Better Relationships Through Emotional Healing

When was the last time that they heard you say
Mother or father I love you?
And when was the last time that they heard you say
Daughter or son I love you?

Stevie Wonder, "These Three Words"

This ten-week class is based on the work of John Bradshaw and is built around his video series "Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child." Bradshaw is a primary figure in the contemporary self-help movement, particularly in the fields of family systems, co-dependency, and addictions and recovery.

This course presents very specific information regarding childhood developmental needs, and how, if not met, your adult relationships are adversely affected. Examining your relationship history in light of your childhood experiences allows you to recognize the ways in which unhealed wounds may be affecting your current relationships.

Each evening will consist of a video followed by exercises and discussion that help you see how this material relates to your life. Together we will discover and practice new and more satisfying ways of relating.

Course Outline

Week One: The Problem of the Wounded Inner Child
How a dysfunctional family system creates a "wounded" inner child.

Week Two: Original Pain
The positive results of reconnecting with early emotional pain and the fear of abandonment.

Week Three: Reclaiming Your Infant Self
How unfulfilled infancy needs can affect adult life.

Week Four: Reclaiming Your Toddler Self
The ways in which toddler needs are often violated.

Week Five: Reclaiming Your Pre-School Self
How the sense of purpose developed at this stage may get misshapen by rigid family systems.

Week Six: Reclaiming Your School-Age Self
Moving toward competency, industry, and a conscious identity.

Week Seven: Championing- New Permissions
Ten ways to increase enjoyment of life and instructions on how to "give yourself a new childhood."

Week Eight: Championing- Protection and Practice
Supplying unmet childhood needs by choosing a new "family of choice" and finding a loving "higher power."

Disney’s The Kid

Week Nine: The Wonder Child
The emergence of the "wonder child," the authentic natural self who reclaims and champions the wounded inner child.

Week Ten: The Inner Child as Regeneration
Spiritual aspects of the "wonder child": life purpose, integration, and homecoming.