Confidence & Self-Esteem
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." — Eleanor Roosevelt
Confidence and self-esteem are closely linked, yet distinct. Confidence is about believing in your abilities to take on challenges and achieve goals, while self-esteem reflects your sense of self-worth and value as a person. Both are essential for personal wellbeing, healthy relationships, and professional success.
Understanding Low Confidence and Self-Esteem
People with low self-esteem or confidence may experience:
- Doubting their abilities or decisions
- Fear of failure or rejection
- Difficulty asserting themselves or setting boundaries
- Negative self-talk or harsh self-criticism
- Avoidance of challenges or new opportunities
Low confidence can develop from a range of experiences, such as childhood upbringing, social pressures, bullying, or repeated setbacks. Over time, unhelpful beliefs about oneself can become deeply ingrained, affecting both personal and professional life.
The Impact in Daily Life
Low self-esteem can limit opportunities and affect relationships, career progress, and emotional wellbeing. People may feel stuck, anxious, or overly self-conscious. Conversely, healthy self-esteem and confidence enable individuals to:
- Take risks and pursue goals with resilience
- Communicate clearly and assertively
- Navigate setbacks without losing self-worth
- Build stronger, more fulfilling relationships
How Therapy Can Help
Therapy provides a supportive space to explore the roots of low confidence and self-esteem and develop practical strategies to improve them. Work in therapy may include:
- Identifying and challenging unhelpful self-beliefs
- Learning techniques to manage self-criticism and negative thoughts
- Building assertiveness and effective communication skills
- Developing self-compassion and a stronger sense of self-worth
- Practising goal-setting and celebrating achievements to reinforce confidence
Over time, therapy can help you build a more positive relationship with yourself, empowering you to approach life with greater confidence and resilience.
If low confidence or self-esteem is holding you back, support is available.
Confidence & Self-Esteem
Causes of Low Confidence
Many factors can influence the level of confidence and self-esteem we experience. These include genetic or biological factors, life experiences, and current situations that may be triggering low confidence. Therapy often involves exploring all of these influences to gain a clear understanding of what is really affecting your self-esteem.
Improving Self-Confidence
In therapy, we use a variety of approaches to help improve confidence levels. This often includes:
- Identifying and addressing negative, self-defeating thoughts, and reshaping them into realistic, positive beliefs that support confidence.
- Exploring the root causes of unhelpful belief patterns that operate 'under the surface' and, once understood, making meaningful, lasting changes.
- Building on your existing strengths—which are often more numerous than you realise.
- Practising practical skills such as confident body language, authentic communication, and compassionate, assertive interactions.
Whether you are an executive seeking extra confidence for professional challenges, or someone wanting to overcome persistent low self-esteem in everyday life, therapy can help you develop greater self-assurance and a stronger sense of self-worth.