Meeting the Inner ChildMeeting the Inner Child
ACA Tuesday Zoombox
Sherry P shares how ACA, inner child work and the Loving Parent Guidebook helped her recognise her critical parent, connect with a playful inner child and stop running from emotional pain. Her story touches on fear, fun, grief and the relief of finally feeling seen and heard.
14:10•24 Jun 2026
Meeting the Inner Child: Sherry P on Fear, Fun and Finding a Loving Inner Parent
Episode Overview
- Growing up with an alcoholic father, an enabling mother and significant abuse shaped Sherry’s early reliance on substances and escape.
- ACA started to make sense when she recognised herself in the Laundry List and heard the validating phrase, "you've been seen and you've been heard."
- Inner child and parts work therapy helped her separate the harsh "critical parent" voice from her frightened inner child.
- A Loving Parent Guidebook study group gave her close connection and practical structure for building a kinder inner relationship.
- Rather than running from painful experiences as she did after a previous loss, she is now choosing to stay and use current relationship pain for emotional growth.
“"After everyone shared, Bill would say, 'you've been seen and you've been heard.' And that hit me in my heart, because I didn't realise that's all I ever wanted."”
What drives someone to seek a life that actually feels safe inside? This share from Sherry P centres on meeting her inner child for the first time and how that’s changing her experience of recovery. Sherry talks about growing up as the youngest of eight in a home marked by alcoholism, enabling, fighting, and abuse.
She explains how drugs and alcohol became her escape and how years in AA, Al-Anon and CoDA still left her "full of fear" and struggling with relationships, anger, and friendships. ACA only started to click when she heard the Laundry List and realised she matched almost every trait.
A pivotal moment came at her first ACA Tuesday Zoombox meeting, when chair Bill responded to each share with, "you've been seen and you've been heard." Sherry says this "hit me in my heart" and helped her recognise how deeply she’d always wanted exactly that. The episode focuses on inner child work and the Loving Parent Guidebook.
Sherry describes forming a tight study group, doing parts work therapy, and for the first time noticing the "critical parent" voice in her head, which she pictures as the Wicked Witch of the West, pointing and berating her inner child. She contrasts this with the playful, confident qualities she’s now trying to bring into that inner relationship.
There’s humour and warmth in her story of resisting a "stupid collage" and then secretly enjoying it, and of finding herself dancing on stage at a Caribbean festival, realising a drone is recording her and deciding, "who cares? I'm having fun." She also shares how she once tried to outrun grief by selling her house and quitting everything, and how now she’s "refusing to run" from a painful breakup, using it as a chance for emotional growth.
If you’ve ever wondered whether inner child work is for you, could Sherry’s honest experience be the nudge you’ve been waiting for?
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