Self-Esteem/Body Image

Low Self-Esteem

When you struggle with low self-esteem, it isn't as simple as just not feeling good enough. Low self-esteem unfortunately knows no bounds. Anyone can struggle with confidence regardless of age, gender, stage of life ,experience, level of success, and accomplishments. Low self-esteem is often accompanied by feelings of anxiety, sadness, overthinking, and frequently doubting yourself. You may find that you routinely seek outside validation or poll others when making decisions both large and small. For many, there is a daily struggle with imposter syndrome and the belief that you must work harder than others in order to appear intelligent, competent, and capable. Low self-esteem leads you to minimize your strengths and positive attributes and negatively compare yourself to others.

Low Self-Esteem commonly looks like:

• Negative and harsh self-talk
  
• Avoiding risks or trying new things out of fear of failing or not doing well
• Feeling self-conscious
  
• Striving to be perfect
• Feeling guilty for not "doing enough" or not "being good enough" at work or in relationships
• Over apologizing and difficulty asserting yourself
• People pleasing or tending to agree with others and avoiding self-assertion
  
• Self-criticism
• Blaming yourself and being particularly hard on yourself
• Magnifying your own weaknesses and flaws and minimizing your strengths and positives
• Feeling undeserving of good things

You don't have to continue to live another day with low self-esteem. Through psychotherapy, you can start to change your inner narrative and improve how you feel about yourself.

Through a targeted approach to psychotherapy, you'll learn to identify any negative core beliefs you have about yourself and develop more balanced ones. In our work together, we'll explore your earliest life experiences, examine current stressors, and identify how they be impacting your present-day self. Through an interpersonal and compassionate approach, therapy will deepen your awareness of any patterns in your thoughts, feelings, relationships, and subsequent behaviors that are contributing to your low self-esteem. You deserve to love yourself, believe in yourself, and recognize your innate value and self-worth.

Body Image

The relationship you have with yourself and your own body is the longest and most intimate one of your life. Your body is your home, and you deserve to live in a home that you feel good in. No one is born hating her body. What this means is, that negative body image is learned and therefore it’s possible to learn to become more accepting of your body, kinder to yourself, and ultimately more comfortable in your own skin.

Negative body-image is often rooted in feeling not good enough about yourself or that you are somehow flawed. If you struggle with body dissatisfaction you may find you are frequently preoccupied with your appearance, weight, and overall image. A negative body-image profoundly impacts one’s overall confidence and experience when interacting with the world.  Negative body-image or body dysmorphic disorder shapes the way you view yourself and your overall emotional well-being. Unrealistic perceptions of one’s body too often lead to a harsh inner dialogue accompanied by feelings of anxiety, insecurity, and frustration.

Below are some common signs of body image concerns or body dysmorphic disorder:

• Spending copious amounts of time and energy focused on your appearance
• Viewing your body as flawed or defective
• Going to great lengths to conceal or improve your perceived body flaw
• Finding that your efforts to improve your perceived flaws are negatively impacting your life

Common behaviors associated with body image concerns:

• Spending significant periods of time worrying and evaluating a particular area of concern on your body
• Difficulty getting dressed, never feeling good in what you’re wearing
• Purposefully dressing in baggy clothing to disguise parts of your body
• Frequently looking at yourself in the mirror or avoiding mirrors completely
• Comparing your body to others

Through individual psychotherapy you can shift your thoughts and behaviors to more balanced and helpful ones and truly embrace your body. With the right support and focus, you can grow to become more accepting of the body you have and honor all the ways it shows up for you each day. Psychotherapy provides you with the chance to discover the roots of your body-image concerns and ultimately become less critical of your appearance and more at peace in your own skin. You deserve to feel at home in your body and more confident each day.