The way the inner critic appears in therapy, can be very different. Diverse experiential authors have described several aspects that characterize the way the inner critic turns up in the concrete therapy process. However, these primarily clinical impressions do not show a systematized and well-founded theory. In this article, the various manifestations of the inner critic are charted in a more systematic way. Starting from two broad categories of process characteristics, namely the maladaptive selfschemes and the dysfunctional schema processes, a typology will be presented in which six different forms of the inner critic are discerned.
These types cannot be considered as 'personality traits'; rather, the inner critic seems to be a momentary, situation-specific process disturbance that turns up in a particular way during the course of therapy. This calls for a differential, processdirective approach in which one is sensitive to the specific kind and the intensity of the inner critic. Also, this approach involves a flexible way of responding to the current, moment-by-moment appearances of the inner critic. A concrete therapy fragment will illustrate this.
The tPeP (Journal Person-centered experiential Psychotherapy) is the scientific journal for Dutch and Flemish psychotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, that work from, or are interested in a client-centered perspective.