Children's Fears and Complexes

About the deck

A deck about what a child fears and feels ashamed of while they cannot yet put it into words.

The deck holds 80 metaphorical associative cards: 40 childhood fears and 40 complexes, the ones most common at this age.

These are what usually keep a child from moving forward, freeze them, give rise to unhelpful behavior and shape the wrong habits.

The deck is there so that, together with a professional, a child can see what is happening to them and what they feel, find a way to be free of a fear or a complex, and learn to manage them in future.

It also suits work with grown-ups on the inner child, when what was missed in childhood still shapes life today and needs to be worked through.

The deck can be used as a diagnostic, clarifying, deepening, resourcing and supporting tool in counseling, therapy and psychological transformation games. It works within the “Children's World” series, on its own, and as a deepening tool in the game of the same name.

With the “Children's Fears and Complexes” deck you can

• find out what keeps a child from moving forward and freezes them
• understand what gives rise to unhelpful behavior and locks in harmful habits
• see what feelings the child is actually having
• find a way to be free of a fear or a complex
• teach a child to manage a fear instead of hiding it
• understand which fear switches on in a particular situation
• see the complex through which the child already looks at themselves
• tell the child’s own fear from what grown-ups passed on to them
• notice where a fear protects and is therefore still needed
• give the child back the sense that something can be done about a fear

Questions to ask the deck

Work starts from these questions. Choose one, the one that speaks to you more strongly than the rest, and work with it, because only one fear is worked through well in a single meeting.

1. Which fear or complex gets in my way in life?
2. Which fear keeps me from settling my question?
3. What are my strongest fears?
4. Which complexes keep me from being myself?
5. Which fear do I need to work through to get what I want?
6. Which complex should I let go of first?
7. Which fears were handed to me by grown-ups?
8. Which fears grew out of my own experience?
9. Which fear keeps me from going forward?
10. What will I stop doing once the fear is gone?
11. Who can help me manage?
12. What am I afraid of but tell no one about?

The whole series

“Children's World” is 8 decks that work as a single system: fears and complexes, behaviour patterns, habits, beliefs, feelings, emotions and mood, abilities and teen motivation.

See the whole series →