I'm an award-winning Senior Cognitive Behavioural Therapist and Coach, also known as The Perfectionism Therapist. I specialise in helping perfectionists transform their perfectionism from unhealthy to healthy! Welcome to my Perfectionism Blog.
Hi, I'm Natalie
Perfectionism includes ‘perfectionistic concerns’ and ‘perfectionistic strivings’. Perfectionistic strivings are things like striving for achievement and can be linked to positive outcomes such as self-efficacy. Perfectionistic concerns are things like self-criticism and are associated with anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
These two distinct categories reveal the difference between true perfectionists and high achievers. When we focus on the positive aspects of being a perfectionist, we’re usually thinking about the latter.
Rather than simply working hard to achieve their goals, perfectionists strive for flawlessness. They fixate on their imperfections, attempt to control situations, and can be highly critical of themselves and others. As a result, they tend to achieve less and stress more than high achievers.
A perfectionist is also someone who:
In her work on perfectionism, Professor Roz Shafran outlines five types of perfectionists. These are:
1. The Driven Academic Achiever - someone who must always achieve 100% without fail.
2. The Risk Evader — someone who exhibits an all-or-nothing approach and lacks the confidence to try new things.
3. The Aggravated Accuracy Assessor — someone who must achieve exactness and is fixated on the ‘re-dos’.
4. The Controlling Image Manager — someone who wants to be and be seen as perfect.
5. The Procrastinating Perfectionist — someone who is paralysed by fears and self-doubts that impair their ability to start or finish work.
In the past, I definitely bounced between both number one and number three. Oh, the joys of perfectionism!
A few things to look out for:
You should also keep an eye out for some tell-tale cognitive biases. Cognitive biases, or ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ as I like to call them, are ways our thoughts can become negatively biased. They happen automatically, often without our awareness, but can have a huge impact on how we feel. In turn, this can affect what we do, or what we don’t do. The most common ones I see in my perfectionist clients are ‘shoulds and musts’ and ‘black and white thinking’. Things like ‘I should always get 100%’, ‘I must never fail’ and ‘if it’s not perfect, then it’s rubbish.’
If you’re looking for a therapist for perfectionism, you can learn more about my perfectionism therapy and book an appointment here. You can also subscribe to my perfectionism newsletter.
[…] Are You a Perfectionist? […]
[…] you read my recent post, Are You a Perfectionist?, and decided you probably are, you might be wondering what to do about it. As I’ve said before, […]
[…] Are You a Perfectionist? […]