Low self-esteem can manifest in many ways and can be a long-term concern or a sudden onset caused by an upsetting event. Low self-esteem counselling helps understand what self-esteem is and how it works.
Developing self-confidence is fundamental to helping overcome relationship issues, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety and depression. Automatic negative thoughts, beliefs formed early in life and poor self-image are just a few factors contributing to low self-esteem.
What Is Low Self-Esteem?
Self-esteem is how you consider yourself and your self-worth. Having positive, healthy self-esteem can encourage self-realisation and overall life satisfaction. It can impact your confidence to move forward, be willing to attempt and take risks, and be more equipped to handle daily challenges.
When an individual experiences low self-esteem, they are more likely to struggle with daily conflicts and assertiveness.
Counselling for low self-esteem helps to understand that self-value is not simply how we outwardly treat ourselves but is much more closely related to how we internally feel about ourselves.
Many individuals believe that their opinions of themselves are intrinsic and inherent facts rather than affected and learned perceptions. We understand that because of the multifaceted nature of low self-esteem, it can seem daunting to begin to take stock of it, to overcome and engage with it.
Whilst low self-esteem is not a specific mental health condition, it has a symbiotic relationship with mental health concerns such as depression and social confidence or social anxiety.
Individuals who experience low self-esteem are often over-critical of themselves and pressure themselves to behave, look or perform a certain way. Low self-esteem can hinder individuals from achieving important goals by perpetuating and feeding negative thought cycles.
Automatic negative thoughts often interfere with daily life and manifest as an individual’s inability to perform, socialise, take risks or even accept compliments.
Solid and good self-esteem can be extremely empowering and energising; On the other end, when self-esteem is low, life can feel difficult, and goals are often unrealistic, bringing a sense of anxiety, depression, worthlessness and helplessness. Building self-confidence is a gradual process and a wholly beneficial and encouraging experience; it can be the starting point for building lasting relationships or reconsidering your career and life choices to become who you want to be without fear.
What Causes Low Self-Esteem?
Counselling for low self-esteem helps understand that self-value is a profound dimension to engage with and is often connected with developing years. Traumatic and challenging events in the formative years can impact how you feel about yourself.
Some common factors and experiences connected with self-esteem concerns;
- Abuse, prejudices or discrimination
- Early formed beliefs about self
- Relational challenges at work
- Concerning relationships or divorces
- Chronic stress
- Loneliness
- Social anxiety
At Leone Centre, we work together in sessions to understand where feelings of low self-esteem originate and how they become rooted. As a comprehensive counselling and therapy service, we are fully committed to helping you regain the good quality of life that poor self-confidence and self-esteem have undermined.
Building Self-Confidence with Counselling
As mentioned above, self-esteem is an internal occurrence, whilst self-confidence is an external experience. This does mean that they are not mutually exclusive; individuals can have high self-confidence and perform confidently but still experience low self-esteem, for example.
Self-confidence is situation-based and reflects feelings about abilities, knowledge or skill. Building self-confidence is similar to learning a new skill, as it is an external entity that can be more easily identified. At the same time, self-esteem is an internal reflection of an individual’s sense of self. External achievements or successes cannot improve self-worth and low self-esteem.
At the Leone Centre, we work with you to help develop your self-confidence so that you can move towards your personal goals in the best possible way.
We offer committed professional service and work in a safe and secure environment for our clients to feel comfortable exploring their emotions and emotional and mental health. We can also integrate multiple approaches, including CBT or energy works, to positively change your life.
Building self-confidence can also be vastly beneficial to your relationships. Becoming co-dependent on another person, experiencing difficult feelings or struggling to trust your partner can all be a manifestation of low self-esteem.
If you are experiencing anxiety, social withdrawal, eating disorders, poor self-image or work-related issues or any of the other concerns mentioned, get in touch with one of our qualified counsellors, who will be glad to help. Contact us to begin your journey and to meet the better you!
