The author discusses a technique for eliciting and challenging dysfunctional beliefs, based on the idea that such beliefs seem to have their source in an inferred internal agency known as the inner critic. Various conceptions of the inner critic are listed. An adaptation of the empty chair technique is described, which the clinician can use to elicit the inner critic’s voice as a phenomenological reality that issues dysfunctional messages, which, when accepted by the person, become dysfunctional beliefs. Once the messages are verbally expressed, they can be disputed and countered using cognitive-behavioral methods.
