Discover your inner child archetype — the childhood wound pattern that still shapes your relationships, triggers, and self-image today.
The inner child is a psychological concept representing the childlike part of your psyche — the part that still carries the emotions, unmet needs, and coping strategies you developed before you had the language or power to process what was happening to you. Psychologists John Bradshaw, Alice Miller, and Bessel van der Kolk have shown that these early patterns don't simply disappear. They run quietly in the background, shaping your adult relationships, triggers, and self-image.
Inner child work isn't about blaming your parents or dwelling in the past. It's about understanding why you react the way you do, and giving yourself the compassion and reparenting you may have missed the first time around.
Fear of being left. Clingy patterns, hypervigilance for signs of rejection. Five of Cups.
Learned to need nothing. Emotional shutdown, fierce independence. Four of Pentacles Reversed.
Internalised "not enough." People-pleasing, performing, making yourself invisible. Eight of Swords.
Became the adult too early. Over-responsible, caretaking, chronic over-functioning. Reversed Empress.
Playfulness intact, healthy foundation. Curiosity, trust, and resilience. The Sun.
Tarot provides a symbolic mirror for inner child work. Cards like The Sun (the free child), The Moon (hidden fears), The Star (hope and healing), and the Five of Cups (grief and loss) directly speak to childhood wound themes.
Each result in this quiz maps to a tarot card that illuminates your inner child pattern. Use it as a starting point for journaling, meditation, or deeper exploration with a therapist who understands inner child work.
Yes. Most people carry a primary wound with elements of others. You might be predominantly a Parentified Child with Shamed Child tendencies. This quiz shows your primary and secondary patterns.
Start with awareness — this quiz is a good first step. From there, journaling (writing letters to your inner child), meditation (inner child visualisations), and therapy (especially IFS/Internal Family Systems or somatic work) are all effective approaches.
The Free Child represents intact playfulness, but no childhood is perfect. Every wound also carries gifts — the Abandoned Child develops profound empathy, the Parentified Child becomes deeply reliable. The goal isn't to become the Free Child but to heal the wounds that limit you while keeping the strengths they gave you.
Where does this wound show up in your shadow?
How your inner child affects relationships.
Is people-pleasing your coping strategy?
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