What if you weren’t beaten up by your inner critic every day, all day?
People who live with inner critics are often overachievers. Until the day they are not.
Does your inner critic make you try extremely hard? Does it have excessive standards for you? Does it leave you feeling absolutely exhausted?
Seeking out professional guidance for psychological issues may feel like a last resort but it may be the way to once and for all get that internal critic out of the driver seat. Living with an internal critical voice is tiresome. It creates worry and rumination. A hyper-vigilance to all imaginable threats. It is like living in constant fear. It creates an inability to let that thing you did go… It heightens the focus on what others think about you. It creates a worry that you one day will be found out…
You probably don’t share much of this with anyone, and if you do your family and friends may not know how to support you. Most people with harsh inner critic excel in many areas of their lives so not getting the self-criticism and anxiety under control can be an extremely frustrating, and confusing experience.
It’s exhausting being followed around by the thought that nothing you do is good enough. To believe in it can be a deeply painful experience that may have become so second nature to you that you hardly notice the harshness anymore. But when you do reflect on it, and during those lonely hours in the middle of the night when the repetitive thoughts get going. It is much more painful than anyone could have guessed from the outside.
If people could hear the inside of your mind they would be extremely surprised, mainly because the way you speak to yourself is almost the exact opposite of how you speak to others. Most people would describe you as a people person. What they don’t know is that for longer than you wish to admit, your self-critical voice has been ruling your life, and sadly you now come to believe in it. You know that voice that says you are not a good enough parent, or sister/brother, or partner. The one that never lets you forget a mistake or a mishap? The one that is constantly reminding you of everything that you should have done differently?
Shame
Are you living with toxic shame? Are you always feeling as if you did something wrong? And that because of you having done so are bad? Does this interferes with you life to such a point that it has begun affecting close relationships? Work? School?
Strong feelings of shame can affect our sympathetic nervous system, causing a fight/flight/freeze reaction. When we feel exposed we may react with an urge wanting to hide, or it may make us go into a full rage. Toxic shame can make us feel extremely lonely. Our self-talk becomes very negative and harsh and sometimes it can evolve into self-loathing.
What if there was a way where you didn’t have to hate yourself? What if there was a way in which you could feel ok about yourself? What if you didn’t have to wake up in the middle of the night feeling the adrenaline pumping fearing what might happen the next day? What if you could feel free?
We are here to help and we would love to hear from you. Get in touch today.
Rumination
Are you someone who thinks about things that happened over, and over, and over, and over, and over again? Do you wish it wasn’t so but find yourself unable to stop?
Please know that you aren’t alone in suffering. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
What if you were able to stand in front of people not constantly thinking about what they noticed about you? What if life could be lived without that critic on your shoulder criticising your every move in social situations? What if you could find joy?
We would love to help you to get on your journey.
I don’t know I just feel bad.
Sometimes life is overwhelming and we just feel bad. It can be very difficult to put a finger on what the triggering issue is, but the feelings within remain close to unbearable. Life may be throwing us a curve ball, or maybe nothing at all has happened. It isn’t always easy to know what might be the issue. When such is the case it can be helpful to do an initial assessment.
Having done thousands of initial psychological assessment I have become highly skilled at finding out what the core issue might be for even the trickiest presentation. Get in touch to get yours today.
WHY THERAPY?
It is my experience as a clinician that these things rarely go away on their own. At my clinic I meet people from all walks of life. One of my specialisms is in the treatment of chronic self-criticism. I also have further training in anxiety, adjustment issues, anger management. There is nothing shameful about seeking professional help. In fact, I have repeatedly observed it to be a very wise move.
Through attending and engaging in psychological therapy individuals, just like you, create a space in their life to alleviate suffering.
IMAGINE..
What if life didn’t have to be this hard? What if there was a way where you could speak as compassionately to yourself as you do to others? What if you didn’t have to feel like a failure so often? What if there was a different way?
I have helped hundreds of people get there, I would love to help you too.
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT US…
50 minutes of me time. Not for my son. Not for my husband. Not for my boss. It was just for me.
I got burned out in 2012 and never really found a way out of it. Therapy helped me to do so. It worked.
Therapy helped me to realise there was more than just bad parts. It helped getting a more balanced view of myself. It’s not like I go around loving myself every minute of the day – but I don’t hate myself anymore.
Imposter syndrom [brought me to therapy]. I learned new ways to manage that seems to do the trick.
