The application of expressive therapy in healing the inner child: an exploration of training programs for psychological professionals’ self-growth and professional development

Purpose This study aims to explore the long-term personal and professional outcomes of an inner-child-centered expressive arts workshop designed for psychology graduate students. While such experiential learning is increasingly integrated into counselor education to enhance self-reflection and emotional literacy, empirical evidence regarding its enduring effects remains limited. Design/methodology/approach A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used. Twenty-five master’s students in psychology participated in a 14-h closed-group expressive arts workshop. Immediate reflections were analyzed thematically. Four years later, 22 participants (88% retention) completed three open-ended reflective questions and two validated scales: the self-compassion scale-short form (α = 0.88) and the Chinese Connor–Davidson resilience scale (α = 0.93). Findings Thematic analysis identified three enduring developmental themes: (1) heightened self-awareness, (2) reconnection with formative experiences and (3) deepened inner dialogue. Participants also described greater confidence in using expressive techniques and an enhanced capacity for therapeutic holding. Quantitatively, both self-compassion (M = 48.32, SD = 6.14) and resilience (M = 96.32, SD = 9.34) remained high at the four-year follow-up, with a modest but significant correlation between the two constructs (r = 0.28, p < 0.05). Research limitations/implications Small, gender-skewed, single-site sample; lack of a control group; and reliance on self-report measures at follow-up limit generalizability and causal inference. Practical implications Embedding structured inner child modules in professional training can foster emotional growth, improve empathy and accelerate the development of therapists’ self-regulation and client-holding capacity. Social implications Promoting inner-child-focused expressive work among mental health professionals can enhance service quality and contribute to a more emotionally resilient and compassionate helping workforce. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides one of the first longitudinal mixed-methods evaluations of inner-child-focused expressive arts training within counselor education. The findings suggest that even brief, well-structured experiential modules can yield durable gains in self-compassion, resilience and therapeutic presence. Embedding such interventions – supported by reflective supervision – may enhance emotion regulation and professional identity formation among developing practitioners.