were defined in our

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u

childhood. Our emotional life is attributed to the inner child:

our fear, pain, grief, and anger, but also our joy, happiness, and
love. Parts of the inner child are thus positive and happy, to-
gether with those parts that are negative and sad. We aim to
become better acquainted and work with both in this book.
Then there’s the adult-self, which can also be called the
“inner adult.” This mental entity encompasses our rational and
reasonable mind—in other words, our thinking. Operating as
our adult-self, we may assume responsibility, plan, act in an-
ticipation of eventualities, recognize and understand connec-
tions, weigh risks, and also regulate the child-self, or inner child.
The adult-self behaves consciously and intentionally.
As it happens, Sigmund Freud was the first to divide the
personality into different parts. What is referred to in modern
psychology as the inner child or child-self, Freud termed the
“id.” Freud named the adult-self the “ego.” He went on to de-
scribe the “super-ego,” which serves as a sort of moral entity
within us and is known in modern psychology as the parental-
self or inner critic. When our inner critic is active, we might
say to ourselves, “Don’t be so stupid! You’re worthless and can’t
do anything right. There’s no way you can pull this off.”
Modern therapy approaches, such as schema therapy, di-
vide the three main selves—child, adult, and parent—into fur-
ther submodes, such as the hurt, happy, or angry inner child, or
the punitive or sympathetic inner parent. Famous German psy-
chologist Friedemann Schulz von Thun (1944–) has gone so

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 Models of Our Personality

far as to coin the term “inner team” to describe the wide range
of subpersonalities found within any given person.
I, on the other hand, would like to keep things as simple
and pragmatic as possible. Things quickly become unwieldy and
stressful when attempting to manage too many inner modes
at once. I will therefore limit myself in this book to the happy
inner child, the hurt inner child, and the inner adult. In my ex-
perience, these three modes are more than sufficient for solving
our problems. I am, however, replacing the terms “happy inner
child” and “hurt inner child” with “sun child” and “shadow child,”
which are much catchier and nicer-sounding.
The sun child and the shadow child are both expressions
of the part of our personality referred to as the inner child,
which stands for our unconscious. Strictly speaking, only one
unconscious—that is, one inner child— exists. What’s more, it
isn’t always an unconscious feeling. As soon as we start working
with the inner child, the feeling becomes conscious. On the
other hand, the sun child and the shadow child also represent
different states of consciousness. This differentiation is largely
pragmatic rather than scientific. In my many years working as
a psychotherapist, I have developed a system for solving prob-
lems that draws upon the metaphors of the sun child and the
shadow child, and that you can use to resolve almost any issue.
The qualifier “almost” refers to those problems that lie out-
side your control. Among these are illness, the death of a loved
one, war, natural disasters, violent crimes, and sexual abuse. It’s

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u

worth noting, however, that a person’s personality will inform

their ability to overcome these awful twists of fate. Those who
were already at odds with their shadow child will naturally
struggle more than those with a sun child’s disposition. In this
sense, people whose main problem stems from a tragic incident
also have something to gain from this book. Those who will
profit most, however, are people whose problems are “home-
made.” These problems are found largely within the realm
of personal responsibility and include relationship issues, de-
pressed moods, stress, fear of the future, apathy, panic attacks,
compulsive behaviors, and so on. These are the problems, after
all, that can ultimately be traced back to the impact of our
shadow child— or, in other words, back to our sense of self-
worth.

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 The Shadow Child
and the Sun Child

H
ow we feel and the feelings we are able to perceive (or
rather, those that come up short) all hinge on our in-
nate temperament and childhood experiences. Our
unconscious beliefs play an important role here. In psychology,
a belief is a deeply held conviction that expresses an attitude
toward ourselves or our interpersonal relationships. Many be-
liefs emerge from interactions between the child and its care-
takers in the first years of the child’s life. For instance, an inner
belief could be “I’m okay” or “I’m not okay.” Over the course of
our childhood and throughout our life, we will internalize
both positive and negative beliefs. Positive beliefs such as “I’m
okay” developed in situations in which we felt accepted and
loved by the people we were closest to. They strengthen us.
Negative beliefs such as “I’m not okay,” on the other hand,

