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Does this sound familiar?
What is Perfectionism Anyways?
Perfectionism is characterized by a relentless pursuit to strive towards high standards which are often unobtainable.
This pursuit also involves significant concern about making mistakes, preoccupation with “doing better” and attempts to avoid failure at all costs. Ironically, the constant desire to attain perfectionism and avoid failure often makes us feel worse about ourselves and rarely provides the feeling of satisfaction after experiencing success. Perfectionism might also present as high anxiety, difficulty accepting feedback from others, procrastination, overworking, rigid thinking, self-criticism and self doubt.
The cycle is exhausting, isn’t it?
Perfectionism is often seen as an admirable quality in our current world, which can be a barrier to getting support or considering therapy. I’m not here to tell you that having high standards is “bad” or “wrong”, but they might become a struggle when they get in the way of accomplishing your goals, feeling good about your performance and living a balanced life.
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There is a way to be that ambitious, high achieving person that you are, without all of the constant stress, anxiety and negative self talk that comes along with perfectionism.
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How Can Therapy Help?
Therapy for perfectionism can help you:
My approach to therapy for perfectionism involves getting to the root of what’s causing these patterns and addressing the underlying factors.
For some people, perfectionism is the result of childhood experiences where they learned that their worth as a person was directly related to how well they performed and how others viewed them. For others, these patterns developed later in life as a way to cope with high stress situations, trauma, low self-worth or anxiety. Since perfectionism can result from so many different factors, therapy looks different for each person.