Counselling to increase self-confidence

Self-confidence means having trust in oneself and holding oneself in high esteem. It's about feeling "I'm OK."

Some people make distinctions between self-confidence, self-esteem, self-worth and self-respect. They are similar concepts and people with low self-confidence generally don’t value themselves highly.

What is self-confidence?

While everyone struggles with confidence occasionally, some people seem generally more confident than others. People with a healthy level of self-esteem often believe in a set of values and feel secure in these principles. They tend to trust their own judgement and do not feel threatened by other people holding different opinions. They also trust in their capacity to solve problems and face difficulties, and they do not generally feel inferior or superior to others.

Low self-confidence can be debilitating. It may involve an underlying sense of not being good enough or inherently unworthy. People with low self-confidence may avoid difficult situations because they do not believe they can handle them. They may also let others dominate or make decisions for them, trusting another person’s judgement more than their own.

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Build your self-confidence through counselling

Low self-esteem often originates in childhood or adolescence. Some people will be able to trace their confidence issues to events such as bullying or to critical messages they received from their parents, for example. Others will be unaware of how their self-confidence problems started. 

Counselling for low self-confidence includes exploration of the origins of the issue. This helps people to understand that the negative beliefs they hold about themselves are distorted or untrue. 

People with low self-esteem may have recurring negative thoughts like:

  • I’m a failure
  • I’m not good enough
  • I’m not as worthy as other people
  • I’m stupid
  • I’m unloveable.They will typically be able to point to lots of ‘evidence’ to support these negative beliefs. When we believe something, we look for evidence to support that belief and discount evidence to the contrary. In this way, people reinforce their self-doubt, generating a powerful, relentless, negative internal voice.

Our counsellors help clients to challenge their negative internal voice. Once it has quietened down, they can be more compassionate with themselves.

Improving your confidence through counselling can have a positive effect on many areas, including your social life, intimate relationship and work. Counselling can be open-ended or time-limited to 10 sessions. Both face-to-face and online counselling are available.

One of our  therapists will be able to help

Confidence is not just something other people have. Self-confidence is attainable for us all.

What is CBT and can it help?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a practical talking therapy that helps people with problems and issues by addressing and changing how they think and behave. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focuses on the present problems that are happening now and the relationships between thoughts…

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How does therapy help?

Over the years that I’ve worked as a therapist, I’ve been asked numerous times by prospective clients, “How does counselling help?”  And I’ve yet to come up with a satisfactory answer. Not because I’m in any doubt that it helps, but because the ‘how’ bit is so hard to articulate concisely…

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Counselling for individuals

Personal counselling can be about anything that is on your mind.

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Couples counselling

Couples counselling provides space for couples to discuss problems in their relationship and find solutions.

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Our therapists

We have over 30 qualified and experienced therapists to choose from.

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One Therapy London

Counselling, psychotherapy, couples counselling in London since 2006

Therapist Barbara Perini
Barbara Perini

Barbara is an accredited member of BACP, holding an MSc in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and adhering to the BACP ethical framework Her approach is open-ended, offering both short-term and long-term therapy Barbara has also trained in Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT), a short-term (16 sessions), semi-structured individual therapy developed for mood...

Oxford Circus

Natasha Maidment

Natasha is a person–centred counsellor and psychotherapist who will provide you with a safe, empathetic and non-judgemental space to explore any thoughts or concerns you wish to bring She works with a range of issues including anxiety, stress, critical thoughts, trauma, relationship issues, identity, depression, loss and low self-esteem Natasha offers a...

Oxford Circus

Roz Urquhart

Roz is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, who offers both long- and short-term psychotherapy She works with a varied client group offering a welcoming, safe and confidential therapeutic space in which to help her clients explore and process the issues that are bringing them into therapy Roz supports her clients to focus on unconscious processes, inner conflicts and...

Oxford Circus

Therapist Stamatia Lorentzou
Stamatia Lorentzou

Stamatia draws on a broad range of theories of psychotherapy She works collaboratively with her clients to understand the causes of their concern and find ways to move forward Stamatia offers both short-term and longer-term therapy She has worked in various organisational settings with individuals seeking to address relationship issues, low self esteem, separation,...

Bloomsbury

Therapist Ben Brackenbury
Ben Brackenbury

Ben believes that at times we all struggle with the challenges life has to offer and therapy provides a safe, confidential, non-judgemental space to explore this Ben works with individuals to make sense of who they are and how they respond to the world today, and to explore new ways of being Ben is also sensitive to how difficult it might be for a client to talk to a...

Oxford Circus

Therapist Nicola Reeves
Nicola Reeves

Nicola is a psychodynamic psychotherapist and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) therapist Nicola believes in giving clients time and space to approach therapy in the way they need to approach it She finds this is the best way to develop a therapeutic relationship that allows feelings to be truly explored and evaluated As a psychodynamic...

Soho

Therapist Rhiannon Whipps
Rhiannon Whipps

Rhiannon is a psychodynamic counsellor and psychotherapist with over ten years experience of working within the field of mental health Rhiannon provides an empathic and non-judgemental therapeutic space for her clients to explore any difficulties which they may be facing Within the safety of a confidential environment, she encourages her clients to openly explore...

Soho

Therapist Barbara Beyaz
Barbara Beyaz

Barbara brings a warm, non-judgmental, and accepting attitude to her work with clients As an integrative Psychotherapist, she draws from a range of theoretical perspectives which allows her to tailor therapy to the needs of the client Barbara thinks that healing and individual growth happen when difficulties in living are explored with empathy, and the client's unique...

Oxford Circus

Therapist Tom Deitch
Tom Deitch

Tom is a popular and approachable psychotherapist who has extensive experience working with people from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds He brings a wealth of life experience, training and understanding to his work, offering help with depression, trauma, anxiety, abuse, sexual problems, addiction, relationship difficulties and many of the other obstacles life...

Oxford Circus

Yussef Ferguson

Yussef is a psychodynamic psychotherapist who offers both long and short term personal therapy to individuals He has experience of working with a diverse range of clients and can provide a warm, confidential space to explore and gain insight into any past or present personal difficulties and experiences Yussef works with issues such as anxiety, depression, loss,...

Oxford Circus