Our sense of self worth or self esteem is reflected in the way we deal with our life’s successes and challenges. Feeling an authentic sense of self worth helps us meet life’s challenges with reality and compassion toward ourselves and others. Authentic self-esteem allows us to honor our legitimate boundaries, acting from our own healthy self-interest.
Low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness are related to conditions of worth that have been inherited from our family of origin and reinforced by the behavioral or emotional consequences of those early messages. These “internal rules” like: “I’m not good enough,” “I’ll never find love,” or “I’m a failure” become the paradigm from which we view the world and our place in it.
Those early experiences produce a primary effect that is either based in self-love and acceptance or in fear and judgement. Dr. Paul Standal will assist you in raising your self-esteem by helping you make sense of those feelings, experiences and associated negative primary feelings. His goal is to help you to recast these maladaptive conditions of worth, letting go of the fear and co-dependency, while embracing your legitimate sense of self-worth.