How hypnotherapy can help you manage your inner critic

Do you ever feel held back by that critical voice in your head? Does it always chime in at the wrong time, making you lack confidence, constantly replaying conversations in your head, or just blocking you from reaching your goals in life?

Maybe it's telling you these lies:

• You're not good enough, not clever enough, not attractive enough, not confident enough.
• There’s no point in going for your goals; you will just fail.
• If you put yourself out there, everyone will laugh and reject you.
• You're too lazy.
• You shouldn’t feel this anxious/depressed, lacking in motivation.

Sometimes, the way we speak to ourselves in our own heads can be so harsh. This critical voice can be direct, uncompassionate and frankly unkind. It speaks to us in a way that we would never speak to a good friend or family member and focusing solely on the negatives.  

Its effect on you 

When your critical voice goes left unchecked, it can have terrible consequences, impacting many areas of your life. Maybe it stops you from:

• applying for your dream job
• asking out the person you like, or starting a new relationship
• trying new activities, or meeting new friends
• studying that qualification you have always wanted to
• saying no when you need to and having good boundaries
• speaking out in a meeting
• showing up authentically, or makes you people-please

Our critical voice can cause havoc in our relationships, goals and life in general if it is left unchallenged and is allowed to dominate the other parts of our personality.

You are not alone

If any of this resonates with you and you feel this way, you are certainly not on your own. I have worked with many people who have felt this way, and I have experienced a critical voice in my own life experiences.

I remember when I first started my training as a hypnotherapist and counsellor a number of years ago, my critical voice showed up. It made me question if I would be good enough, if I would pass the course or if I would be a good therapist. It also made me procrastinate and put off starting the training.  

I used hypnotherapy and counselling myself to manage my critical voice and found hypnotherapy a particularly powerful tool that helped me to reconnect with my inner confidence and resilience, and has helped me to keep my inner critic in check.

Looking back now, I am so pleased I did not listen to my inner critic, and I love being in the privileged position to help and support others on their journey of self-empowerment and reconnecting with their innate confidence and resilience.  

Having been a hypnotherapist for many years and now a counsellor, I have learnt how important our self-talk and managing the inner critical voice can be in helping us to live the life we desire.

Where does the critical inner voice come from?

Your inner critical voice can come from many different places. Maybe it comes from your childhood and past experiences, which have left an imprint on your life. For example, someone who was bullied or had a bad experience in school may have internalised these negative voices.

The critical voice’s job is often to keep us safe from harm, and if you experience heightened anxiety, sometimes your inner critical voice may be overactive. When you think about it from an evolutionary perspective, it was the people who worried the most that stayed alive and went on to have children. It was the people who worried most about there being enough food that were the ones who took the steps to ensure there was enough food for their family.

Back in those days, it was adaptive to have such a dominant critical voice; however, in the modern day, this level of vigilance is often not needed.  

How hypnotherapy can help

Hypnotherapy can be used as a tool to help with your inner critic. Hypnotherapy is a relaxing therapy which helps you calm your body and mind to a deep level. When you are in this deep level of relaxation, the subconscious mind is more open to making changes and reprogramming negative or self-limiting beliefs.

Hypnotherapy can also help you to access information that is not always easily accessible in the conscious mind through everyday conversations. As hypnotherapy is so calming and relaxing, it helps you to access and work through feelings and emotions that may be challenging in a controlled, calm and supportive environment.  

When working with your critical inner voice, hypnotherapy can help you to find out where this voice has come from and what purpose it is serving. Its purpose is often for safety or protection.

Hypnotherapy can help you to find this safety and connection, and it can support you to reconnect with your inner confidence and resilience.  

Five key takeaways to help when your inner critic shows up

1. Notice it: instead of being just swept away by it, notice it has shown up.
2. Name it: this can be literally giving it a name like “Bob”.
3. Notice how it makes you feel: do you feel better or worse if you listen to it
4. Challenge it: your inner critic can often get things wrong. Ask yourself, is it thinking of the worst-case scenario, what is the best scenario or a more balanced way of looking at this?
5. Show yourself some self-compassion: Your inner critic has no compassion and can keep stuck in loops of perfectionism until you burn out. Listen to your own needs, take a break and offer yourself some self-care when you need it.

If any of this has resonated with you today, you may want to consider hypnotherapy to help support you with your own inner critical voice.