Parenting the small child: listener question

Can you say more about the self-parenting idea with this understanding?

I've been in and out of various forms of therapy since I was a teenager and self parenting has involved saying things like "I love you" to the system or to the idea of various ages of a younger "me". I had stopped doing this out of the impression that this practice is a form of separate self-concept reinforcement. 

Yet observing the system speaking aloud, to this memory of a small child created in this moment, and feeling the sadness or anxiety fluctuate to warmth and comfort - I'm wondering if that's presence?