The Imperfects · Hugh van Cuylenburg, Ryan Shelton & Josh van Cuylenburg

Psychology Summer - Your Inner Fan with Dr Emily

January 11, 2026·1 hr 8 min·3 clips

A 50-year-old teacher's letter describes failing vet school, losing friendships, and discovering ADHD only after her daughter's diagnosis.

The mood starts loose and summery. Emily begins by acknowledging the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, then everyone leans into January make-believe even though the recording happened back in November. The hosts are on a break, so there is plenty of faffing around: summer songs they cannot sing, inflatable rings, cricket predictions, and a seagull bit that somehow survives until the end. Then Emily brings it inward. She talks about the inner critic as a voice that can get very loud, but may have started as something adaptive, even useful for survival. That takes the sting out of it a little. Instead of treating the critic as proof that a person is defective, she suggests looking at what it once helped them get through. Josh knows the exercise because he has recently done a version with his own psychologist. He says it felt strange. Moving chairs and role playing the critic sounded ridiculous at first, but once he went with it, the exercise became surprisingly powerful. Josh calls the territory schema therapy. Emily describes it as a therapeutic exercise where someone can interview the critic and step into different parts of themselves. The useful bit is a little messy, in a good way. The voice comes out of the head. It becomes more concrete. Another person witnesses it. Josh compares it loosely to journaling, while making clear it is not exactly the same. Both approaches turn private mental noise into something you can look at. The episode keeps its warm, rambling feel even while it talks about schema therapy, inner parts, shame, and self-criticism. By the end, a seagull callback sits right beside the reminder that the show is not professional mental health advice.

As heard by us

A warm, practical look at treating the inner critic as something to understand, not simply silence.

The Imperfects takes on the inner critic without turning it into a villain. Dr Emily suggests that a harsh internal voice can sometimes be understood as something that once helped a person cope or survive, which opens up a gentler question: not how to crush it, but how to relate…

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Why you'd press play

Your inner critic has been running the show for years. Psychologist Emily gives it a proper interview.

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