Low Self Esteem

What is low self esteem?

When opening up a dictionary of psychology there are many terms which are interchangeable with the term low self esteem. A poor self image in the literature has the simple meaning that the picture in a person's mind's eye of how they view their physical attributes (body self image) their success in mastering their environment (success, competence, intelligence) and their overall self worth is distorted by the picture they hold of themselves.

Self image is often described as a circus mirror which dramatically twists size and shape into ungainly proportions which in no way resemble how a person actually appears. This self perception of how we view ourselves, our perception of how others see us, and the thoughts and beliefs we have about ourselves, our world, and our future, affect three areas:-
1. Self respect
2. Self-worth and
3. Self acceptance.

The self esteem quotient is the distance between how we see our ideal self in contrast to our real self. The greater the distance between the ideal and the real self, the lower the self esteem. The smaller the gap between the two the higher their self-esteem quotient.

When clients hold negative beliefs about themselves, which keep them from achieving the goals they set by being critical, punishing, and negatively evaluating their abilities, this leads to poor self-esteem.

CBT teaches clients to improve their self esteem by first recognising the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviour (what to do). By teaching clients to first identify these negative automatic thoughts, identifying the underlying errors in their thinking and challenging them by rewriting the thoughts in a more alternative and balanced way, thoughts become hypothesis to test rather than truths to be indiscriminately taken on board and acted upon.

Examples of negative thoughts:

• I am not good enough
• I am stupid
• I am ugly
• I am inferior
• I am fat
• I am unlovable
• I am weak/vulnerable
• I am a bad person
• I am a failure
• I hate myself

CBT believes that it is not what we experience but how we interpret it that determines how we are. An information processing model where changing our interpretation of ourselves, the world, the future, changes how you a person feels about themselves.

CBT provides an individualised programme using, relaxation, imagery, and behavioural experiments, standard CBT for negative belief change, and core belief work for early life problems which, if left untreated, can lead to relapse.

Self Esteem Questionnaire
(Pdf)

CBT for Low Self Esteem

When the opinions we have about ourselves and our overall evaluation of self worth is negative this correlates highly with low self esteem. In the assessment phase of CBT client and therapist collaboratively draw up a problem list of the things they want to competently and effectively master as a result of treatment. These problems may be in the areas of: -

• assertiveness
• boundary setting
• stress problems
• relationship issues
• problems at work
• financial problems
• health issues
• age-related problems
• sexual problems
• identity issues
• body image
• poor self efficacy

In all of these areas clients have self-doubts about their ability to competently and effectively master their diverse life-situations. Clients can have a continuous internal critic judging, punishing, and/or condemning them for not being able to meet their imposed high expectations or performance. This causes avoidance of challenges, missed opportunities, destroyed relationships and lack of professional advancement. This can lead to a vicious circle where self-defeating patterns of thinking and behaviour create a never-ending pattern, which seems impossible to break without professional help.