Building your Inner Coach - Therapist Bundle

Building Your Inner Coach

When might this be helpful

Use this resource when a client's self-talk has become a clinical theme in its own right, whether that shows up as perfectionism, chronic self-doubt, difficulty accepting praise, or a harsh internal voice that follows them between sessions. It gives you a structured, evidence-informed way to work with self-criticism directly, alongside a therapist companion that grounds the intervention in a wider clinical formulation.

Resource description

Building Your Inner Coach is a two-page reflective exercise that helps clients externalise their inner critic and inner coach as two distinct, colour-coded voices, then practise strengthening the coach through repetition. It is accompanied by a full therapist companion that moves beyond how to use the worksheet, exploring how self-criticism develops as protection, why it often outlives the danger that created it, the difference between the critic and conscience, and why compassionate responses can initially feel unbelievable or unfamiliar to a client.

The companion also sets out working principles for perfectionism, shame, anxiety, and trauma presentations, names common therapeutic traps, and offers a memorable clinical model for holding the work in mind across sessions.

What's included

• Building Your Inner Coach client worksheet, Print version with ruled handwriting lines
• Building Your Inner Coach client worksheet, Fillable version with digital writing fields
• Building Your Inner Coach Therapist Companion, a detailed clinical reference document

Suitable for

• Individual counselling and psychotherapy work with adult clients
• Clients presenting with perfectionism, chronic self-criticism, shame, or anxiety
• Use within an ongoing therapeutic relationship, in session or as between-session practice
• Practitioners wanting a grounded clinical rationale alongside a client-facing tool

Not designed for

• Use as a stand-alone or first-contact intervention with clients in acute crisis
• Group or workshop settings without adaptation
• Clients for whom the inner critic is closely tied to active self-harm, an eating difficulty, or unprocessed trauma, without additional pacing and care

How it can be used

The worksheet can be introduced in session, with the first page completed collaboratively so the client has support locating an unfamiliar coach voice before attempting it independently. The second page extends the practice for home use, with a short explanation of why the two-colour method works and further reflection space for the following week.

The therapist companion is intended as background reading before introducing the exercise, and as an ongoing clinical reference to return to as the work develops.

The therapeutic approach

This resource draws on Compassion Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and narrative approaches to self-criticism, alongside the practice's Authentic Honour Framework. The inner critic is understood throughout as a protective strategy with a history, not as a flaw to be corrected. All theoretical references in the companion are drawn from established, published sources.

Licence

This resource is licensed for use by the purchasing practitioner within their own practice, with as many of their own clients as needed. It may not be resold, redistributed, or shared with other practitioners as a resource of their own. Please do not upload this resource to shared practice drives accessible beyond your own use, or to any third-party resource-sharing platform.

Disclaimer

This resource is intended to support, not replace, your own clinical judgement, training, and formulation. It is not a substitute for supervision or for a client's individual risk assessment.

If a client is in crisis, please direct them to their GP, call 999, go to A&E, or call Samaritans on 116 123.

Price and Fees

Price as listed at checkout. Payhip's standard transaction fees apply and are not additional to the listed price.

Refunds

Due to the digital nature of this product, all sales are final. Please get in touch before purchasing if you have any questions about whether this resource is right for your practice.