Inner child therapy in Tryon, NC

Is there an inner child therapist in Tryon?

Yes, a short drive away. Laura Bass, a psychotherapist who works with adults, offers inner child therapy at her part-time office at The Healing Cottage in Columbus, the Polk County seat. From downtown Tryon it is about five miles east on NC 108. Her main practice is in Charlotte, and inner child work is part of the individual counseling she offers in both places.

If you have been noticing that something in your life feels older than the situation in front of you, you do not need to have it worked out before you get in touch. Use the contact page or call 704-706-3264, say you are interested in inner child work, and ask which days Laura is in Columbus. For a broader look at counseling in the area, see the Tryon counseling guide.

What is inner child therapy?

"Inner child" is a popular, informal idea, not a diagnosis and not a single standardized therapy. It describes the way feelings, needs and habits formed early in life can still steer how an adult reacts, especially under stress. Inner child therapy means counseling that makes room for those younger patterns: noticing them, getting curious about what they learned, and practicing a steadier response now.

Several researched approaches work with early needs or child-like parts of the self, and therapists draw on them in different ways. Research on inner child work as a named method is thin, so it is not presented here as a treatment for any condition. The CDC notes that potentially traumatic events in childhood are common, and SAMHSA reports that traumatic experiences, especially those in childhood, are associated with later behavioral and physical health conditions. That is part of why many adults find it worth looking back with a trained guide.

The full guide to inner child work in the Carolinas explains the idea, where it comes from and what the evidence does and does not show.

Signs inner child therapy may help

People rarely arrive asking for inner child therapy by name. More often they come in for something else and notice how much of it feels familiar from long ago. Some patterns that bring people in:

• Saying yes when you mean no, and feeling resentful or exhausted afterward.
• A harsh inner voice that sounds a lot like a parent, a teacher or a church you grew up in.
• Reactions in a marriage or friendship that feel too big for what actually happened, such as panic when someone pulls away.
• Never quite feeling allowed to rest, even in retirement.
• Old feelings stirring while you care for an aging parent, or after becoming a parent or grandparent yourself.
• A loss that reopens earlier losses no one talked about at the time.

How Laura works with the inner child

Laura describes her approach to psychotherapy as holistic, humanistic and integrative, and she works with the whole person: mind, body and spirit. She has written that understanding why you feel or act a certain way does not always change an ingrained, unconscious pattern, which is part of why she offers more than one kind of work. In sessions with her, attention to younger parts of yourself sits alongside whatever brought you in, whether that is anxiety, depression, grief, shame, a life transition or a strained relationship.

Therapists who do inner child work draw on many different methods. This page does not name the ones Laura uses, because that is hers to describe. Ask her directly what she draws on, how she paces the work and what early sessions usually involve. Your first inner child therapy session walks through what a first appointment commonly looks like.

Getting to the Healing Cottage from Tryon, Saluda, Landrum and Mill Spring

Columbus sits in the middle of the county by design. The Town of Columbus says commissioners chose the site in 1855 as the geographic center of Polk County, which is why most people here already drive to Columbus for the courthouse and appointments. Approximate road distances to the center of Columbus:

• Tryon: about five miles on NC 108.
• Mill Spring: about four miles on NC 108.
• Landrum, SC: about eight miles, by SC 14, I-26 and NC 108.
• Saluda: about ten miles, by I-26, US 74 and NC 108.

Privacy in a small town

Inner child work usually means talking about parents, siblings, schools and churches. In a county as small as Polk, those may be people and places your neighbors know well, and some clients still live down the road from the family they are trying to understand. That is a fair thing to worry about.

What you say in session is confidential within the limits that law and professional ethics set, and Laura explains those limits at the start. It also helps to agree early on what happens if you meet in town. A common rule is that the client decides whether to say hello, and therapy is never mentioned in public. If being seen at an office in Columbus would trouble you, say so when you first get in touch and ask Laura about options.

If you live in Upstate South Carolina

A therapist generally needs to be licensed in the state where the client is during a session. Laura is licensed in both North Carolina and South Carolina, so living in Landrum, Campobello, Inman or elsewhere in Spartanburg County is not a barrier. For many people just over the line, Columbus is closer than Spartanburg or Greenville. The guide to inner child work near Landrum, Inman and Campobello has more on the South Carolina side.

How to get started

Write through the contact page or call 704-706-3264. A short message is enough: your name, the best way to reach you, that you are interested in inner child work, and that you would like the Columbus office. You do not need to explain your history in the first message.

When you hear back, it is fine to ask about session length, fees and whether video sessions are an option, since those are not published here. Laura is in network with several insurance plans; check your own benefits, and see insurance for therapy in Polk County for what to ask. For a local, informational overview of the work around Tryon, read a Polk County guide to inner child work.

Laura's practice is not a crisis service. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988 at any hour. Vaya Partners, which manages public behavioral health services for Polk County, runs a 24-hour behavioral health crisis line at 1-800-849-6127.

Common questions