I think that what Americans like me who live in therapy assign to healing one’s inner child is really about letting go of our attachment to pain, a major theme in Eastern thought, especially in Buddhism.
Here’s an excerpt from Victor M. Parachin’s new book, “Eastern Wisdom for Western Minds,” about how we might suffer less by being less attached to things–like my collection of Disney princess dolls, or to Freaky Therese, or, more accurately, to the pain that those dolls represent:

The Buddha specifically taught that it is attachment that leads to suffering. We suffer not because an unpleasant event takes place in our lives, but because we add to that event the huge burden of emotions and fantasies: anger, resentment, hostility, entitlement, fear, grief, etc. The Buddha taught that freedom from attachment is the cure for suffering. “For him who is wholly free from craving, there is no grief, much less fear.” That lesson is the point of this story about an gardener who visited a monk seeking his advice: “Great Monk, let me ask you: How can I attain liberation?” The Great Monk replied: “Who tied you up?” This old gardener answered: “Nobody tied me up.” The Great Monk said: “Then why do you seek liberation?”
The point of the story is this: if you don’t have attachments, then you are naturally liberated!