EMDR & Treating Low Self Esteem

Have you suffered for a long time with low self-esteem? Were your feelings the result of abuse as a child or is something more recent questioning your worth?

External pressure to do more and do more can erode a person’s self-esteem. Especially if the past tells you that you are aware of your abilities, skills, talents, and total potential.

If you are a highly creative person – someone with great drive or determination to achieve your life goals or dreams – your injured self-esteem will show up on your journey over and over…it will interfere with your ability to invest yourself in creativity in your life. An unrealistic or harsh inner voice can repeatedly stifle your creative spark or separate you from your abilities to perform.

As challenging as it may feel when your self-esteem issues are triggered, it’s an opportunity for you to heal and build a healthier, more stable sense of self-esteem.

If you’re tired of feeling that you don’t live up to global standards or can’t even live up to your standards for success, you’re not alone. We live in a society full of “opportunities” to challenge our sense of self-worth.

This is where you can fall into a trap: you focus too much on proving your worth rather than being attached to your value and navigating your life from being centered on your value.

EMDR therapy – eye movement desensitization and reprocessing – is highly effective in helping you shift from low self-esteem to a sense of inner self-worth.

How does EMDR therapy help?

EMDR therapy Can Help You Treat Old Self-Value Injuries

Our past is full of misunderstandings. Beliefs are often built on old, life-altering memories and unrealistic assumptions others have made about us. They are given strength by frequent remembrance, despite their lack of truth and substance. They have harmed us and stopped us.

  • How can you build your sense of value when every day you must face a world of critics and competitors?
  • What does it take to confront those who may not find you worthy of their time or money?
  • What can you do to keep your heart and mind from believing the whispers in your head that insist that you don’t deserve better, that you’re not good enough, or that your future isn’t bright at all?
  • In short, you must counter the influence of external messages by addressing the primary source of those beliefs and feelings.

EMDR therapy can help you release the old messages trapped in your mind/body. Messages you have received with or without awareness, with or without consent. You can clean up the old imprint and reintegrate old and unrealistic messages into a new, healthier, and liberating self-perception.

The ability to clean up the past without maliciously reformulating it is the gift of EMDR therapy.

EMDR therapy is not just about talking or discussing the past. Instead – through bilateral eye movements – it facilitates the complete processing and/or reprocessing of ‘stuck’ and traumatic memories, large and small. As a result, your identified emotional wounds no longer retain their attachment and power over you.

EMDR therapy does not “clear” past abuse, abandonment, disrespect, blame, shame, bullying, or lack of support, but rather you let go of the associated pain or insecurity. You leave behind such experiences, you emotionally detach from the grip. You are emerging from past experiences to seeing the present with greater emotional clarity.

Thus, you don’t live your life of traumatic experiences anymore – you begin to live emotional freedom to respond to your present moment with healthy, ingrained self-esteem.

EMDR therapist opens you up to a new sense of yourself; your sense of self-worth can be instilled

With EMDR – when you give away old messages – you also take in messages that are more valuable and healthier. Thus you can regain the strength to see yourself for yourself.

The ultimate goal of EMDR (relating to self-esteem) therapy is not only to free attachments to unhealthy messages but also to replace them with empowering feelings and beliefs, self-compassion, and self-worth.

From there, you can switch from a low sense of self to a more assertive, self-loving perception of yourself.

After EMDR treatment, people report feeling:

  • Feeling confident in themselves
  • More connected to their authentic selves
  • More in touch with their sense of agency and creativity
  • Develop the ability to see and use their strengths
  • The ability to embrace their human imperfections that cannot be changed
  • It can invest itself in improving and growing shortcomings
  • They can fully honor who they are
  • Get in touch with all that he is and use himself to create a fulfilling life

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  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

    Eye Movement Desensitizing and Reprocessing Therapy treatment is short-term, effective, and can be done in person or at home through online therapy.
  • EMDR Therapy Phases

    The eight stages of EMDR therapy are a map that the EMDR therapist follows to provide a framework for understanding the treatment process.
  • EMDR as Treatment

    EMDR therapy is an effective way to get over your past and serves as a treatment option for those suffering from anxiety, panic, post-traumatic stress disorder, or trauma.
  • EMDR & Anxiety

    EMDR Therapy is often used to treat anxiety disorders as more and more clinicians & patients begin to understand the benefits of treatment.
  • EMDR & Depression

    Identifying strong & negative thoughts or beliefs is a key benefit of EMDR Therapy, making EMDR a strong treatment for depression & major depressive disorders.
  • EMDR & Poor Job Performance

    Both employees & executives often work at below their potential because of past trauma caused by a history of criticism, mistakes , self-questioning or relational abuse. EMDR Therapy can help.
  • EMDR & Low Self Esteem

    EMDR Therapy is an effective treatment for helping those with low self esteem. It can define if your feelings are the result of abuse as a child or if something more recent is impacting your self esteem.
  • EMDR & Sexual Dysfunction

    Sexual dysfunction often ties back to deep-rooted psychological causes; EMDR Therapy helps the patient (and therapist) get to the root cause and have a chance to "reprocess" the info for a better result without dysfunction.

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) & Mental Health Service Provider (MHSP) in Tennessee

I am a firm believer in the effectiveness of EMDR Therapy and have seen the treatment help my patients time and time again. With over 15 years of experience in traditional personal & family therapy & counseling in my background, I find as an EMDR therapist in Tennessee that the treatment works faster to highlight and address deep-rooted problems than traditional treatment modalities.  Most of my patients end up working with me through traditional therapy and counseling while also undergoing EMDR therapy under my direction. 

Steven Lepley LPC, MHSP

Steven Lepley LPC, MHSP

Licensed in Tennessee

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor, Mental Health Services Provider & EMDR Therapist offering virtual telemedicine appointments throughout all of Tennessee.

Ask me about my experience & how I can help you address the challenges you are facing. Call me or text me at 615.330.2659.