For when the voice that says you’re not quite enough has been talking for a very long time.
You might be capable, warm and well liked, and still carry a quiet certainty that you’re somehow less than the people around you. Compliments slide straight off while criticism stays with you for days. You compare yourself constantly, hold back from the things you’d love to try, and wait to feel ready, or worthy, before you let yourself want more.
Low self-esteem rarely announces itself. It shows up as staying small at work, apologising for taking up space, choosing relationships where you have to earn your place, or a steady background sense that if people really knew you, they’d leave. Many people who come to me for self-esteem therapy also describe anxiety, a harsh inner critic, people-pleasing or perfectionism, because they so often grow from the same root.
Self-Esteem Therapy in Toronto
Low self-worth usually made sense once
Nobody is born believing they’re not enough. For most people it was learned, often early, in a home where love felt conditional, where they were compared, criticised or overlooked, or through experiences like bullying, loss or relationships that taught them their needs came last. The belief settled in because, at the time, it helped make sense of things.
That’s why affirmations and being told to just be more confident so rarely last. In therapy we don’t try to talk you out of how you feel about yourself. We get curious about where that view of you came from, whose voice it really is, and what it might be like to see yourself with a little more accuracy and a lot more kindness.
How we work with self-esteem in therapy
My approach is integrative and relational, which means the work follows you rather than a manual. We’ll look at the stories you tell about yourself, where they began, and how they shape the choices you make, in your work, your relationships and the moments when no one else is watching.
I often draw on Internal Family Systems (IFS) to get to know the critical voice as a part of you that has been trying to protect you, alongside psychodynamic and attachment-based work to understand the old messages. Somatic work helps you feel steadier in your own body, and practical tools from CBT and DBT help you notice and question the thoughts that keep you small.
Therapy is also a relationship where you get to be seen as you are, without performing or proving anything, and for many people that experience becomes part of what shifts.
What can change
People often notice that they can take a compliment without deflecting it, say what they want without rehearsing it first, and try something new without needing to be good at it straight away. Mistakes start to feel like events rather than verdicts. Rather than becoming someone else, you get to stop arguing with who you already are, and choose your relationships and opportunities from a place of worth instead of having to prove it.
Sessions
I’m Sabrine Soliman, a Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO) and the founder of Metamorphia Wellness. I see individuals online across Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, in person in Toronto on Monday evenings at 1179 King St W, and outdoors on Walk & Talk sessions in High Park.
Individual sessions are 50 minutes and $160, and receipts include my CRPO registration number, so you can submit them to most extended health plans that cover psychotherapy.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Self-esteem therapy is psychotherapy that focuses on how you see and treat yourself. It explores where your beliefs about your worth came from, works with the inner critic, and helps you build a steadier, kinder sense of who you are, rather than relying on reassurance or achievement to feel okay.
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They’re closely linked. Self-esteem usually describes how you feel about yourself, which can rise and fall with circumstances. Self-worth is the deeper sense that you matter and deserve care whatever you achieve. Therapy works with both, and often the goal is a sense of worth that doesn’t depend on getting everything right.
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Often, yes. Low self-esteem isn’t a diagnosis on its own, but it commonly sits alongside anxiety and low mood, and each can keep the others going. Therapy can work with all of them together rather than treating them as separate problems.
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Yes. Confidence often grows as the deeper work happens, once the harsh inner voice loses some of its grip and you’re no longer waiting to feel worthy before you act. We can also work directly on the situations where you hold yourself back, such as speaking up at work, setting boundaries or dating.
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Yes. I offer online sessions across Ontario, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as in-person sessions in Toronto and Walk & Talk sessions in High Park.
You don’t have to feel worthy of help to ask for it
If some of this sounded familiar, that’s reason enough to reach out. You don’t need to know exactly what to say or have it all worked out first, and you’re welcome to start with a free 15-minute consultation to see whether working together feels right.
You might also like: Perfectionism Therapy · People-Pleasing Therapy · Individual Therapy