What Is the "Inner Child" — And Why Does the Concept Feel So Strange?

Many people hear the phrase "inner child" and feel an instinctive skepticism — it sounds soft, a little embarrassing, not the kind of thing a serious adult spends time on. This post explores what inner child work actually is beneath the language that makes it easy to dismiss, why the resistance to it is often the most telling thing about its relevance, and what the research says about the clinical frameworks behind it.