Kate Silverton has said she has learned how to speak to her inner child and has 'recovered' the parts of herself that were lost after being the victim of sexual abuse as a child.
The former News presenter, 55, joked she has had 'about 200 years of therapy' and now feels as though she has a 'little family' of selves within her.
Speaking on the Music & Meditation Podcast on Radio 3 Unwind, Kate said: 'I consider that I have a little family within me.
'And if I'm scared or I'm anxious if I'm going out on stage and I'm a bit nervous, I'll take myself off somewhere quiet and I then check in with all the parts of myself because I have recognised them.
'I'll have like, if I'm doing a big event and I'm really nervous, my teenage self might come in. And my teenage self will go 'I've got this mum' and I'll be like great, and then I know I'm gonna be fine.'
Kate previously revealed in 2024 that she had been a victim of sexual abuse and it had taken her 'five decades' to let go of the 'dark weight of shame'.
Kate Silverton has said she has learned how to speak to her inner child and has 'recovered' the parts of herself that were lost after being the victim of sexual abuse
She has since become a child therapist after leaving her career in journalism.
Kate now feels as though she can speak to her inner child and tell her that she is 'safe'.
She explained: 'This may feel familiar to some people, it may not to others, but as a child I experienced significant and complex trauma.
'What can happen if people have experienced difficulty and big challenge in their early years is that, it's what Melanie Klein the psychoanalyst called 'Splitting', and the part of us that was really hurt whether physically or emotionally is sort of exiled.
'And this is where a lot of mental health problems can sort of then come because we're really ignoring a really hurt part of ourselves.
'We want to bring that part of ourselves in and recover and sort of say 'Actually I'm really sorry that I've kept you at bay for so long. That I've kept you in exile.'
'Suddenly everything softens, I can literally talk to that little part of me, that 3-year-old and say 'It's ok, I've got you… You're safe.'
In an essay for The Telegraph, Kate previously explained how children can often blame themselves when they are the victims of abuse as she weighed in on Huw Edwards, who was convicted in 2024 for possessing indecent images of children.
She wrote: 'Young children are not cognitively or emotionally equipped to make sense of what is happening to them, their brain development is not yet at the stage where their 'thinking', rational brain can give adequate meaning or understanding to what has happened. Even as adults, how many of us can?
The former BBC News presenter, 55, joked she has had 'about 200 years of therapy' and now feels as though she has a 'little family' of selves within her
'So children are left with horrendous confusion, grave terror, pain, shock, betrayal, a huge, enormous overpowering and overwhelming sense that something wrong has happened, and ultimately they may conclude, there is something wrong with them.'
She added: 'If you have been the victim of sexual abuse as a child, I see you and I stand with you alongside. I want you to know that in taking the brave step of reaching out for support, we can come through. And remember, the shame is not, and never was, ours.'
Kate added since disclosing her own experience she had been inundated with messages from people sharing their own stories, and they revealed the shame they felt had influenced their behaviour and decision-making in their day-to-day lives.
The former news presenter, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing changed careers after getting a degree in child psychology and is now a qualified child counsellor.
She previously said of her career change: 'My dad changed his career a lot.
'He went from lorry driver to cab driver to locksmith to hypnotherapist, so I’ve never been afraid to do it. I’ve always wanted to tell people’s stories. When I was 19 I volunteered with Operation Raleigh in Zimbabwe, and carried a Dictaphone with me everywhere.
'I lived on a kibbutz in Israel and went into Palestinian territories to interview people. In my first job at a news channel, I begged my bosses to let me cover the Iraq war. I want to get under the skin and tell the story, whether it’s Afghanistan, Iraq or the work I do with children. It’s the same thing, I’m just doing it in a different way.'
Kate met her husband, Mike Heron, an ex-marine, when she was taking part in one of his war-zone training courses. They married in 2010.
They have two children; daughter Clemency and son Wilbur.
