What’s Your Inner Critic Personality? The 4 Types and How to Quiet Them

Hey, beautiful souls.

Welcome to Reclaim Your Inner Rockstar, the space for high-capacity leaders who lead boldly yet often feel overstimulated beneath the surface. I'm Amy Robinson, aromapsychologist and cognitive coach with more than 25 years of helping others find emotional clarity through scent and science. My work began when I realized scent could instantly shift my thoughts and regulate my entire inner world. And I knew women like me needed access to that same power. Each week you will receive grounded tools and conversations that help you steady your nervous system and think more clearly. Are you ready to feel like yourself again? Then you're in the right place.

Hey, beautiful souls!

Welcome to Reclaim Your Inner Rockstar, the podcast where your healing transformation meets deep empowerment. I am here to show you how to break free from trauma, rediscover your strength, and step boldly into a life you deserve. This is where old stories lose their grip and the real you begins to rise. I am Amy Robinson, a certified transformational coach and aroma psychologist with over 20 years of experience helping hundreds of women reclaim their lives. My expertise is not just on paper. It's lived, it's embodied, and it's soul-tested. I combined powerful certifications with a deeply spiritual, non-traditional approach that gets results most women didn't even know they needed. This is healing that sticks. This is freedom that expands. Each week, we'll dive into the real, The honest truths of healing. The raw, the unfiltered emotions and tender messiness of breaking free. And the radiant, the light that returns when you finally remember who you are. So grab your favorite drink, take a deep breath, and settle in. Your comeback starts now. Are you ready? Let's rock.

