Dr Emily

And I want you to embody the critic.

Have you done this?

I've actually done this, yeah.

Tell me about that.

Yeah.

So you can see like in writing then how the change of lens brings about a different experience, a different view of your life.

So, you know, yes, I would like if you were coming into therapy and we had this really harsh critic, for example, I'd be really wanting to really understand its function and purpose.

um and also to do you know for me what feels really important and I think this kind of brings with it like the um how can I view my brain differently um is that we don't just do the cognitive stuff so um in therapy we've got so many different modes of therapy there are so many different approaches to working in a therapeutic space um but there are kind of maybe two different ways in which we can

do the work and one is called top down and so top down if you imagine the brain as an inverted triangle so like that um and at the top of the brain yeah that's a really good triangle at the top of the brain it's like our our higher order functions our cognitive skills and then it comes down into the brain stem this is the most primitive part right and

This is a very simplified version of this, right?

And so talk therapy is what's called a top-down approach.

So we talk through our experiences and our problems.

And that can, for a lot of people, be very healing.

Yes.

Yes.

So it's a little bit like, exactly.

So it's like the talking at the top part helps to heal all the rest of the system.

That can be really effective.

That's a lot of CBT.

So cognitive behavioral therapy, we do a lot of challenging of thoughts, identifying our negative automatic thoughts, for example.