A Cornerstone of Susan's Healing Practice
Meeting the Child Within ... Not as Metaphor, but as Reality
The concept of the "inner child" has become so familiar in popular psychology that it risks being dismissed as a cliche. But in Susan Drury's hands, working with the child within is anything but superficial. The Present Child Method, in which Susan holds professional certification, is a precise, neuroscience-informed approach to accessing and healing the childhood states that still live within the adult nervous system. It is not about imagining a child. It is about recognizing that the child you were ... with all their feelings, needs, and responses - is still neurologically present within you.
In Elevating Your Origins to Love, Susan introduces the Present Child Method as one of the most powerful tools in her healing repertoire. She explains that when we experience a strong emotional reaction in adult life ... a surge of anger, a wave of sadness, a sudden withdrawal - we are often not responding from our adult self at all. We are responding from a child state that was activated by something in the present moment that echoes something from the past. The adult mind may not even recognize the connection, but the body knows. The nervous system remembers.
The Present Child Method provides a way to bridge the gap between the adult who is experiencing the reaction and the child who is generating it. Through guided processes that combine awareness, compassion, and the felt sense of the body, Susan helps you make contact with the child state - not to analyze it but to be with it, to offer it the presence, the understanding, and the love that it needed but may not have received at the time. This is not regression therapy. It is a meeting between the wisdom of your adult self and the vulnerability of your child self, facilitated by love.
The Neuroscience of the Present Child
What makes the Present Child Method so effective is its alignment with what neuroscience tells us about how the brain stores and processes emotional experience. Emotional memories are not stored in the same way as factual memories. They are held in the limbic system and the body - in the amygdala, the hippocampus, the vagus nerve, and the somatic tissues. They are accessed not through thinking but through feeling, sensation, and the body's own intelligence.
"The child within you is not a metaphor. It is a neurological reality ... a set of neural pathways, emotional responses, and body memories that are still active within your adult system. Meeting that child with love is not imagination. It is the most practical thing you can do for your healing."
When the Present Child Method brings the adult's conscious awareness into contact with a child state, something remarkable happens at the neural level. The adult's prefrontal cortex - the seat of compassion, perspective, and wisdom - begins to communicate with the limbic system where the child's emotional memory is held. This creates a new neural pathway that links the old emotional charge with a new experience of safety and love. Over time, this pathway grows stronger, and the automatic emotional reaction that was generated by the child state begins to soften and transform.
Susan's guided processes in the book walk you through this meeting step by step. She teaches you how to recognize when a child state has been activated, how to create a safe internal space for the meeting, how to listen to what the child needs without judgment, and how to offer the love and reassurance that creates lasting change. These are not one-time exercises. They are practices - skills that deepen with repetition and that gradually transform the relationship between your adult self and the child who still lives within you.
How the Present Child Method Works
Recognizing Child States
Learn to identify when a strong emotional reaction is coming not from your adult self but from a child state that has been activated by something in the present moment. This awareness alone begins to create space between the trigger and the response.
The Meeting
Through guided meditation and body awareness, make conscious contact with the child state ... not to analyze or fix it, but to be present with it. Offer the child the understanding, safety, and love that it needed but may not have received.
Neural Rewiring
Each meeting between your adult awareness and a child state creates new neural pathways linking old emotional memories with new experiences of safety and love. Over time, these new pathways transform automatic reactions into conscious responses.
About the Author
Susan Drury ... Certified Present Child Practitioner
Susan Drury holds professional certification in the Present Child Method and has integrated it into her healing practice for many years. Based in Vancouver, BC, she combines this powerful modality with cranial sacral therapy, shamanic healing, homeopathy, neuroscience, and the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching to create a complete approach to transformation that honours both the science of the brain and the wisdom of the heart.
She offers private sessions, membership programs, the Elevated Body cards, and retreats.
Learn More About SusanFrequently Asked Questions
What is the Present Child Method?
The Present Child Method is a professionally developed approach to healing that works with the child states still neurologically present within the adult system. It combines body awareness, guided meditation, and compassionate presence to transform the emotional patterns established in childhood.
Is this the same as inner child work?
While it shares some principles with inner child work, the Present Child Method is more precise and neuroscience-informed. It works directly with the body's nervous system and emotional memory, rather than relying solely on visualization or imagination.
Can I practice this on my own?
Yes. The guided processes in Susan's book are designed to be practiced independently. However, many people find that combining self-practice with Susan's private sessions or membership program deepens the work significantly.
How quickly will I see results?
Many people experience shifts from the very first practice. However, lasting transformation unfolds over time as new neural pathways strengthen through repetition. Susan encourages a gentle, patient approach that respects your system's natural pace of change.
Meet the Child Within - Transform the Adult Without
The child who absorbed the world's messages is still within you ... waiting to be met with the love and understanding that transforms everything. Let Susan guide you to that meeting.