Improve your self-esteem and self-confidence now!

Low self-esteem means having a negative perception of yourself and your abilities. This can lead to a lack of initiative and difficulty expressing oneself and one's opinions. Many people with low self-esteem can also find it difficult to accept praise and can easily feel insecure and anxious in different social situations.

Many people have problems with low self-esteem, low self-confidence and negative self-image. Here, we work on teaching the person to examine whether they confirm themselves by being good or seeking confirmation from outside. We also examine what the person's self-dialogue looks like. For many people who suffer from low self-esteem, it is common to be hard on themselves. Much harder than you would be on a friend. By practicing being kinder to yourself, your self-esteem can improve.

• They have difficulty taking initiative and expressing themselves and their opinions

• Fear of making mistakes and fear of being judged or criticized by others

• You find it difficult to accept praise and may feel uncomfortable when someone says something positive about you

• You often compare yourself to others and think you don't measure up to their standards

• They have difficulty making decisions and may feel insecure and anxious in different social situations

• There is a tendency to minimize one's achievements and abilities and to focus on one's shortcomings and weaknesses

These are just some examples of signs of low self-esteem. It is important to remember that each person is unique and that the signs of low self-esteem can look different from person to person.

Behavioral analysis examines low self-esteem

Low self-esteem can mean many different things to different people. Therefore, it is important to conduct a behavioral analysis that examines how low self-esteem manifests itself for the specific client. In some cases, self-esteem can be strengthened by the person daring to be more healthily assertive in their relationships, which means that they dare to express their thoughts, feelings, needs and wishes to themselves and their surroundings. This can clash with basic assumptions and rules of life that you need to perform or be good enough to be good enough for yourself and others.

Then the person can work on new behaviors where they try to be true to themselves instead of being good or making others happy. Often the result is better than what the person had imagined who may never have tried these new behaviors before. The result of living in alignment with one's core values is that one becomes proud of oneself and grows, resulting in better self-esteem.

Pride is strongly associated with self-esteem

Studies have shown that the sense of pride is strongly associated with self-esteem. Many people never allow themselves to be proud of things. Being proud does not mean being arrogant but also not being ashamed when you have done something positive, there is a healthy sense of pride.

In some cases, low self-esteem can manifest itself through perfectionism, where the person thinks that they need to do everything perfectly to be good enough for themselves or others. Perfectionism then becomes a compensatory strategy for the basic assumption, which may be "I am not good enough as I am". Then the person may instead need to train themselves to be "good enough" and see that their value is not in the perfect behaviors.

Low self-esteem can cause feelings of shame

All people sometimes have critical thoughts about themselves and almost all people have the ability to feel the basic feeling of shame. The problem is when the person has an excess of these thoughts and feelings and starts to take them as truths and allows themselves to be guided by them, leading to avoidance. The person may avoid meeting new people or applying for new jobs, which makes them believe in themselves even less. By coping, feeling competent and being liked by others in a healthy way, the person can improve their self-esteem and feel proud of themselves.

Get help for low self-esteem and low self-confidence

Sveapsykologernas psychologists and therapists are experts in working with people who feel that self-esteem is low or where you feel that better self-confidence would simplify life. Book a free consultation so we can hear your particular challenges and guide you to the right expert and treatment.

A healthy self-esteem and a desire to be liked by others

It is normal to want to feel competent and to be liked by others. The problem arises when the person seeks this too much so that it clashes with the person's boundary setting, recovery, social relationships, career and so on. c. By sorting out what you really want with your life, who you want to be and what sub-goals you need to achieve to reach your larger goals, the person can gain a healthy sense of competence, affirmation and self-esteem.

Healthy self-esteem does not mean never having negative thoughts about yourself. Rather, it means being able to see these thoughts as thoughts and not letting them steer you away from your long-term goals and core values that make life meaningful, exciting and worth living. 

What is self-esteem or self-confidence?

Self-esteem and self-confidence are related concepts, but they are not the same. Self-esteem is about how you see yourself and your abilities, while self-confidence is about how you think you will perform in a given situation.

A person with high self-esteem has a positive perception of themselves and their abilities, while a person with low self-esteem has a negative perception of themselves and their abilities. Self-confidence is about how you think you will cope with different situations, and a person with high self-confidence thinks they will cope with most situations they face.

So while self-esteem is about how you see yourself, confidence is about how you think you will perform in different situations.

Self-esteem is usually described as the feeling that the person has about their own worth. Self-confidence is usually described as the confidence the person has in his/her performance in a certain area while self-image means the person's characteristics in an objective sense without an evaluation.

Self-esteem therapy

It is easier to feel valuable if you don't avoid life, goals and being who you really want to be. But most often the person wants to avoid when difficult thoughts and feelings arise. In therapy, you get to practice taking steps forward despite carrying difficult thoughts and feelings. These usually ease after a while and often the person feels satisfied and proud when they have dared to go outside their "comfort zone".

Low self-confidence

Low self-esteem means having low confidence in your ability to cope with different situations and believing that you will not succeed in most situations. This can lead to avoidance of activities and challenges due to fear of failure.

Many people with low self-esteem may also find it difficult to accept criticism and may be emotionally affected by what others say or think about them. This can also make it difficult to build and maintain good relationships with others.

Improve self-confidence

It is important to remember that low self-esteem is a common problem and that there is help available if you need it. By working with a therapist or using different strategies to improve your self-confidence, you can learn to believe in yourself and your ability to cope with different situations.

CBT self-esteem

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy used to treat various mental health problems, including low self-esteem. CBT is based on the theory that our thoughts, feelings and behaviors are interconnected and that our thoughts influence our feelings and behavior.

CBT exercises self-esteem

CBT for self-esteem focuses on identifying and changing the negative thoughts and behaviors that can contribute to low self-esteem. This is done by learning to replace negative thoughts with more realistic and positive ones, and by learning new behaviors and strategies to cope with difficult situations. 

Sveapsykologerna has clinics offering CBT in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg.