New Short Program – Your Inner Critic: It’s Time to Be Re-Introduced
Join us for our first Short Program of 2026 as Dr. Maureen Gallagher (SEI Faculty) presents: Your Inner Critic: It’s Time to Be Re-Introduced. Inner critics often present as harsh, insistent, or overwhelming. In practice, they are frequently treated as cognitive patterns to challenge, or behaviors to override. But, Dr. Maureen Gallagher invites a different approach: understanding the inner critic as a protective autonomic response shaped by fear, inhibition, and unfinished survival responses.
- This 6-week live, online invitation to explore the inner critic through a Somatic Experiencing–informed lens.
- Dates: March 18 – April 22
- Time: Wednesdays, 5–7 pm EST
- Format: Live online (recordings available)
- Credits: SE Consult credits offered
Drawing from Somatic Experiencing and Somatic Inner Relationship Focusing (SIRF), the course supports participants in working with the physiology of shame, inhibition, freeze, and collapse with deep relational practices to meet these states; developing skills applicable to both personal practice and clinical work.
Each session includes brief teaching, live demonstrations, and opportunities for experiential practice or reflective integration.
A somatic lens on inner criticism?
From an SE perspective, inner criticism is rarely just a voice. It is often accompanied by specific physiological states—shutdown, freeze, collapse, or agitation—and by parts of the system working hard to prevent further harm.
In this course, participants learn to:
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Identify the protective logic underneath critical attacks
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Track and relate to shame and inhibition as they show up in the body
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Work with both the critic and the part/experience of being criticized as interrelated survival responses
This reframing allows the nervous system to be met with curiosity rather than pressure, and creates conditions for regulation and change.
What this offers practitioners?
Course participants consistently report that this work deepens both personal capacity and clinical effectiveness.
Through demonstrations and guided practice, practitioners develop skills they can immediately bring into their work, including:
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Supporting clients to stay present with shame without overwhelm
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Recognizing when criticism signals fear rather than resistance
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Accompanying clients in building a more regulated inner relationship
As one past participant shared:
“The volume of my self-criticism has gone way down, almost extinct. And when it does show up, I know exactly what to do – relate, be with (not fix or exile).”
— Alicia Cole