Retiring the Inner Critic: How to end negative self-talk in clients and ourselves

Self-blame, negative self-talk, endless pummelling by our inner critic and the relentless self-shaming that can go on in the minds of our clients can effectively derail their capacity to cope and thwart their trust in themselves to bounce back from stress and trauma. As therapists, we are tasked with helping our clients recover their inner secure base of resilience and well-being – as a crucial step of their healing journey.

This practical, online webinar which will be useful for psychotherapists, counsellors and psychologists across modalities, will provide us with the neuroscientific background that explains the seeming intractability of negative, shaming-blaming messages and beliefs, even when clients are trying extremely hard to modify or even rewire them. We will look at practical therapeutic tools that can help our clients cultivate the self-awareness, self-empathy, self-compassion and self-acceptance that allows for revision and rewiring of such negative beliefs.

The webinar shows how we can use the brain’s neuroplasticity to modify coping behaviours, even when these appear to be seemingly ‘stuck’ or intractable. Linda helps us identify empirically-validated therapeutic techniques that can be applied across modalities. Specifically, we consider how we can help our clients to learn:

• The ABC’s of working with disruptive emotions and beliefs:
  • Aware-Allow-Accept
  • Be with-Befriend and
  • Compassion-Curiosity-Courage
• Experiential exercises to strengthen self-awareness, self-compassion, self-empathy, self-forgiveness and self-acceptance in reliable, measurable ways
• The creation of inner resources – Wiser Self, Compassionate Friend, Good Inner Parent – to support and companion the healing process
• The Wiser Self-Inner Critic dialogue that will allow the inner critic to retire to a new role of inner advisor
• Mindful awareness practices that allow clients to notice, name, and shift their negative thought patterns to more positive messages and beliefs
• Tools of guided imagination, inner parts dialogue, written reflection and why each is more effective at different stages of learning and growth
• Tools of mindful empathy, from clinician and client that heal toxic shame

About the Speaker

Linda Graham is an experienced psychotherapist in the San Francisco Bay Area.  She is the author of The Resilience Handbook: Powerful Practices to Bounce Back from Disappointment, Difficulty, even Disaster (September 2018, New World Library) and Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being, winner of the 2013 Books for a Better Life award and the 2014 Better Books for a Better World award.  She integrates modern neuroscience, mindfulness practices, and relational psychology in her international trainings on resilience and well-being.  She publishes a monthly e-newsletter and weekly Resources for Recovering Resilience, archived at  www.lindagraham-mft.net.

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