Many adults who’ve endured childhood trauma carry more than memories; they carry a deep-seated sense of injustice, shame, and silence. Inside, they replay their story over and over, a form of rumination, trying to make sense of a senseless experience. I call this internal struggle the Inner Courtroom, a place where survivors unconsciously prosecute, defend, and cross-examine themselves for what was never their fault.

True Story of Inner Injustice

Trauma survivors like Georgette often carry invisible verdicts rendered long ago...beliefs of guilt, unworthiness, or enforced silence imposed by the very systems that failed them. From those systems designed to protect her, she found herself instead feeling unsafe, unheard, and unseen.

Georgette Todd, author of Foster Girl: A Memoir, offers a courageous and unflinching account of growing up in the foster care system — a story that underscores why internal healing is as vital as external justice.

She entered foster care at the age of 14, due to her mother’s passing and father’s incarceration. Georgette was then placed in a series of foster homes throughout California. She has described that period as “a revolving door of rejection,” marked by instability, neglect, and at times, emotional and physical abuse. She later remembered she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather, while her mother was a bystander.

This is where the Inner Courtroom becomes essential.

The Inner Courtroom offers a symbolic space to challenge those verdicts. In this internal tribunal, the survivor becomes the judge, the advocate, and the truth-teller, reclaiming the authority to define what justice and compassion look like within.

Georgette’s journey reminds us that public advocacy and personal peace are not the same. Healing requires both. The Inner Courtroom allows survivors to rewrite the script to render a new verdict of self-forgiveness and empowerment, long after external systems have gone quiet.

Why the Inner Courtroom Matters and How It Works

Childhood trauma doesn’t just happen to a person; it happens within them. It reorganizes the nervous system, imprints the body with fear, and fractures identity. Research shows that early adversity disrupts a person’s capacity for trust, safety, and self-coherence across the lifespan.

While evidence-based therapies such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) and EMDR address trauma clinically, the Inner Courtroom offers something deeply symbolic: a process that allows survivors to become active participants in their own justice.

In the Inner Courtroom, you are no longer the powerless witness... you are the judge, the advocate, and the truth-teller of your own story.

Trauma robs survivors of agency and safety, often leaving them to feel powerless and defined by the actions of others. The Inner Courtroom restores that agency by allowing survivors to become the authority of their own story. Structuring and naming emotions within this visualization helps the brain shift from the reactive state of the amygdala to the reflective functioning of the prefrontal cortex, supporting emotional regulation and integration.

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In this process, survivors begin to create meaning out of what once felt chaotic or senseless, transforming fragmented memories into a coherent narrative that fosters empowerment, connection, and self-compassion.

What Is the Inner Courtroom Therapeutic Intervention?

The Inner Courtroom intervention is a guided visualization and writing exercise designed to help trauma survivors process pain, reclaim power, and reconstruct meaning.

You imagine a courtroom within your mind, a place where you hold the gavel and the authority to name, confront, and release what harmed you.

Across from you sits the person, system, or part of yourself that caused the wound.

You move through four key stages:

1. Opening Statement
2. Cross-Examination
3. Verdict
4. Reclamation

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This practice is rooted in narrative therapy, Gestalt “empty-chair” work, and trauma-informed principles emphasizing voice and choice. Studies confirm that creating coherent narratives about trauma promotes integration and long-term healing.

For Georgette, the “defendants” might have been not only her abuser but the institutions that failed her and the internalized voices whispering she wasn’t enough. The Inner Courtroom gives survivors like her a private space to render a new verdict.

How to Use the Inner Courtroom Practice

You can do this on your own, with a therapist, or through journaling, answering each step’s prompts.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Set the Scene

Find a quiet space. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths.

Picture a courtroom, not cold or intimidating, but safe. You sit at the bench as the judge. You are in control.

Step 2: Identify Who’s on Trial

Who or what harmed you? It could be a parent, abuser, authority figure, the foster-care system, or your own inner critic.

For Georgette, it might have been her stepfather who assaulted her, or her mother, who looked away.

Step 3: Give Your Opening Statement

Speak or write the truth you never got to say.

“You hurt me when you left me unprotected.”

“You told me I was nothing, but I was a child who needed care.”

“This pain was never mine to carry.”

This stage externalizes shame and restores voice.

Step 4: Cross-Examine

Ask the hard questions — the ones that still echo inside.

“Why did you do it?”

“Do you understand the harm you caused?”

“Was I ever enough to matter to you?”

You may not receive an answer, but the act of asking shifts power from silence to voice.

Step 5: Deliver the Verdict

This is your moment to decide the truth.

“I release you from defining me.”

“Your actions are no longer my narrative.”

“I forgive not to excuse you, but to free myself.”

Step 6: Reclaim Your Power

End with a statement of wholeness by utilizing a 2-step technique called bi-lateral stimulation, which integrates and downloads a new state of being in the body.

1. Cross your arms and place your hands on your shoulders.
2. Tap alternating shoulders as you state any of the following statements, out loud, or choose your own. This will rewire your brain and your body. Keep tapping until you feel satisfied.

“I am not what happened to me.”

“I am who I choose to become.”

“I am the author of my own story.”

“I am worthy of safety, peace, and love.”

“I now hold the control and power within me.”

Take a deep breath and feel the verdict settle in your body. Anchor this moment in pride and confidence. You’re not responsible for what others do, only for how you choose to respond.

Who This Helps

• Adult survivors of childhood abuse, neglect, or trafficking.
• Foster youth and adoptees who lost their voice or sense of identity.
• Survivors of sexual assault, narcissistic relationships, or betrayal trauma.
• Anyone haunted by shame, guilt, or an unresolved “inner trial”.

It’s important to remember this is not a substitute for therapy. Survivors facing severe PTSD, dissociation, or suicidal thoughts should engage this process with professional support.

The Inner Courtroom doesn’t erase trauma, but it offers a sanctuary for survivors to do what the world too often denies them: to speak, to judge, to forgive, and to reclaim.

If you’ve lived through the unspeakable, it’s time to deliver a new verdict.

You are no longer on trial.

You are the judge.

Claim your inner justice.

And you have the final word.

A Note on Safety and Support

This practice can evoke powerful emotions. It is not a replacement for therapy, but a complementary exercise within trauma-informed care.

If you experience suicidal thoughts or deep despair, please reach out to a crisis line or mental health professional immediately. Healing requires both inner and outer witnesses.

In the U.S., you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24/7.

To find a therapist, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.