Online Therapy for Low Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem attacks your confidence and harms your mental health. It can have drastic consequences, leading to anxiety, depression, or unhealthy habits such as excessive drinking and smoking.

It impacts all aspects of life, including jobs, relationships, and friendships. Yet, suffering from low self-esteem isn’t abnormal. In fact, 85% of people struggle with their self-esteem.

Living with low self-esteem can feel like you’re in a pitch-black hole with no way out. Online therapy provides the ladder. 

Causes of Low Self-Esteem

Our view of ourselves is often determined by our childhood encounters. If our parents, siblings, friends, and teachers make us feel important, we’re likely to develop a positive view of ourselves.

But if there were many negative experiences, such as frequent criticisms from parents or underachievement at school, this can result in low self-esteem.

Adolescence often sees a steep decline in self-esteem. This can be hard to shift, even in adulthood. But low self-esteem doesn’t always manifest in childhood or teenage years. Negative experiences in adulthood can also play a role.

Other causes of low self-esteem include:

• Continual exposure to stressful events, such as parental arguing, relationship breakups, loss of loved ones, and financial difficulty 
• Long-term health conditions that result in physical disability or severe pain
• Abusive relationships, including partners, close relatives, and friendships

Low Self-Esteem Has Many Faces 

How do you know you’re struggling with self-esteem? You can spot these by looking out for signs of low self-esteem.

• Lack of confidence. Low self-esteem and lack of confidence go hand in hand. Each one negatively impacts the other. 
• Hurtful self-talk. A highly critical, negative internal voice. A hurtful internal dialogue. 
• Self-doubt. Questioning yourself and doubting your choices. Choice avoidance often comes into play. 
• Can’t ask for things you need. A difficulty asking for help due to feelings of unworthiness. 
• Negative comparison to others. Continual comparison to others resulting in feelings of inadequacy and low self-worth. 
• Need to please. A need to please others to ensure you’re liked. As you feel negative about yourself, you assume others do too. 
• Fear of failure. Avoiding challenges because of a fear that you won’t be good enough to succeed.
• Difficulty acknowledging positive feedback. Positive feedback is suspicious. It’s often treated as ungenuine or due to an ulterior motive.

This negative cycle of hurtful thoughts and behaviors can further enforce low self-esteem, worsening it and significantly damaging self-confidence over time. But how can you break the cycle?

How Will Online Therapy Help Low Self-Esteem?

What online therapy provides

The negative cycle of low self-esteem will only worsen over time. Therapy provides reprieve by challenging your negative thoughts and behaviors while supporting you emotionally.

It is a safe environment where you won’t be ridiculed or judged. Therapists are bound by the rules of confidentiality, so they cannot share what you discuss.

Therapy will enable you to identify what triggers your negative thought patterns and find enjoyable activities that quieten the critical voice.

Therapy for low self-esteem is called “person-centered.” It literally means to hold you at the center. But don’t worry, it places your problems in the limelight rather than you personally.  

How can online therapy help you?

The act of talking to your therapist about your worries in a secure, non-judgemental space can help you acknowledge your negative internal voice. By exploring the cause of your negative sense of self, your therapist can guide you towards a more realistic one.

Although unable to prescribe medication, a therapist can assist you in coping with mental health difficulties that impact your self-esteem, such as anxiety and depression.

Therapy can also address other factors related to your low self-esteem, such as relationship problems, perfectionism, and self-harm. With the support of your therapist, you will improve the quality of your life, begin to make healthy choices, and assert your boundaries.

You can find more of the benefits of therapy by clicking here.

What Online Therapies Are Available for Low Self-Esteem?

There are many choices when it comes to online therapy for self-esteem. You can choose between:

• Video call
• Telephone call
• Messaging

Choose whichever one works best for you and switch between them if you change your mind.

Online counseling is excellent for those with low self-esteem because it can be done in the comfort of your own home. This means no traveling to scary new places or worrying about getting lost or being late.

It’s also extra supportive, as you can connect with your therapist whenever you need to. There are no set times with online therapy – it offers flexibility to suit your needs. This offers advantages over face-to-face counseling, where you typically only see your therapist once a week.

There are different types of self-esteem therapy you can choose from. The main 3 methods are:

• Person-centered therapy
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Psychodynamic therapy

Let’s explore these in a bit more detail:

• Person-centered therapy. This approach is perfect for those with low self-esteem as it focuses on the problem, not the person, and helps alter negative senses of self.  
• Cognitive behavioral therapy. This short-term, problem-focused therapy approach deals with the present, not the past.
• Psychodynamic therapy. This is in-depth therapy that focuses on the influence of childhood experiences on current behaviors.

It’s important to remember that any therapy is better than no therapy. Whatever approach you choose, you’re sure to see the benefits. 

Things You Can Try on Your Own

Seeking online counseling is a daunting process, especially when struggling with self-esteem. Therapy is always recommended due to its many benefits, but if you’re finding it difficult to get the ball rolling, there are some things you can try on your own first.

Practice self-care

Low self-esteem can make you feel like you’re not worth looking after. But everything needs TLC; you’re no exception!

You can remind yourself you are worthy of care and attention by practicing self-care. Make a list of activities that are relaxing and bring you joy. Put some time aside each week to do at least one of these activities. 

Flip negative thoughts

Try recognizing when you’re in a negative thought pattern and flip the perspective. For example, “I can’t do this, I’m awful at it” can be changed to “I can’t do this yet, but I’ll get better.”

These small changes from negative to positive thinking may be enough to change your internal narrative. 

Exercise

Exercise has a whole host of benefits. It triggers the release of “happy” hormones, dopamine and serotonin, giving us a natural buzz, and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Frequent exercise has been shown to directly impact self-esteem, so why not give it a go?

Online Therapy for Low Self-Esteem Can Help You

Low self-esteem can form a tight grip on your confidence and make you feel unworthy of love and care. Your critical inner voice may cause you to doubt yourself, fear failure, and make it impossible to hear the positives.

But online counseling can help. DoMental is an online therapy platform that provides the ladder to get you out of the hole. Take action today, and maybe you’ll feel better tomorrow.