Perfectionism Treatment
Perfectionism: Striving for unrealistic performance standards and being prone to self-criticism
Therapy for Perfectionists in Chicago and across Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida
Common symptoms of perfectionism include:
Paying extreme attention to detail
Getting upset when a mistake has been made and ruminating about it
Fearing making mistakes and seeing them as failures
Nothing achieved is good enough (or difficulty celebrating achievements)
Obsessing over what you should have done better
Excessive worry about being judged by others
High anxiety about embarrassing yourself
Seeing things as absolutes (right or wrong)
Being a high achiever but feeling like a fraud (Imposter Syndrome)
Feeling inadequate or incompetent, even when evidence suggests otherwise
Self-doubt and worry about measuring up
Setting excessively high goals/expectations (and being unable to achieve them)
Micromanaging others
Having difficulty delegating tasks to others or feeling disappointed in the results
Experiencing burnout because there’s too much on your plate
Take this free quiz to see if you're a PERFECTIONIST!
People often joke about being a perfectionist, but what happens when it reaches another level? The desire to succeed requires a healthy dose of ambition, but it can also lead to procrastination and a great deal of anxiety that can pertain to all areas of your life (professional, academic, relational, perceptions of self, etc). Take this quiz to assess your degree of perfectionism!
* Please note this is not a diagnostic tool
Perfectionism Therapy
Are you a perfectionist? The desire to succeed requires a healthy sense of ambition that keeps you motivated, but what happens when it reaches another level? It can cause you to procrastinate and miss out on opportunities because you can’t bear the idea that the outcome could be anything less than flawless, or maybe it’s not the “perfect” time.
It can be debilitating to your daily functioning because you waste so much time trying to get something “just right.” This creates a great deal of anxiety and can pertain to all facets of your life (professional, academic, relational, perceptions of self, etc). This is where perfectionism actually becomes self-sabotaging.
How can therapy for perfectionism help?
I'll help you identify some of the root causes of your perfectionism and assist you in understanding the role being a perfectionist has played in your life. I will assist you in recognizing that failure is part of the human experience and actually facilitates growth. I will aide you in seeing the plethora of gray area that exists between the black and white extremes of polarized thinking, which ultimately leads to perfectionism. This will be a process, and developing a deeper, more specific awareness is the first step. You can then understand this is part of your brain’s automatic behavior and gain some distance from it, which gives you the opportunity to examine and question the validity of your thoughts.
I will use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help you change the way you think in order to change the way you feel. This method of treatment has been proven to yield high success rates in regard to shifting perfectionistic tendencies. Most people are unaware of the degree to which their thought patterns are impacting their emotions. I use additional methods of treatment to supplement CBT:
Mindfulness - focused on remaining in the present moment and accepting what is out of our control
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) - based on values and goals
Client-Centered Therapy - focused on the therapeutic relationship and providing a non-judgmental environment
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) - developing skills/tools for dealing with highly emotional situations
Internal Family Systems (IFS) - based on the idea that our parts (sub-personalities) function as a system and react to other systems
Clients who have engaged in perfectionism treatment report more acceptance of self and others, the ability to acknowledge positive traits, more realistic expectations, less anxiety, and the ability to celebrate accomplishments.
