ABSTRACT
The objective of this exercise is to remind participants that they have options as to what they say to themselves in their heads and that they can say positive as opposed to negative things. The exercise is designed to help the participant develop more compassionate self-talk and disempower the inner critic. As we are still in the process of forming a self in childhood, research shows that negative messages from others (both verbal and nonverbal) given to a child can be as powerful as hypnosis. For this reason, such childhood messages are often referred to as hypnotic induction. The derogatory messages, such as “You’re just stupid doing things like that” or “You are so selfish,” tend to be ‘swallowed whole,’ so to speak, believed fully and then repeatedly played in the mind, as if they were the child’s own views. The child takes these views in as their own and forgets who said them or implied them in the first place. This negative self-talk, often referred to as one’s inner critic, can then wield a huge amount of power in contributing to making someone feel utterly miserable or worthless, particularly at stressful times. A key part of any effective therapeutic intervention is to address negative self-talk, hopefully find its childhood origin and replace it with compassionate voices.