Hey! Hey! All of us have a specific pace in which we live our life, and instead of shaming ourselves, we learn how to build and nurture ourselves, and we need that support sometimes. That's what I'm here for— to help you with that. And to help you through it. Women that I work with are usually those who have had complex or chronic trauma most of their life, whether in the form of narcissistic relationships or sexual and emotional abuse, emotional neglect, really heavy forms of trauma that weigh us down, that we may even not be aware that we are holding on to, that heavy blanket of trauma. And I use essential oils to help you release that trauma, to let it go and move forward in your life. I specialize in psychoaromatherapy, which is using essential oils for emotional balance and release. It's transformational, ladies. That's who I am and how I serve you. What is your inner critic personality? Do you even know if you have an inner critic personality. It's very important to understand what our subconscious is telling us. We all have that inner voice inside our heads that either cheers us on or shoots us down. You know that one I'm talking about, right? A lot of people have different variations of it. Some people say that little person on your shoulder talking to you. We've heard about it for years. We've grown up with it. That voice that talks back to you when you just want to stop doing something. You know exactly what I'm talking about. That inner voice, it speaks to us differently. Every individual is unique, and it comes in the form of a frequency. Think about how frequently it comes and talks to us and how intense it comes and talks to us. What does your inner voice sound like? What kind of voice is it? Is it a positive voice? Is it a A Negative Nelly type of voice? Is it a man's voice? Is it a woman's voice? These are questions I ask my clients. We have to get down to the bottom of it. We get to the core of it. Paying attention to that voice helps you to see where you are and what type of voice or personality. It starts getting that ball rolling. As far as the type of personality that your inner critic has, because we all have an inner critic. I've never heard of anybody who's without an inner critic or an inner voice. Here's the reason why that's important. It's the cultural norm that conditions us to believe that criticism and guilt-induced comments will motivate behavior. I like to call it the shaming culture. It stems from way back, but it's integrated into our society and has literally become a part of our society to shame, to criticize, to guilt trip, because in times past It motivated people. But here's the thing, it may motivate behavior, but is it the type of behavior that we want? Would we not want to do something because somebody tells us we have to, or because we want to? Motivation is a big thing, and if it's not genuine positive behavior, then is it going to have lasting results. I don't agree with shaming and guilt as a way to motivate people. The society around us, although it may have worked in times past, has created a generation of broken people. That is trauma in itself. It only induces shame, creates shame and guilt and all those yucky emotions that we feel that stay with us. When we start to tap into what our inner voice is telling us, then we're able to identify our motives more clearly and we're able to understand what it is that drives us and motivates us. And this is across the board. I'm talking emotional, I'm talking physical behaviors, I'm talking any type of motivation. Spiritual, talking to my spiritual community as well. I know so many people that go into the full-time service because everybody else is doing it, and they guilt them and they shame them into, well, you have the circumstances, so why not? Mind your business, you don't know my situation. But then it gets into our inner voice, and that inner voice is what motivates us. It becomes an ugly thing, and then it becomes a critic. Have you ever thought about when you identify that you have your inner voice, when you start to identify what kind of voice it is, have you ever considered naming your inner voice? Psychologically, when we start to name our inner critic, then we are able to separate it from ourselves. We have that heavy blanket of guilt and shame on us all the time, that was someone else putting that on us. That is not who we are because it is not our fault that trauma has landed on us. And this is really challenging for my clients to understand. It takes time for them to understand that we have to forgive ourselves. Because we didn't create our trauma. Somebody else did because of their trauma, dumped it on us. When we start to name our inner critic, that voice inside us, then we're able to say, "Wait a minute, you're not real. If you're not real, then that means I can gain control of my situation." And that's where the empowerment comes in. I've named my inner critic. Her name is Barb. No offense to anybody out there who's named Barb. Barb is mean. She's bossy. And she is critical. She likes to have her way. And she is moody. Over the years, I've had to fight to keep her in her place. She usually comes out when I'm about to succeed at something, when I'm about to grow or step into something new. Or level up, she usually comes out of nowhere. She also comes my way when I'm really, really tired or really, really hungry, and I'm ready for her. What is your inner critic personality? There are 4 different types that you want to look for. See if you can identify what yours is. This way you can start taming it. Type #1: The Worrier. This personality points out everything that can go wrong in your life. It stirs up those emotions of anxiety and fear by imagining the worst disaster that can come your way. It expects the the worst all the time, and it overestimates the odds of something bad happening. Can you identify with that? The worrier comes when you least expect it to, and it just hovers in your space all the time. And many people say, well, that's just who I am. No, it's not. That's not really who you are. That's your inner voice. The conditioning you've had in your life or an environment or culture that is constantly making you worry. It's not who you really are. So that's Type Number 1. Type Number 2, the Critic. This is Barb. The Critic constantly judges and evaluates your behavior. And points out every little flaw. They jump on any mistake and continue to remind you of your failures. They compare you to others and assume that they will judge you. This critic is loud, obnoxious, and always in your face. That's Type 2. Personality. Type number 3, the victim. It's always about them. They are constantly in a hopeless state, not making any progress because it's just too hard to do it. It continues to tell you that there's something wrong with you, that you are incapable or unworthy, that you're just not smart enough, that there are too many obstacles in your way. That's the victim. They will do anything and say anything to keep you stuck in an unworthy, unforgivable space. When we suffer trauma, these are serious, major inner voice issues that we have. I've seen this or a variation of all of these in every single one of my clients. I've seen it in myself. I can spot it a mile away on someone else who hasn't acknowledged or resolved their trauma. It is not them, it is their inner critic, their voice inside them. That they've been conditioned to believe and become a part of them. That's number 3, the victim. Number 4, the perfectionist. This one pushes you to do better all the time when you still feel that you're not good enough. I hear this all the time. I know I gotta do better. I need to be doing better. I should be doing better. There's always something more that you should be doing. There's a whole generation of perfectionists out there, and it's not because that's who they really are. It's just the way they've been conditioned to be. Run, run, run. Always having to have everything perfect. Mistakes and setbacks must be avoided or quickly moved past. See this all the time. I'm going to not deal with my trauma by staying busy all the time. The perfectionist pushes you to seek external validation, always looking for somebody else to tell you you're doing well. That's the perfectionist, always looking. It's like an insatiable need to attach yourself. That inner critic has to attach themselves to other people all the time because they constantly need somebody to tell them they're doing right all the time. They cannot be by themselves. It's very challenging. They look for external validation, achievement, and status. I had a conversation with a friend of mine years ago now. I've been in full-time work on and off for about 25 years, but there's a rat race even in the spiritual community. And it's funny to watch, you know, so many of us do it for for so many different reasons. And sometimes we don't realize that our inner critic or inner voice is the one that drives us, myself included. For years, how many magazines can I place? How many hours do I have to go out? The perfectionist. Slow down, check the motives, recognize the reality, what's really going on here. That inner voice, it's not about all that, that external validation, the achievement, Once you start to identify where it's coming from, then you're able to just tame it down a little bit. For those of us, understand that this one is a massive one for a lot of people because of the society we've been conditioned by, our environmental motivation, and especially to my spiritual community. He is not that way. He never asks more of us than we can do, and that's truth. That's scriptural truth. Acceptance by others is of the utmost importance. It probably even stops you from taking action because you're too afraid to fail. So there's a lot on the other extreme that just don't try anything new because they're too afraid of everything. That's the perfectionism. So they tend to say, "I need to do better," or, "I'm just not good enough." In these 4 personalities, I'm going to recap them: the Worrier, the one who always looks at the negative in every situation and assumes disaster; the Critic, the one who constantly judges and evaluates you and keeps you knocked down, jumps to any mistake you make; The victim, the one that always feels hopeless and can never make progress, who feels incapable and unworthy all the time, or the perfectionist who pushes you constantly to do better, to get attention from other people, to have the highest achievement, always to have the highest status. These are not real. These are just inner voice personalities that are not who we are. If you've been able to identify one or more of these types, it's being your inner critic voice or personality, please understand it's not your fault. You have been conditioned to develop them. It takes time for somebody who has heavy weight of trauma. It takes time for you to trust. We are wonderfully made. We are beautiful gifts to each other and from our wonderful God. He has created us in such a way to influence and encourage and empower others.