11

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u

grew out of situations in which we felt out of place and re-

jected. They weaken us.
The shadow child encompasses our negative beliefs and
the associated oppressive feelings of grief, fear, helplessness, or
anger. These give rise to defense mechanisms, or self-protection
strategies, which we develop to deal with these feelings— or
better yet, to avoid feeling them at all. Common self-protection
strategies include withdrawal, keeping the peace, perfection-
ism, aggression and attack, or vying for power or control. I’ll be
going into much greater detail about beliefs, feelings, and self-
protection strategies. At this point, all you need to understand
is that the shadow child stands for that part of our self-esteem
that is injured and unstable.
The sun child, on the other hand, embodies our positive in-
fluences and feelings. It epitomizes the happy child in its spon-
taneity, adventurousness, curiosity, abandon, vitality, drive, and
zest for life. The sun child is a metaphor for the part of our
self-esteem that remains intact. Even people carrying a lot of
childhood baggage have healthy parts of their personality and
experience situations in which they don’t overreact. They also
feel happy, curious, and playful at times—that is to say, times
when the sun child is present. Nevertheless, the sun child ap-
pears far too seldom in people who had a dark childhood. In
this book, we will therefore work especially hard at encourag-
ing the sun child, while comforting the shadow child so that it

12

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 T h e S h a d ow C h i l d a n d t h e S u n C h i l d

can relax, knowing it has been seen and allowing it to make

room for its sunny counterpart.
It should be quite clear at this point that it’s the shadow
child part of our psyche that always causes us problems, espe-
cially when we are unaware of it and have therefore never re-
flected on it. I would like to illustrate this point by returning to
Michael and Sarah. When Michael views his behavior through
the eyes of his adult-self, it’s clear to him that he frequently
overreacts. He has often tried to manage his temper. Sometimes
he even succeeds— but usually not. Michael’s success is lim-
ited because his inner adult—his conscious, thinking mind—
isn’t aware of the scars his shadow child bears. The inner adult
therefore has no influence over the shadow child. His conscious,
thinking, reasonable mind has no control over his feelings or
his behavior, both of which are governed by the shadow child.
If Michael wanted to manage his temper successfully, he
would have to gain awareness of the connection between Sar-
ah’s behavior and the childhood wounds inflicted upon him
by his mother. He would have to reflect upon the fact that his
shadow child has a lifelong wound that always flares up when
the shadow child feels his wishes aren’t being respected. When-
ever this happens, his inner adult could console the inner child
by saying something along the lines of, “Now, listen, just be-
cause Sarah forgot your favorite chips doesn’t mean she doesn’t
love you or take your wishes seriously. Sarah isn’t Mom. And

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just like you, Sarah isn’t perfect. That means she might forget
things sometimes, and she’s allowed to, even when the thing
she forgets just happens to be the chips you like!” By separat-
ing his shadow child from the adult part of himself, Michael
would not have seen the forgotten chips as a sign that Sarah
didn’t love or respect him. Instead, he would have seen the inci-
dent for the honest mistake that it was. By making this small
correction to his perception, he wouldn’t have gotten angry in
the first place. If Michael truly wishes to get his anger under
control, he’ll have to direct his attention to his shadow child
and its scars. And he must learn to shift consciously into the
mode of the benevolent, calm adult-self, which will react in a
measured and loving way to the shadow child’s impulses in-
stead of subjecting Sarah to its temper tantrums.

