Therapy for Self-Esteem
In-person therapy in Beverly Hills and surrounding Westside neighborhoods. Telehealth sessions available across California.
Understanding Your Self-Esteem
When people come to therapy feeling not good enough, insecure, or like they’ve lost a sense of who they are, I approach these struggles with compassion and curiosity. Rather than seeing “low self-esteem” as something broken that needs fixing, I see it as a meaningful expression of how you have learned to relate to yourself and to others over time. Self-esteem isn’t about learning to love the image that we need to live up to, but about discovering something more real underneath it, your unique desire and place in the world. Much of our suffering comes from comparing ourselves to ideals of perfection or worthiness that come from outside us. I help you loosen the hold of those ideals, so you can live more freely and define value on your own terms.
Located in Beverly Hills, my practice offers a thoughtful, open space to explore these struggles and gently uncover their deeper, unconscious roots.
Common Signs & Symptoms of Low Self-Esteem
A persistent, critical inner voice or negative self-image.
Chronic self-doubt that makes decisions feel overwhelming.
A deep-seated feeling of being "not good enough" or inadequate.
Difficulty setting boundaries or advocating for your needs.
Struggles with low self-worth in relationships, perhaps fearing abandonment or seeking constant validation.
Perfectionism that leaves you feeling exhausted and never satisfied.
A hesitation to pursue your desires, fearing you will fail or be judged.
My Approach to Working with Self-Esteem
My approach to self-esteem therapy is one of compassion and curiosity. I practice psychoanalytic therapy, a form of depth work focused on understanding the deeper, often unconscious, roots of your emotional life. Together, we won't try to "fix" or "build" your self-esteem with exercises; instead, we'll create a thoughtful and precise space to explore the patterns and histories that have shaped how you relate to yourself.
In our sessions, we will:
Explore the Roots: Listen for the beliefs you hold about your own value and where they came from, linking current feelings of inadequacy to earlier experiences and relational patterns.
Loosen the Grip of Ideals: Work to shed the power of external expectations and the "ideals" you may be comparing yourself to, which fuel your sense of not being good enough.
Define Value on Your Own Terms: Work to make sense of what has been unconscious, allowing you to discover your own unique desire and place in the world so you can live more freely.
The Impact of Low Self-Esteem on Daily Life
The consequences of low self-esteem can be profound. This internal struggle is not just an abstract feeling; it actively shapes your life.
Career: It can hold you back from taking risks in your career, fueling a lack of confidence at work despite your capabilities.
Relationships: It can strain your connections with others, making it difficult to trust, accept love, or be your authentic self.
Presence: This constant internal friction can lead to isolation, loneliness, and a feeling that you are watching your own life from the sidelines, unable to fully participate in it.
Emotional Health: It often co-occurs with feelings of anxiety and depression, making daily life feel heavier and more burdensome.
Frequently Asked Questions about Depression
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Low self-esteem is a persistent sense that you are not enough: not capable enough, not worthy enough, not deserving of the life you want. It shapes how you interpret situations, often leading you to assume criticism where none exists or to dismiss accomplishments as unearned. Low self-esteem is not simply a habit of negative thinking. It typically has roots in early experiences that taught you to measure your worth against impossible or shifting standards.
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Psychoanalytic therapy helps with self-esteem by tracing how your sense of worth was shaped by early relationships, expectations, and experiences that may no longer be in conscious awareness. Rather than teaching you to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, this approach explores why certain beliefs about yourself took hold and why they persist. When you begin to see where these beliefs came from, they carry less authority over how you live now.
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Therapy gives teenagers a space to explore who they are becoming without the pressure of performing for parents, peers, or social media. Adolescence is when self-esteem is most vulnerable and most formative, which makes it a particularly important time to address it. In psychoanalytic work with teens, we listen for what the low self-esteem is organized around: comparison, perfectionism, fear of rejection, or a sense of not fitting in. Understanding the source allows for change that goes deeper than reassurance.
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Confidence and self-esteem are related but not the same. You can feel confident giving a presentation, managing a project, or performing well socially while privately feeling that you are not enough as a person. Confidence is about what you can do; self-esteem is about who you believe you are when you are not performing. Therapy often uncovers this gap: people who appear capable and assured but carry a deep sense of unworthiness beneath the competence.
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Low self-esteem often shapes relationships in ways that are difficult to recognize from the inside. You may tolerate treatment you know is not right, avoid expressing needs out of fear of being too much, or withdraw before someone can reject you. These patterns are not character flaws. They are protective strategies that formed in earlier relationships. Individual therapy that explores relationships can help untangle how self-worth and relational patterns reinforce each other.
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Low self-esteem and anxiety frequently coexist. When your sense of worth feels fragile, ordinary situations begin to carry disproportionate weight: a social interaction becomes a test, a work task becomes a measure of your value. The anxiety is not separate from the self-esteem problem. It is often an expression of it. Therapy that addresses both together tends to produce more lasting change than treating either in isolation.