We have never seen it, probably never talked to it and likely didn't know it existed.

We have never seen it, probably never talked to it and likely didn't know it existed. But, it's probably always been there - locked somewhere in the basement of our mind. And now that we've started the healing process, it's come to the forefront. It wants attention and it wants it now.
The child within is one of the most difficult things for our students to understand, but it's also something you'll have to come to grips with.
For our students, the child is a real thing, although not in the physical sense. The survivor is able to feel what the child feels, talk to it, even console it. Sometimes, our students can picture the child within inside us. We can see the child sitting in a room, playing with their things.