Lori,
several things you said touched me <<<
I can see where the inner child work can be beneficial for some if you are called to it as it will be something that you will respond to as there are many ways to achieve the desired results...they all require acknowledgement though...that is all the child wants acknowledgement and understanding for feeling the way a child does...become a child again and understanding will come.
those of us who have that destructive dialogue often do not know how to control it, there are methods where you can subdue those thoughts and let them pass by or transmute them but they again require acknowledging their origin. These thoughts pop in when we are down and quickly can snowball unless we subdue them. We can learn to consciously hear them and not let them guide our processes or we can work thru them and transmute them... To me this is also a choice that will be decided once faced.
I am having success recognizing "rogue thoughts" and letting them float by without affecting me they soon decrease as they have no room. Others may wish to fully bring them to the forefront and work with them. It is a personal calling I guess. I do not want to deal with the past but rather the NOW
these are my thoughts I am working not so much on ascension but on an integration of all my components so that more of my higher self can descend into me NOW and where I take the higher guidance rather than those of my lower or base self.