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 How Our Inner
Child Develops

T
he sun child and the shadow child parts of our person-
ality are primarily, if not exclusively, influenced by our
first six years of life. The first years of life are so im-
portant in human development because during this period, the
brain structure, with its neuronal networks and pathways, takes
form. The experiences we have with our caretakers during this
developmental phase therefore make a lasting imprint on our
minds. The way Mommy and Daddy treat us becomes the blue-
print for every relationship in our lives. Our connection to our
parents teaches us how to regard ourselves and our interpersonal
relationships. Our self-esteem emerges in these first years, ac-
companied by our sense of trust or, in less fortunate cases, our
mistrust of other people and relationships.
It’s important not to view these things in black and white,

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though. After all, there isn’t any parent-child relationship that

is all good or all bad. Even if we had a good childhood, part of
us still carries scars from that time. This can be traced back to
the very nature of childhood: we enter the world small, naked,
and utterly defenseless. It is a matter of survival that an infant
find a caretaker; otherwise, the baby will die. For a long time
following birth, we are wholly subordinate and dependent on
others. It’s why each of us has a shadow child that feels inferior
and small and thinks it isn’t okay. Besides, not even the most
loving parents can fulfill all the child’s wishes. They need to
draw boundaries and impose rules, especially during the sec-
ond year of life, at which point the infant has become a toddler
and begun to walk. The child is constantly reprimanded: don’t
break your toy, don’t touch that vase, don’t play with your food, just try
to go potty, be careful! and so on. In other words, the child regu-
larly gets the sense that they’re doing something wrong, some-
thing “not okay.”
Beside these feelings of inferiority, however, most people
also exhibit inner states in which they feel “okay” and valuable.
After all, childhood wasn’t all bad, but also had good aspects,
such as affection, security, play, fun, and joy. It’s why we ex-
hibit the part of ourselves called the sun child.
The situation for the (real) child becomes difficult when
their parents are inherently ill-equipped to raise and provide
for a child and resort to verbal or physical abuse, or neglect.

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 H ow O u r I n n e r C h i l d D eve l o p s

Small children are unable to judge whether their parents’ be-

havior is good or bad. From a child’s perspective, their parents
are big and infallible. If Daddy yells at or even strikes his child,
the little one won’t think, “Daddy is unable to manage his ag-
gression and needs to undergo psychotherapy.” Instead, she as-
sociates the beating with her own “badness.” Before the child
has acquired language, she cannot yet even think of herself as
being bad, but she senses that she is being punished, and there-
fore must be bad, or at least wrong.
Generally speaking, the feelings we experience in the first
two years of life show us whether we are fundamentally wel-
come here or not. Caring for infants and toddlers is largely phys-
ical: feeding, bathing, swaddling—and, importantly, caressing.
Children learn whether they are welcome in this world through
the caresses, loving looks, and vocal register of their caretaker.
Since we are completely at the mercy of our parents’ behaviors
in these first two years, it is also during this time that basic
trust— or basic mistrust, as the case may be— develops. The
qualifier “basic” indicates that this is a profound, existential
experience. These experiences create a deep imprint on body
memory. In the depths of their consciousness, people who have
developed basic trust also have trust in themselves, the funda-
mental prerequisite for trusting others. Those who never at-
tained basic trust, meanwhile, feel deeply insecure and meet
other people with suspicion. People who developed basic trust

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 T h e C h i l d i n Yo u

frequently find themselves channeling their sun child. If this

trust was never acquired, however, the shadow child will come
to occupy a lot of space.
Neurological studies have now shown that young children
who experience a lot of toxic stress—for instance, those who
are mistreated in some way—will release higher levels of stress
hormones throughout their life. This makes them more suscep-
tible to stress as adults: they respond more extremely and with
greater sensitivity to stressors, and they are mentally less resil-
ient than people whose childhoods were defined primarily by
security and nurturing. Expressed in terms of our imagery, this
first group of people largely identifies with their shadow child.
The other formative years are also very important and
influential, of course. People other than our parents help shape
us, too, such as grandparents, fellow students, or teachers. I have
limited myself to the influence of parents (or primary guard-
ians) in this book, because it would otherwise go on too long,
but if your experiences with peers, a teacher, or your grandma
were especially important to you, you may use them as the
focus for any of the exercises in this book.
We are unable to remember the first two years of life with
our conscious mind—that is, the adult-self—despite the deep
imprint these years have made on our unconscious. Most peo-
ple’s first memories start around kindergarten age, or later. From
this point in time onward, we can remember how Mommy and
Daddy treated us, and what our relationship with them was like.

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