I see I'm going to have to tell my own story.

I was sceptical about the inner child, indeed hostile to the idea. But T made me see that I was actually hostile to my inner child. There was a part of myself that I had disowned.

In my case (and I can speak for no one else) rejecting the idea of an inner child was a sign of self-hatred. But it was also a clue to growth: I needed to accept, respect and love my own neediness, powerlessness and vulnerability. I'm still working on that.

It is possible that the inner child has no objective reality. But as a symbol and a metaphor, it has great power.