Search Results for: critical%20inner%20voice

prioritizing yourself

The Unselfish Art of Prioritizing Yourself

…fit by setting aside our own wants and needs. 5. We lose ourselves to our “critical inner voice.” When we are preoccupied by a drive to be “productive” or “helpful,” it’s valuable to look at what’s pushing us. Are we doing what we do because it makes us or people we care about happy? Or are we driven by something else? Many of us have an inner critic that tells us we have to achieve certain objectives to be acceptable or worthy. This harsh interna…

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How to Get Over a Breakup

…f-doubt, feelings of shame, humiliation, and self-loathing. Be aware of a “critical inner voice” that starts attacking you when you’re vulnerable. Remember, it’s not just what happens to us in life that affects us but what we tell ourselves about what happens. Losing someone will cause real sadness, but there’s a whole new level of pain opened up by the inner dialogue that’s been set off in our heads. Common post-break-up thoughts or critical inne…

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Why Break Ups Hurt So Much

…asy that we substituted for real relating long ago? Am I indulging in self-critical thoughts that tell me that I’ll never find love or that there is something wrong with me? When we feel rejected, we often start to listen to destructive “inner voices” that attack us and our partner. When we’re listening to these destructive thoughts, we’re more likely to feel humiliation than real sadness over our loss. Our inner critic fuels feelings of not being…

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doomed relationships, intimacy issues, psychalive

Addicted to Doomed Relationships?

…he same way as adults. Often, we select partners who reinforce deep-seated critical views we have of ourselves. For example, a person who had a parent who was emotionally unavailable or who was inconsistent in offering them warmth and affection, they may think of themselves as unlovable on a basic level. As an adult, they may be initially attracted to someone whose attention makes them feel good about themselves, but eventually, they start to noti…

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Psychoeducating Parents to Defeat their Child’s OCD Monster! By Jenny C. Yip, Psy.D.

…has a noticable impact on family functioning. In addition, families play a critical role in the patient’s treatment readiness, compliance, recovery rate, and relapse. Thus, consideration of the familial context, developing healthy collaborative relationships among the patient, his/her family, and the therapist, and integrating the family into treatment is vital to treatment outcome. The level of involvement of families in patient’s OCD varies. How…

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Fighting Post-Graduation Anxiety

…You start doubting yourself and become self-limiting. You give in to your critical inner voice, the self-destructive thought process that creates nagging thoughts and doubts. This can eventually coax you out of taking on challenges and going after your goals. So it is very important for graduating students to remain calm during this transition. By staying calm, you can take power over your critical inner voice and be free to follow your personal…

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Dr. Christine Courtois on the Voice and Childhood Trauma: VIDEO

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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What it Means to Be Loving

…own sense of self-worth. One of the biggest reasons we shut out love is because we feel unworthy or self-denying. Therefore, to have a loving relationship, we must challenge our negative self-concept, or our “critical inner voice.” When we do this and take the loving actions that contradict our critical self-image, we enhance our own sense of worth and are able to get closer to the people we love….

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Dr. Christine Courtois on the Concept of The Voice

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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Recognizing Complex Trauma

…ctive point of view toward themselves. I often discuss the concept of the “critical inner voice,” a term my father Robert Firestone, Ph.D. and I use to describe a negative self-perception we carry with us in our minds. All of us possess this inner critic, but those of us who are traumatized may experience this “voice” as a deeply destructive and terrifying enemy whose attacks on us can feel crippling and constant and can lead to even life-threaten…

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