Low Self-Esteem

People who live with low self-esteem can feel afraid to look inside themselves for fear that they are going to find only an empty shell or, worse still, something dirty, rotten or bad. This raises the importance of finding a deeply compassionate psychotherapist who has the appropriate tools to help you more safely take the journey within to past experiences with gentleness and patience.

Low self-esteem is like a house with a poor or missing foundation, as though essential psychological building blocks have not been put in place. It is not the person’s fault that these essential elements got missed; it is just part of the messiness of life. The good news is, with help, these foundations can be repaired or installed through enabling the person to look at the causes with ‘curious compassion’, and also to discover what gifts, values and skills they already have, but are not yet able to celebrate. Just as a persistent tooth ache keeps us from thinking of anything else, so also with the emotional pain of low-self esteem. Developing and nurturing ‘curious compassion’ seems most helpful in mending or creating the healthy psychological foundation necessary for building deep meaning and purpose in the lives of those  with low self-esteem.

Tools

The tools I would offer as I accompany you on this journey could include;

1. Effective talk therapy which assures you that someone understands what you are feeling. Talking also helps us begin to understand, to the best of our ability, the roots of low self-esteem. Observation is 98% of the healing process.
2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which helps you develop a full list of the gifts, skills and values that you already possess, though may not be able to fully appreciate or access because of your brain thought patterns.
3. The Genogram, which provides an overview of the dynamics of your family of origin and the key relationships which were part of your early psychological development.
4. An introduction to mindfulness meditation, a calming and focusing practice that centres your attention on following your breath to the core of your being.
5. The energy-psychology of Emotional Freedom Techniques which frees up frozen emotions from past trauma.