CBT approach to improving low self-esteem

Hi and welcome to the introduction to the online course that is aimed at boosting your self- esteem. My name is Chris Neill and I’m a British Psychologist and I’ve lived and worked in Madrid, Spain for the last 22 years.  I have master’s degree in Psychology and post-graduate training in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, I am especially interested in emotional regulation.

In this course you will learn tried and trusted ways of building your self-esteem in all aspects of your life. Most of us understand self-esteem as our ability to live well within our own skin, it’s the confidence we have in ourselves. Most of us feel self-confident at something specific, for example a mathematician may be fairly confident in solving a math’s problem, or an actor may be confident in standing up in front of the public to play a role.

But life happens in many contexts and not just the ones we are good at. Sometimes failing at something we are new at can undermine our self-confidence.

Low Self-esteem differs from the confidence in our ability to do something. It’s more to do with our beliefs about ourselves. How we judge ourselves and assigning ourselves little worth. At the heart of it are negative beliefs about the self. The role it plays may vary and it may be a consequence of a current problem or it could be the result of past events or relationships. The extent to which it disrupts daily life will vary from person to person.

In this course we will be defining low self-esteem as well as looking at how it develops and what maintains it. There are lots of exercises and activities aimed at undermining the critical negative thoughts that often lie at the root of low self-esteem and finally how to enhance self-acceptance, which is incompatible with low self-esteem.

I hope you find this course useful and will set you on your way to challenging unhelpful negative ways of thinking about yourself. This course is not an alternative to therapy and if you feel that you would like to delve deeper into some of the concepts presented in the course, then I highly recommend that you contact a trained therapist.