Self-confidence can refer to a general sense of trust in your ability to control your life, or it might be more situation specific. For example, you might have high self-confidence in a particular area of expertise but feel less confident in other areas.

It is an individual’s feeling  of trust in his or her own abilities, qualities and judgments or belief that he or she can successfully face day-to-day challenges and demands. This feeling allows you to experience freedom from self-doubt and negative thoughts about yourself.

Low self-confidence may start from childhood. If a person does not receive love, affection and positive interactions in childhood, they may lack a sense of worth or inner value.

Several factors may cause and affect one’s confidence

• Results at work or school
• The media and social media
• Body image and feelings about appearance
• The level of support people have around them
• Achievements or skill levels
• Physical and mental health issues
• Feeling the need to conform or fit in with peers
• Perfectionism
• Comparison to others
• A pressure to achieve or excel in certain areas
• Bullying or abuse
• Stigma or discrimination
• Moving away from a safe or familiar area or loved ones
• Family or relationship problems

• Feelings of self-doubt 
• Passive or submissive behavior 
• Difficulty trusting others 
• Feeling inferior to others 
• Overly sensitive to criticism 
• Feel incompetent 
• Feel unloved or inadequate 
• Constantly afraid to make mistakes or letting others down. 
• Negative effects on your personal and professional relationships 
• Visible health issues 
• Highly critical of themselves  
• Ignore or downplay their positive qualities 
• Think they are inferior to their peers  
• Use negative words when describing themselves 
• Has negative self-talk and avoid taking credit for their achievements, instead putting it down to luck 
• Blame themselves for things that go wrong rather than considering other factors that are out of their control 
• Does not believe compliments about them.

People may feel confident in certain areas, such as work or studies, but less confident in other areas, such as personal relationships.

Low self-confidence can lead to many psychological or emotional implications such as depression and anxiety. Your self-confidence may vary. There are days, you feel confident and capable; where as other days, you are miserable and self-doubt clouds your every action. Boosting of self-confidence can be a long process. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatments for low self-confidence.

Our therapy sessions help: 

• Identify and understand the source of low self-confidence: Most times the roots of low self-confidence are from events, relationships or behaviors, both past and present.
• Therapy helps you to find out how much original cause is still affecting you today, reflect on situations in which you feel your best and your worst.
• People recognize and process their past negative experiences and reduce negative self-talk. You get to talk about your past experiences such as being bullied, traumatic experiences like abuse and the therapist remain non-judgmental and compassionate. Help you to look at, what you have already achieved.
• People to be self-compassionate: Very often people speak critically about themselves maybe cause of insecurity or negative judgment from peers or parents. Therapist helps the client to identify and recognize if it’s realistic or not, and be self- passionate.
• People to set goals: Everyone has strengths and talents. You learn to recognize the things you are good at.
• Help people to notice their thinking patterns: People who tend to envision extreme outcomes prevent them from setting boundaries, speaking up for themselves and protecting their needs. Therapy helps to notice these triggers and you can mindfully manage them as they arise.

Therapy can be extremely useful in helping you: 

• Discover and recognize the origin of your confidence issues and situations that affect self-esteem.
• Work with you on creating small, incremental goals that help you to slowly build your confidence.
• Become aware and adjust your thoughts, beliefs and challenge your negative thinking.
• Spot troubling conditions or situations, step back from your thoughts and accept your thoughts. 

Don’t let low self-confidence undermine your life. A self-confident person - Believes in themselves, voices their opinions, accepts criticism positively and takes on new challenges.