Hi newbie

and welcome aborad!
Because I think so much and at quite an intense level, I often have an internal monologue in my head and I often struggle to 'turn off' this internal monologue.
Join the club

we all have this bit in common

Meditation seems to fit the bill in that some forms stress trying to clear the mind, but there also seems to be a focus on 'finding your inner self' which is pretty much the opposite of what I want to achieve! I'm also a bit daunted by all the different branches of meditation.
I too went all over the web in search and even did diferent meditation aproaches until I understud that one is to simply watch "one self" without much fuss and complicated visualisations etc ...
Shamatha is the way to relax the body which in turn calms the mind and once calm the stress hormones stop from being formed giving space to serotonin and dopamine to take place and calmness kicks in giving space to insight. Plain and simple (or is it?)
Yes, meditation is about clearing the mind but not working on that particular part

one can not clear the mind intelectualy but actualy via doing nothing but watching the thoughts come and go by seeing the impermanence of the one we call "I". The "I" is living it's own life without our control. We can not control this ego beastie since the control only gives it more energy and therefore prolongs its "life".
"Finding your inner self" is a New Age concept and I would advice running away from it

LOL no do not run but try not to get confused with all that talking to angels and spirit guides non-sense

Inner-Self is always there, all one has to do is sit silently with your self and there the show will start ... ego monkey (inner slef) is jumping all around the place not listening to me telling him to stay calm ... hm ... what to do with this darn monkey I wonder

I thought to become a monkey coach LOL
Many meditation branches in deed! Most of them are build on fabrications (visualisation, mantra, channeling) giving our ego self planty of new interesting toys to toy with and drag us around while in play mood.
I don't mind the "other" type of meditations but first comes first! One can not posibly gain anything from visualisation before calming the ego mind first. And that is the cruel truth of it!
Besides Shamatha I do practice another thing called Ki-breathing but only if I feel less motivated to sit in Shamatha so to keep me up and running (not to stop with meditation) but once on track I am back to Shamatha-Vipassana.
I aslo practice Qigong daily before my Shamatha practice. Qigong is known as the standing-moving meditation.
I hope this helps a bit until others chime in :-)
Once again welcome!
Remain relaxed