Affordable therapy for low self-esteem: A New Online Course From a Therapist.

For a while I have been thinking about stepping back from therapy. To focus on the more creative side of myself. I have written on my Substack publication, about this.

There's something I imagine many of you will recognise: the moment you commit publicly to a decision, and suddenly feel locked into it. Once I'd shared that earlier piece, I caught myself thinking, well, I have to stick with it now. Thoughts crept in about not being taken seriously, if I changed course yet again, and a certain envy towards people who seem to move steadily along a single path.

But here's what I've come to realise from years of working with people in long-term careers, those who appear set on their path often long to break out. They feel trapped for many reasons, some practical, some emotional. I wonder how common it is to feel completely fulfilled doing the same thing for a lifetime. Is that even possible for a human being? I have noticed that the real art is finding new ways of engaging with what you do, so it continues to energise you.

A Creative Person in a Scientific Career

I've always considered myself a creative person. Before psychology, I trained and worked as a photographer, I can still smell the developing room fixer.  Later  I moved into desktop publishing. I even ran a handmade wedding stationery business to fund my Mental Health Nursing degree. Then I qualified, and the creativity quietly fell away.

For the past couple of years, the rules, boundaries, and professional constraints of my therapy career have begun to feel stifling.  I started exploring my creative side again, which is how letterpress printing entered the picture.

But as I sat with the idea of leaving therapy behind completely it just did not feel the right thing to do.

I'm Not Quite Done With therapy

I have watched the mental health crisis deepen here in the UK, where the cost of living has pushed private therapy out of reach for so many people. NHS waiting lists stretch to years in some areas. People who could previously afford private therapy often can't now.   This has led me to thinking carefully about how to make therapy more accessible and I believe I've found a way forward.

Introducing the Self-Esteem Academy

I am currently creating what I am calling the 'Self-Esteem Academy': a structured therapy course that people can work through in their own time, at low cost, because it doesn't require face-to-face sessions. I hope that it will be affordable therapy for low self-esteem.

The foundation of this course comes from something I tell every client:

We meet once a week for an hour. You are in your life for the other

167 hours of that week.

My clients are the experts on themselves and have more skills to manage their minds than they realise.   The course will be about recognising those skills and adding to them.

At the heart of resilience and mental health is the relationship you have with yourself. I genuinely believe that self-esteem is the platform from which we see the world, see ourselves, and think how others see us. When any part of that is skewed, we struggle.   We now think of low self-esteem as a learned behaviour.   The good news being that it can be unlearned.

The Lens Through Which You See the World

Here's a simple illustration I often use in therapy:

Imagine you're walking down the street feeling good,  secure in your relationships, on top of things at work, comfortable in yourself. You spot someone you know across the road, wave, and they don't respond. Your likely thought? They probably didn't see me. You fire off a friendly message and carry on with your day. That's healthy self-esteem at work.

Now picture the same moment, but you've just had a difficult argument. You've been replaying it, piling it onto other memories of times you felt let down or disliked. You're soaked through because it's started raining and you forgot your coat. You see that same person across the road — and now your thought is something closer to: Of course they're ignoring me. Nobody likes me.

Same situation. Completely different lens.

That lens is what the course explores: why it shifts, where it comes from, and how to change it.

Most people with low self-esteem describe it as a rollercoaster. They function well at times, and really struggle at others, often without understanding why. I have found over the years that once you can answer the why of how your mind works, you can begin to manage it differently.

What's Next

The course is still being written, so it's a little way off yet but if you'd like to be kept informed as it develops, you're welcome to join the mailing list via the website, here

And this doesn't mean leaving creativity behind. The word that keeps coming to mind is synergy. Letterpress printing and psychology don't have to be opposites. Beautiful, tactile, handcrafted paper and the inner work of the mind, both, in their own way, are about creating something meaningful.

If there are topics you'd love to see covered in the course, I'd genuinely love to hear from you. You can reach me at mail@janewatkinscbt.co.uk.