When there is an event that affected us in childhood (whether big or small), but no one was there to witness us and how we felt, or someone looked away and pretended that nothing happened, or someone then went on to deny that anything happened at all, this leaves us and how we felt and what we experienced unwitnessed.
This means that there was no space given to our experience and emotions and therefore we had to really push these deeper in our subconscious minds. This unwitnessed energy is still seeking to be witnessed and will now come out through the triggers that we experience in our lives as it needs to be expressed and seen.
Now that we are adults, we can either be the ones who can hold the space for our inner child to be witnessed, by validating their experience and helping them process it so that it is integrated and resolved, or we can do this with the help of another, who will hold the space for us to do it.
Witnessing can feel very liberating and freeing for these parts of us that are stuck in the past roles as they now get to evolve from there and bring along their gifts.