…ritic Often, the biggest obstacle to building self-esteem is your critical inner voice. The critical inner voice is like a nasty coach that lives inside your head. It nags you with an endless stream of negative thoughts about yourself and others. It’s this inner critic that goes around comparing you to others and evaluating your every move with thoughts like… “You’re not as attractive as him/her.” “She’s/He’s way more intelligent than you.” “Every…
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…id Dr. Lisa Firestone, psychologist and co-author of Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice. “On the one hand, we have feelings of warm self-regard, and traits and behaviors that we like or feel comfortable with in ourselves. We have natural tendencies to grow and develop and to pursue our personal and vocational goals, …to be close in our relationships and to search for meaning in life. These tendencies represent who you really are, the real you, beca…
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…pers and collaborators in the work of healing. Dr. Schwartz recognized the inner voices of shame, criticism, hopelessness, and pessimism as a system of “internal interactions,” or a “family” of emotional parts. He developed the Internal Family Systems – or IFS model — to help understand and work with people who experience turmoil between these inner parts or states of mind. The IFS model also provides a very helpful framework to understand the gen…
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Dr. Christine Courtois talks about the role of the critical inner voice in the inter-generational transmission of childhood trauma. The following transcript contains part of an exclusive interview with Dr. Lisa Firestone and Dr. Christine Courtois. CC I have worked my whole career with adult survivors of incest and child sexual abuse or other forms of childhood trauma. And many of them have very deeply internalized voices and shadows, I guess, of…
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Dr. Christine Courtois talks about the concept of the critical inner voice. The following transcript contains part of an exclusive interview with Dr. Lisa Firestone and Dr. Christine Courtois. CC I think in the field of trauma that the idea of voice and internalized voice is very important and it’s had different terminology. Certainly “identification with the aggressor” being one of them in more analytic terms. But this is a term, you know, it re…
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…ven threatening. How can we feel more grateful? 1. Challenge your critical inner voice. We can start to feel more gratitude by quieting the negative thoughts that turn us against ourselves and the people we love. The critical inner voice is a destructive thought process that hurts us in our daily lives by shaming us and warning us against others. This inner critic is like a dark cloud over our heads, sprinkling thoughts like, “Today is just going…
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…, observational, and objective, a person must become aware of the Critical Inner Voice. The term ‘Critical Inner Voice’ describes an internalized enemy, shaped from early life experiences. If we grew up feeling neglected, our “voices” might tell us we are worthless. If we grew up feeling criticized, our “voices” may tell us we are deficient. Voice Therapy is a technique developed by Dr. Robert Firestone that encourages people to identify and comba…
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…y within, what psychologist Dr. Robert Firestone refers to as the critical inner voice. Internalized early in live, this inner voice functions like an over-disciplinary parent holding us back and keeping us in our place. Think of these thoughts as being like the parasites that keep you in bed when you’re sick with the flu. Don’t listen to these attacks when they tell you not to pursue your goals or to forego an activity you enjoy. This gives the v…
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…hatever is going on. If we have a lot to do, we may experience a “critical inner voice” that tells us, “You can’t get everything done. You’re going to mess up. You’re under too much pressure. You can’t handle it.” It’s helpful to understand that a lot of our stress is perpetuated by this inner critic. Though we experience this critic as we would any of our thoughts, it is the voice of an internal enemy that leads us to self-sabotage and undermines…
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