Issue 86 –
Vulnerability: Part 6
The Resilience of the Vulnerable Child
by
Drs Hal & Sidra Stone
The vulnerable child appears to be small and weak, but we have found that its role in everyone’s life is amazingly powerful. The more that one knows of this child and the more that one integrates it into daily life, the more conscious one’s behaviour becomes. We have found that in most instances when people have tried to contact this child, even though it might have been disowned for a lifetime, the child is quite ready to be heard. It has proven surprisingly resilient despite years of neglect.
Where there has been serious emotional damage, it is this child that needs to be healed, and an extended period of psychotherapy may well be required. However, when this inner child has been disowned under ordinary circumstances, it frequently recovers from its period of disowning, bounces back to health, and begins to bring riches with it almost immediately.
The sturdiness of the vulnerable child was clear in George’s dream. After being introduced to the concept of vulnerability when he read our book, he dreamt:
There was a baby stuck up in a tree screaming and crying and it wanted to be taken down. I was too scared to go up to get it. It kept calling to me, but neither I nor anyone else with me went to get it. Finally, it jumped out of the tree. I felt badly that I hadn’t gotten to it sooner, and I ran over to see if it was okay. Its feet were bruised, but it was alright otherwise. I held it and comforted it.
In this dream, the unconscious helps George to reach his inner child. He is still identified with his primary selves, who have their aim in life the disowning of this vulnerable child. Once the initial contact is made, there’s a chance for the aware ego to take over and to perform the natural act of comforting and caring for the vulnerable child in an appropriate fashion.
Repetitive dreams about neglecting babies and young children often indicate that vulnerability has been disowned, as we have shown earlier.
Mildred, who had repetitive dreams of this type, began to take her vulnerability seriously. She experimented with a variety of psychological and spiritual methods and learned to care for her vulnerable child through an aware ego in an appropriate fashion. She said of her later dreams:
“I have been noticing a change in my dreams. I still have a baby who I’ve forgotten about. I used to dream that I left it on the shelf and then I would panic and look for it and find it half starved. These dreams repeated themselves and each time the baby has been less neglected. Last time I dreamt that I was breastfeeding it and it was fat and happy.”
These dreams clearly reflect how Mildred’s change in consciousness and the new way which she is honoring her vulnerability has resulted in the gradual healing of her vulnerable child.