CBT for Low Self-esteem: It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not – Online Zoom Workshop |10 June 2026

This workshop is for people who are familiar with using CBT in clinical practice, who wish to gain a comprehensive understanding of using CBT to work with clients experiencing problems with or related to low self-esteem.

Although low self-esteem is not a diagnostic category, it is a recognised feature of many psychological disorders. A vulnerability factor for some problems and a feature or consequence of others, low self-esteem can affect and perpetuate a person’s distress, independently or as an aspect of complexity. Understanding self-esteem as a construct, how it can be protective or debilitating, and how it features and functions, enables us to consider a person’s difficulties in the context of their stories and self-concept, and provides opportunities for integrating and embedding learning from therapy into a broader sense of self.

This workshop introduces Fennell’s (1997, 1998) cognitive model of low self-esteem, reviews transdiagnostic maintenance processes and provides an overview of the treatment approach with opportunities for skills practice.

Participants will gain:

Knowledge:

• Self-esteem as a construct, how it develops and manifests.
• The evidence base for working with LSE using CBT.
• Transdiagnostic factors that contribute to the maintenance of LSE.
• The cognitive model of LSE.
• How and when to utilise core CBT knowledge and skills to deliver formulation driven treatment for LSE.
• Typical treatment stages of CBT for LSE; what to focus on and when.
• Key CBT interventions to test anxious predictions, tackle negative beliefs, improve self-acceptance and self-appreciation, and increase metacognitive awareness.

Skills practice:

• Identifying LSE as a vulnerability factor, feature, and/or consequence of a client’s problem(s).
• Formulating LSE development and maintenance.
• Devising experiments to test anxious predictions.
• Evaluating NATs and generating alternate perspectives.
• Revising rules for living.
• Rethinking core beliefs.
• Bringing good qualities into focus and enhancing metacognitive awareness.