The Inner Critic Workbook (Paperback)

Turn down the volume on your inner critic and crank up your confidence with this mindful, compassionate workbook.

Are you your own worst critic? Do you live with the incessant chatter of your inner voice constantly on your case about how you never do anything right, how you’re not good enough, and that you’ll never be good enough? Does it sometimes feel like this unwelcome, unkind voice gets so loud that it starts interfering with your daily life? If so, you should know that you aren’t alone—and there are steps you can take to get out from under the never-ending barrage of self-criticism. This workbook will help you learn how to see yourself with greater compassion and confidence.

The Inner Critic Workbook teaches you, step by step, how to turn down the volume on your inner critic, and crank up your confidence using proven-effective mindfulness, acceptance, and self-compassion strategies. You’ll learn where this judgmental voice comes from, what’s likely to trigger it, and how to soften it up with a little kindness directed inward! As you discover and connect with what matters most to you, you’ll begin hearing a more authentic, compassionate—and accurate—voice.

A severe and unrelenting inner critic can make it feel like you’re paralyzed with fear and self-doubt—and unable to move forward and reach your goals. If you’re ready to replace “You aren’t good enough!” with “You’ve got this,” open this book, open your heart, and start caring for yourself in ways both big and small.

Shawn Costello Whooley, PsyD, is a psychologist, behavior change coach, and peer-reviewed acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) trainer in private practice in Baltimore, MD. She also serves as a staff psychologist in the Trauma Recovery Program at the Baltimore VA Medical Center. Costello Whooley specializes in the use of evidence-based treatments for anxiety, trauma, and interpersonal relationship problems. She is also founder of Stillpoint Journeys, a coaching and training practice focused on moving the work of behavior change out of the office and into life by using extended hiking, horseback riding, and sailing treks to experience the processes of ACT in real time. Shawn provides ACT and contextual behavioral science (CBS) training internationally and in academic settings.

Holly Yates, MS, LCMHC, has been in private practice in North Carolina since 2004. She is trained in functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), ACT, and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). She is a founding facilitator of the online ACT Peer Intervision Group sponsored through the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), and a Certified FAP Trainer through the University of Washington. Yates has been a presenter of FAP and ACT at ACBS World Conferences since 2016, and continues to train both internationally and domestically. Yates was a plenary speaker at the ACBS Brazil Conference in 2021. She has coauthored a chapter on FAP and couples counseling which will be released in Argentina at the upcoming ACBS World Conference. Yates is on the board of ACL Global Project, and is a member of the Functional Analytic Psychotherapy International Board for Certification (FAP/CEP).

Foreword writer Mavis Tsai, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and senior research scientist at the University of Washington Center for Science of Social Connection. She is cofounder of FAP.