Low Self-Worth and Confidence

Does this sound familiar?

You keep saying yes even though you mean no. You feel intense guilt when you set a boundary or put yourself first. You enjoy being there for others but lately you've been exhausted from doing too much. You may struggle to know who you are or what you want because you've always done everything for everyone else.

Low self-worth and low confidence can hold you back and keep you small, but it's possible to find your own voice and set boundaries without abandoning your kindness or your sensitivity. Imagine being able to trust yourself to make empowered choices that are motivated by gentle honesty rather than people pleasing and self-abandonment.

You don’t have to live with low self-worth and poor confidence. I can help you to find your voice and step into your full self – sensitivity and all.

How my approach helps:

We will focus on regulating your nervous system with breathwork and other somatic techniques. We will also explore and heal the root cause of your low self-worth and low confidence. We will do this with life mapping, psychodynamic therapy techniques, IFS-informed parts work, shame work, and visualisation (including shadow work and inner child work).

With my blend of techniques, I can help you to become calmer and more present with yourself and around others.

Helping you to make empowered choices

Common questions about self-worth and confidence

  • Saying yes when you mean no. Feeling guilty when you put yourself first. Constantly comparing yourself to others and assuming they're coping better. Downplaying your achievements or feeling like a fraud. And a quiet persistent sense of not being enough. If any of that sounds familiar, you're in the right place.

  • Absolutely!. And this is something I feel passionate about. Sensitivity and confidence aren't opposites. When you do the deeper work, your sensitivity becomes one of your greatest strengths rather than something to manage or apologise for.

  • Yes. People pleasing isn't a character flaw or a personality trait. It’s actually a coping strategy that made sense at some point but has stopped being beneficial. We'll explore where it came from and gradually build a different way of relating to others, rooted in genuine choice rather than fear or guilt.

  • It can absolutely be healed. Low self-worth develops in response to your experiences, which means it can change. Most of my clients are surprised by how different life feels when the shame they'd carried for years begins to lift.

For general FAQs and info about how to get started, click here.

MEET YOUR THERAPIST

Hi there, I’m Hayley Trower, PhD

I specialise in low self-worth and low confidence in Leek, Buxton and online

I'm skilled in several evidence-based approaches to help sensitive people rebuild their sense of self-worth and confidence, including those who struggle with people pleasing, perfectionism, and self-abandonment.

My integrative approach includes psychodynamic therapy, breathwork, meditation, mindfulness, visualisation, shadow work, shame work, radical forgiveness, and parts work (IFS informed, inner child, and subpersonalities). I tailor my appraoch in a way that works for each individual.

My core training is with The Reach Approach, a UK based holistic psychotherapy organisation that has been changing lives for more than 40 years. I am an associate of The Reach Approach, a member of the BACP, and my training is accredited by the NCPS and the CMA.

Nervous system regulation is an important first step before diving into the deeper work. When your sense of self-worth is low, your nervous system is often stuck in a state of hypervigilance – always braced for criticism or rejection. Tools might include breathwork, deep relaxation, meditation, yoga, walking, yoga nidra, social connection, creativity, sound healing and more. We will explore this together so that you can start to feel safer in your body and mind.

Life mapping is a journey that helps to identify and heal the root cause of your low self-worth. It helps you to share your story, observe your own patterns, and see how your experiences and conditioning have shaped the way you see yourself.

Shame work and radical forgiveness are a perfect combination for healing low self-worth. Shame is almost always at the root of it. It can feel like a sense of not being enough, of being too much, or of being fundamentally flawed. Self-forgiveness helps you to let that go.

Visualisation (inner child work, dark room work) is a deeply transformational approach for healing anxiety once the foundational work has been done. It encourages whole brain thinking which helps you to experience life from a clearer perspective that is beyond the old stories and conditioning. You can begin to make balanced decisions based on emotion, intution and logic rather than fear or self-doubt.

Parts work can help you to understand the parts of you that keep you small, people please, or sabotage your own needs. It is informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS) and based on the premise that we all carry self-protective parts. By learning to negotiate with them and work with them rather than against them, you can step back and begin to act from your true self rather than from fear.

I can also help with addiction,anxiety, chronic overwhelm, and other challenges.

Become Your Empowered, Sensitive Self

Learn to love your sensitivity and live a life of authenticity

Book A Consultation