Getting to Know Your Inner Critic

We all have an inner critic.

 It is the voice in our head that act in service of our self to provide feedback. We need our critic, and we don’t want it to go anywhere! However, problems can arise when our critic becomes vitriolic, nasty or demeaning. Often then, the critic causes stopped processes on our journey towards healing (enacting roadblocks such as fear, guilt and shame).

The critic can be seen on a spectrum:

We can think of the critic along a spectrum, ranging from little league coach to tyrant. Sometimes our work in therapy is to soften the critic along this spectrum. This often starts with understanding our critic and changing our relationship to it.

The critic can be outlined on a graph:

This graph shows the grounded, wounded and critic states. The critic often sits above the grounded and wounded states. We must get through the critic to access these states and promote healing.

We can get to know the critic through Focusing.

Some potential guiding questions when getting to know the critic include:

·         If you were to draw your critic on a piece of paper, what would it look like?

·         Are there any gestures, or postures that come along with your critic?

·         What is your critic up to?

·         How can we honour the critic’s role in a way that allows us to hear it?

If you would like to explore your critic further, please reach out for a 15 minute consultation.