Low Self Esteem
Self esteem is the way in which we think and feel about ourself. Our self esteem often helps to shape our lives through the choices we make. It can often provide an understanding for a range of mental health related issues. It can influence the coping strategies we adopt. For example someone with a low self esteem may find it difficult to be around people because they are afraid of what they of them, therefore may use avoidance or withdrawing as their way of managign their distress. This can have a negative impact on their life impacting on their school work, friendships and relationships. In turn can make the person feel upset and lonely which can turn into depression. Others may only judge their self worth on their appearance and can become critical of themselves and their bodies this can contribute to the potential for restricting their food intake.
The way we value ourselves is so important. In today' s world we are constantly bombarded with images of how we are told we should look, social media means we do not get an escape from worrying about what other people think.
How can counselling help
When our self esteem is low we are more vunerable to becoming unhappy or developing a mental health condition. Counselling from a trained psychologist, psychotherapist or counsellor can help in a number of ways. Therapy can help the person to feel understood which is important. Counselling also helps to understand the person's behaviour, often it does not even make sense to the person struggling. Counselling also helps to identify the coping strategies that the person has developed and challenge the ones that our unhelpful or destructive and in turn identify new ways of managing distress.
Psychological help can also encourage people to try new ideas. The safe environment of the therapy room enables people to play with new ideas and to try them out when outside of the counselling room. For example the psychologist may set a social experiment for the patient to try something new before the next week this could be anything that the therapist and patient have both agreed and could include making a phone call to someone they had been putting off or to go for a walk if they have been stuck in the house afraid to go out in case they are judged by others.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
There are many different ways of helping to combat someone's low self esteem. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT is one of them. This can hekpt o challenege negative thoughts that often under pin the person's lack of self esteem and confidence. Perhaps someone has been hurt by a friend at school not speaking to them and therefore are too afraid to become friends with anyone new. CBT will help to challenge these thoughts by looking at the evidence for their fears and to safely start to think differently.
For more information on how we may be able to help call us in confidence on 01189 680 900.