A late introduction, late at night
I care deeply about mental health. Yes, I’m a shrink so the interest comes with the territory, but it’s not just that. I get mental health and how debilitating and painful it is. I know a lot about mental health as I’ve been around it for quite a while; I struggled with it for a long time in childhood. Family members, friends, and people I see in my practice. I know its’ many faces and the different shapes it takes to deceive you and hurt you. I know about the fear, isolation, and loneliness, the emptiness, anxiety, and the deep darkness that comes with it. Because I know so much,…
The inner critic: “you can’t”, “you’re not good enough”, you’re it!
I’ve been reading a string of articles lately on the PsychCentral’s website (here and here) about the inner critic and some ways in which to deal with it.The notion of an inner critic is not new; I remember (in my first week as a student interning at an art therapy non-profit in Texas), hearing my supervisor telling the children of a therapy group to listen to that voice inside that tells them they can’t draw nicely or that they’re not talented. She said “that’s your inner critic! And what do we do with it? We kick it out of the room and tell it to wait outside until we’re done.…
