Adaptation to unsafe childhood environments
- Importance of childhood compliance and submission
- Shame as an adaptive response
- Self-blame facilitates submission and increases safety
Putting words to traumatic experience
- How cognitive schemas affect perception of self and other
- Believing negative thoughts increases safety at the cost of self-esteem
- Inner criticism’s effects on behavior and relationships
Challenging the inner critic
- Relating to the inner critic as a protector part
- Dis-identifying with self-blaming schemas
- Appreciating how it aided in survival
From compassion for the inner critic to self-compassion
- Noticing what worries the inner critic as a reflection of the traumatic past
- Befriending the inner critic as a young part
- Healing the inner critic with warmth and compassion
- Risks and limitations of this approach