Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Low Self-Esteem

Signs of Low Self-Esteem

• Self-criticism and feeling bad about yourself
  
• Thinking you've failed or made a mistake when you haven't
  
• Beating yourself up for any weaknesses, mistakes, and small failures
  
• Overlooking or discounting strengths, successes, compliments
  
• Attributing your successes to someone else or to dumb luck
  
• Blaming yourself whenever anything goes wrong
  
• Thinking you're ugly, stupid, fat, or just not good enough
  
• Spending lots of your time thinking about parts of your life that are not going well

How We Treat Low Self-Esteem

Cognitive Therapy
We will ask you to do thinking exercises in sessions, and we'll give you cognitive and behavioral techniques you can use between sessions to change your negative thinking about yourself.

Behavior Therapy
We will teach you skills that will help you to be more effective at work and in your relationships.

Self-Acceptance
The opposite of low self-esteem is not high self esteem. The opposite of low self-esteem is self-acceptance.

Self-acceptance means being comfortable with who you are. It means accepting yourself in spite of your weaknesses and mistakes, and not thinking that you're a failure.

When you have self-acceptance, you give yourself credit for your strengths and achievements. And you develop new skills and embrace novelty and change throughout your life.