Self-Esteem Counseling In St. Petersburg, FL

Counseling for low self-esteem in St. Petersburg, Fl

Do Feelings of Low Self-Worth Have You Feeling Stuck?

Is there a critical voice inside your head constantly telling you that you are not good enough? Do you have difficulty celebrating your accomplishments? Are you hyper-focused on your mistakes?

You probably struggle to develop healthy friendships and romantic relationships because you feel like you’re not good enough for them. This leads you often feeling depressed and isolated. You keep to yourself so that others don’t have the opportunity to judge you. In your time alone, the critical voice in your head continues to nag at you incessantly.

Maybe you throw yourself into your job or into school, feeling like you will never accomplish enough to satisfy your inner critical voice. And no one is pushing you to do this except yourself.

You want to make the voice stop but it won’t go away. To attempt to silence the critical voice and to numb the pain it brings you, you might overuse drugs and alcohol, overeat or starve yourself, or use other unhelpful behaviors. While these behaviors help in the moment, the critical voice always returns.

You most likely feel beaten down by the critical voice in your mind. It never stops, increasing your anxiety and often keeping you awake late at night. You just want to feel worthy, and to live your life without this awful voice constantly buzzing inside of your head.

Though at times it may seem like the voice will never stop, it is possible to improve your sense of self-worth. Through our holistic, person-centered approach, we can help you learn how to silence your inner critic and improve your self-esteem.

We All Want to Feel Good About Ourselves

In our society we are pressured to keep doing more and more. Working late nights in the office is often praised and rewarded. The message that we must achieve something in order to be productive leads many people to feel depressed and anxious and feel less and less confident about themselves.

Western culture also tends to promote the idea that celebrating our achievements is selfish and shouldn’t be done, which can further lower our self-esteem by keeping us from acknowledging our abilities and accomplishments.

If you struggle with low self-esteem and just want to feel good about yourself, know that you are not alone and - increasing your self-confidence is totally possible. At Be Your Best Self & Thrive Counseling, you can work with a caring therapist to help you learn how to acknowledge your strengths and challenge your inner critic in a safe space. By teaching strategies that help you to nurture your body, mind, and spirit we will help you see how much you matter and how valuable you are. We will work with you to identify an individualized path that allows you to restore your confidence and self-worth in all areas of your life.

Improve Your Self-Esteem by Silencing Your Inner Critic

Your Inner Critic is so loud and strong that you may feel overwhelmed by the seemingly daunting task of silencing that voice. We want you to know that our holistic approach will allow you to go at your own pace and make one small change at a time. We will empower you to set small, achievable goals that help you challenge the inner critical voice and learn to improve your self-love, resulting in a healthier, happier life.

Our therapists use a supportive, empathic approach to helping you to understand the root of your inner critic and let go of the negative thought patterns. We will collaborate with you to form a personalized approach to healing that best meets your needs. Maybe you need to learn mindfulness techniques to help you stay in the present, or maybe you need to discover and prioritize hobbies that you enjoy. No matter what you need, we are here to walk alongside you in your journey to cultivating confidence.

Our team is authentic and nonjudgmental, which opens up space for you to be able to safely explore different perspectives from what your inner critic has been telling you. We will hold you accountable to meeting your goals and will take a caring approach to working through any challenges or setbacks.

Our clinicians use a holistic approach to managing the anxiety, guilt, and shame you may be experiencing as a result of your low self-esteem and will help empower you to make the changes in your life that you desire. Letting go of the emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that may be keeping you from loving yourself as you are will give you the space to grow and enjoy life the way that you want to.

Because you are a unique individual, we draw from a variety of unique therapy modalities to meet your needs. Learning to identify and change the unhelpful beliefs you may hold about yourself through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help you to better understand and manage feelings of depression and anxiety that may accompany your low self-esteem.

While it may be impossible to eradicate all self-defeating thoughts from your mind, you can learn to accept their presence nonjudgmentally. Our therapists at Be Your Best Self & Thrive Counseling may use techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help you do so. When you learn to detach from these thoughts and simply let them pass through your mind, you’re less likely to respond to these thoughts in unhelpful ways. And when you reduce unhelpful, self-sabotaging behaviors, we believe that you will begin to feel more empowered and confident and secure in your identity.

Our holistic approach takes components of neurobiology to help you understand the relationship between your brain, your physical body, and your sense of self-esteem. We find that having knowledge about the biology of self-talk and thinking patterns can help you to make meaningful changes in the way you think and the way you act. And as you begin to improve your emotional health you’ll find that your physical health will also improve - and vice versa.

We will also incorporate Eastern medicine practices like mindfulness skills, yogic techniques, and meditation. These skills will help you to remain in the present moment when self-critical thoughts arise. Such practices can also improve your mind-body-spirit connection by increasing your self-awareness as you become more present and grounded in yourself and the world around you.

While you may not be able to eliminate self-critical thoughts entirely, you can learn how to have power over them. The team at Be Your Best Self & Thrive Counseling is here to help you overcome self-defeating thoughts

Perhaps you’re considering self-esteem counseling, but you have some concerns…
I don’t understand how talking about my low self-esteem will help me.

I don’t have the time, money, or energy to put into self-esteem counseling.

If you’re concerned about the cost and time commitment of therapy, think about the long-term cost of not seeking professional help for improving your sense of self-worth. Think about the money and time you spend trying to quiet the voice of your inner critic, whether you use retail therapy, substance use, food, overworking, or constantly trying to improve the way you look even though you feel nasty inside. Like any investment, therapy has the potential to create positive changes and provide you with a skill set that can help you to improve the way you feel about yourself long-term, not just temporarily.

What if the critical voice doesn’t go away?

Therapy gives you the opportunity to change the way you think about yourself and thus the way you feel about yourself. There may be times during the therapy process where you might struggle or feel a bit uncomfortable, which is a normal part of the change process. Your experienced and caring therapist will be there to guide and support you through this experience. By committing to holistic therapy you will start to feel better overall and find more enjoyment in life. By embarking on your therapy journey, you are making a commitment to improve your well-being both now and for the rest of your life.

Staying silent about how you feel about yourself keeps you isolated and unworthy. When you are able to practice opening up to a trained therapist about your self-critical thoughts and how they affect you, you are challenging the very idea that your thoughts and feelings are not worth sharing. Our skilled therapists can work with you to explore the root causes of your low self-worth and teach you healthy skills for compassion and confidence.

Say Goodbye to Your Inner Critic and Welcome the Life You Deserve

If low self-esteem has left you feeling anxious, hopeless, exhausted, and isolated, holistic treatment at Be Your Best Self & Thrive Counseling can help you reharmonize your mind, body, and spirit. To find out more about how we can help, contact us today to schedule a free, 15-minute consultation.

Please note that during COVID-19, we are offering both in-person and online therapy sessions.