In reflective practice, counselling sessions or quiet personal journalling, inner child work often benefits from simple words that feel steady and easy to return to. The poster gathers eight short healing affirmations focused on safety, worth, softness, rest, love and self-forgiveness, making it useful for trauma recovery, self-compassion work, emotional wellbeing conversations and therapeutic reflection with adults or older teenagers.
The main poster is headed “A message to my inner child” and includes statements such as “You are safe now”, “You did the best you could with what you knew at the time”, “You were never too much”, and “It was not your fault that you had to grow up so fast”. It also names the need for softness, protection and love, while gently challenging survival mode, people-pleasing and the feeling that love has to be earned.
Practitioners could use the poster as a visual prompt in counselling, social work, family support, mentoring, school wellbeing spaces or therapeutic group work. It may suit people exploring childhood trauma, adverse childhood experiences, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, parentification, low self-worth or recovery from difficult relationships. A therapist, social worker or support worker might invite someone to choose one message that feels needed, difficult to believe, or worth writing about between sessions.
At home, the printable could be placed somewhere private as a daily reminder, added to a wellbeing folder, used alongside grounding exercises, or read before journalling. The wording is brief enough for people who may feel overwhelmed by longer therapeutic worksheets, but still specific enough to open discussion about protection, belonging, rest and the younger self who needed care.
The style is soft and child-centred without being childish, with the wording aimed more towards adults and older young people doing inner child healing than very young children. Created by Edita Stiborova, it works best as a supportive visual aid rather than a formal assessment tool.
