Therapy for Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem means having a distinct lack of confidence, not thinking you hold much worth as a person, and generally feeling badly about yourself. This may manifest as being particularly critical of yourself, feeling too demoralized to take on new tasks or challenges, and being easily hurt by the opinions of others. Almost everybody has days where they do not feel good about themselves. However, if these thoughts and beliefs are frequent and longstanding, they can have harmful effects on your mental health, relationships, and daily life. 

Low self-esteem can exist as a standalone issue or as part of a larger mental health condition such as an anxiety or depressive disorder. When left unaddressed, low self-esteem may even exacerbate or lead to these conditions. Low self-esteem often affects our daily life by leading to avoidance. People with low self-esteem are more likely to avoid situations that they find challenging or uncomfortable. While this reduces the discomfort in the short-term, in the long-term these avoidance behaviors may make you feel lonely, stuck, or stagnated, reinforcing your negative beliefs about yourself. 

Therapy can be helpful in addressing low self-esteem in many ways. At Therapists of New York, this will likely involve exploring past experiences that may have contributed to your low self-esteem while identifying patterns and behaviors that maintain these beliefs in current day. Early experiences might be something typically considered “negative,” such as neglect and bullying, or simply a lack of enough positive experiences throughout development. Some of the pathways that can act to maintain low self-esteem are engaging in avoidance and safety behaviors, hypervigilance to experiences that confirm our negative thoughts, and speaking to ourselves in critical ways. 

Self-esteem is your view of yourself and whether it is positive or negative has pervasive effects on the quality and direction of your life. Addressing low self-esteem can help you shift from living a life focused on avoiding embarrassment and making mistakes to a life focused on growth and improvement.

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