ABSTRACT
Clients who have experienced childhood trauma will usually hold deep wounds within their Child ego state. This intrapsychic wounding will show its presence when our client has a strong and disproportionate emotional reaction to situations. There are many ways in which a transactional analysis therapist can work with the Child ego state to facilitate healing, many of which have similarity to Muriel James’ method of self-reparenting. One method is therapeutic letter writing, where the client writes a letter from their Adult ego state to their Child ego state. The aim is for the Adult ego state to offer compassion and a healing, corrective experience to their Child. Clients who often felt afraid as children, or who were punished for their natural playfulness and spontaneity or clients who reported a lack of nurturing can be encouraged to do things and ‘take their child self with them’.
