When Trust Feels Shaken: Caring for Your Inner Child in Unsettling Times
By Dr. Denise Renye
Lately, many people have shared a similar experience: a low hum of unease, difficulty settling, a compulsion to keep checking the news, or a strange mixture of anger, grief, and numbness. Even those who try to limit exposure feel the emotional residue of what is circulating collectively.
When stories emerge that involve power, secrecy, exploitation, or institutional failure, they can stir something deeper than opinion or analysis. They can disturb our sense of safety in the world.
To understand why, it helps to look through the lens of the nervous system and the inner child.
The Roots of Trust
As children, we survive by trusting authority. We rely on caregivers, institutions, and social structures to create safety, predictability, and protection. Long before we can reason or evaluate systems, our bodies learn: someone is in charge, and I am being kept safe.
This developmental trust becomes part of our psychological foundation. It allows us to relax, explore, attach, and grow.
When trust is fractured on a collective level, the nervous system does not process this only as information. It registers it as disruption.
Even if we are not directly affected, something inside may whisper:
Is the world as safe as I thought?
When Collective Events Activate Younger Parts of Us
News that suggests betrayal, abuse of power, or systemic secrecy can activate younger parts of the psyche that formed during times when safety depended on trustworthy authority.
For some, this may echo earlier experiences of:
betrayal or broken trust
not being believed or protected
loss of innocence
powerlessness in the face of adult authority
For others, the activation is less personal but still visceral. Humans are wired for safety through structure and predictability. When those structures feel uncertain, the nervous system can shift into vigilance.
This may show up as:
a sense of unease or dread
hypervigilance or compulsive news checking
difficulty concentrating or sleeping
emotional numbness or overwhelm
feeling small, powerless, or disoriented
These responses are not signs of weakness. They are protective responses.
Why Not Knowing Feels So Dysregulating
When information is incomplete and unfolding, the nervous system searches for coherence. Uncertainty can be especially activating because younger parts of us associate uncertainty with danger.
Children cannot tolerate ambiguity. Their survival depends on clarity and protection.
When we are inundated with partial information and shifting narratives, the body may respond as though it must remain on alert until safety is restored.
This can lead to a loop of scanning, seeking, and consuming more information in an attempt to regain stability.
But regulation does not come from more input. It comes from re-establishing safety in the present moment.
Caring for the Inner Child in Unsteady Times
When collective events stir unease, it can be helpful to tend to the younger parts of ourselves that are seeking reassurance.
Orient to present safety.
Look around and name what is stable and reliable right now. Feel your feet supported by the ground. Notice the chair holding you. Let your nervous system register that in this moment, you are safe.
Limit exposure without disconnecting.
Choose intentional times to stay informed rather than absorbing information continuously. Your nervous system benefits from rhythm and boundaries.
Offer internal reassurance.
You might gently say to yourself:
“I am safe in this moment.”
“I don’t have to take everything in today.”
“I can move slowly and care for myself.”
Engage sensory grounding.
Touch something textured. Feel warm water on your hands. Step outside and feel air on your skin. Sensory awareness helps the nervous system settle.
Create small rituals of predictability.
Morning tea. A walk at the same time each day. Turning off devices before bed. Predictable rhythms restore a sense of safety.
Re-Establishing Trust Inside Yourself
While trust in external systems may feel shaken, one of the most stabilizing resources available is internal trust.
The capacity to pause.
To feel.
To discern.
To respond rather than react.
When the world feels uncertain, returning to the body, to breath, and to present-moment awareness helps re-establish a sense of ground beneath your feet.
You do not need to process everything at once.
You are allowed to take in the world in doses your nervous system can metabolize.
And you are allowed to care for the younger parts of yourself who may be asking, quietly and understandably:
Am I safe?
In this moment, you can answer:
I am here.
I am listening.
We are safe right now.
If this stirred something tender inside you, you don’t have to navigate it alone. If you feel called to explore these themes more deeply, The Complete Guide to Healing Trauma Through Inner Child Work offers a compassionate foundation for understanding and tending to younger parts of the self. For a more guided, experiential approach, the Inner Child course provides nervous-system-informed practices you can move through at your own pace. And if you feel drawn to more personalized support, therapy can offer a steady, attuned space to explore what is arising and cultivate a deeper sense of safety and trust from within. You are welcome to begin wherever you are.