Are you someone who struggles with self-criticism?

Do you often have a go at yourself? Or do you expect too much of other people?

Self-criticism is the act of beating yourself up with words.  Your mind can get busy saying things like “You’re so stupid”, “why did you do that you numpty?” or “sort it out, you’re no good at anything.”  A self-critical mind whilst present in all of us, rarely makes anyone feel better. In fact, it has the opposite effect.

When you criticise other people, they feel hurt, upset or angry. That’s why many of us try to avoid it as much as possible. But how well do you avoid criticising your own decisions?  Not so well I guess. Many people have a tendency to judge their own behaviour more harshly than that of others.

In this episode, I get to speak with one of the world’s experts on how to reduce self-criticism. She has written several books including The Compassionate Mind Approach to Building Self-Confidence and Compassion-Focused Therapy for Dummies.  She is a consultant clinical psychologist who lives and works in the South West of England and she is a founding member of the Compassionate Mind Foundation and alongside Paul Gilbert she helped to develop compassion-focused therapy (CFT).  Her name is Dr Mary Welford.

SHOW NOTES

Compassion-Focused Therapy for Dummies is a wonderful resource if you are seeing—or thinking about seeing—a therapist who utilises compassion techniques, or if you would like to leverage the principles of compassion focused therapy to manage your own wellbeing.

The aim The Compassionate Mind Approach to Building Self-Confidence is to help the reader to recognize the ways in which they are self-critical and to understand the impact it may be having on their life. Based on Compassion Focused Therapy, the reader will learn proven techniques that will help them to improve their self-confidence and fulfil their goals and aspirations. Worksheets from the Compassionate Mind Approach to building Self-Confidence

You can find Mary on Twitter @DrMaryWelford

The Compassionate Mind Foundation promotes well-being by facilitating the scientific understanding and application of compassion. They are a charitable organisation that supports research and teaching of an evolution and contemplative informed compassion-focused approach to human difficulty. They also support individuals with training and resources and run specific programmes to apply a compassionate approach in both schools and organisations.