Self-Therapy for Your Inner Critic

The Inner Critic is the part of you that judges you, demeans you, and tells you who you should be. It undermines your self-confidence and makes you feel bad about yourself. Self-Therapy for Your Inner Critic shows how to convert your Inner Critic into an ally using Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS), a powerful new approach. It is a follow-up to Self-Therapy, a widely-used IFS self-help book, showing how to apply IFS to transforming the Inner Critic. The authors identify seven types of Inner Critics and how to work with each one. You also learn how to evoke your Inner Champion, which is a magic bullet for dealing with the effects of Inner Critic attacks.

In my work with people in a contemplative context, I have found self-judgment and harsh self-criticism to be pervasive, and often paralyzing and debilitating. Jay Earley and Bonnie Weiss have given us a detailed and elegant, yet down-to-earth, framework to help transform such inner criticism. What particularly distinguishes this very helpful book from many others is their understanding of the protective function of the inner critic in its many forms, how the inner critic is not ultimately the "enemy," but can rather, with inner work, become an inner "champion" and mentor. With numerous examples of individuals' successful work with the inner critic, sparkling insights throughout the book, and their clear charting of a path of healing and transformation, Earley and Weiss have provided a very valuable and accessible resource, one that I will recommend to my students.
-- Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Woodacre, California

Jay and Bonnie have pioneered in bringing IFS out of therapy offices and into people's daily lives. This book contains key guideposts for the inner explorer in terms of what to expect when engaging inner critics... I can fully endorse this most recent contribution to their important project of popularizing IFS.
-- Richard Schwartz, PhD, creator of IFS