Dealing with the Internal Critic
or
"Squash the Bug that bugs you!"

"As I stood there, mid air, my knees shaking, heart pounding, I began to hear That Voice again, as though it was sitting on my shoulder, saying . "Well that wasn’t very good... what will the audience think of you now... listen to how you wobbled on that note..." And on and on, criticizing each phrase, disapproving of my technique and judging every moment of my performance.

"It was as though the voice became louder and more insistent about highlighting my errors, underlining my mistakes and demonstrating to the audience that what it was saying was true. The louder the voice became, the more I listened to it... the more I listened to it, the less I focused on the music, the less I focused the more mistakes I made... like a train gaining speed with me the helpless passenger being taken for a wild ride towards an inevitable derailment and I could do nothing to stop it."

 

Jay came to me a few weeks ago having recently performed in a recital, and recounted this tale of woe. He was well prepared, knew his music, had studied hard and yet his public performance was "derailed" due to this internal critical voice, his "inner judge", insisting that he focus on the negative aspects of his performance rather than enjoying his performance, and sharing his passion with the audience. Jay was so focused on listening to this inner judge that he sabotaged himself, yet he felt helpless to stop it.

I asked Jay to tell me a little more about this "voice". Jay explained that the voice just turns up, seems to sit on his right shoulder and constantly chatters through his performance. He had tried to ignore it, but just couldn’t.

I asked Jay to take a moment and to re-live the performance (letting him know that even though it may be unsettling for him to do so, this discomfort would only be momentary). While revisiting his experience I asked him to begin to "see what he saw, feel what he felt and very importantly to hear what he heard" as fully as possible. As soon as he was able to hear his inner judge begin to criticize, I asked Jay to experiment with making the voice quieter and quieter.

Jay was able to do this, however he found himself straining to hear the voice, to check if it was still there; it was and was still throwing out negative barbs, taking his attention away from his performance. I then asked him to move the voice to an alternate location.

Jay experimented with moving the voice from his right shoulder up and over his head. For Jay this appeared to magnify the voice, making it louder and feel as though the criticisms were "raining down on him". I suggested to Jay that he move the voice far away, maybe down on the floor where "the voice would have to use all its energy to make itself heard".

As he acted on this suggestion Jay began to laugh. He said he imagined the voice like a tiny bug trying to make itself heard. As I didn’t want Jay to begin "trying to hear the voice" I said "Just step on that bug Jay... you don’t need it any longer". At that, Jay stomped on the floor while laughing and saying "Take that!"

Last week, Jay came back to tell me that he had performed in his senior recital. The performance had been enjoyable, and Jay had been able to focus on communicating with the audience and that the critical inner voice remained silent. With no inner criticizm his performance had stayed on track. "I knew" said Jay "that if this voice did dare to show up then I could just squash it like a bug."

How did I help Jay?

By asking Jay to see what he saw, hear what he heard and feel what he felt, I used the concept of NLP concept of Representational Systems (i.e. sensory systems) to take him back to re-experience that time. This allows him to get back in touch with his experience so we can deal with it. By changing the tone and location of the voice, we used the concept of sub-modalities to change his experience of the voice.

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© 2007 International Center for Positive Psychology and Hypnosis