Self-esteem journal
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Looking for a downloadable self-esteem journal? This guide to self-esteem journaling gives mental health clinicians a brief overview of this self-confidence-building practice, its benefits, and how to use self-esteem journal prompts in your therapy practice.
We’ve also included a free downloadable self-esteem journal template to save to your electronic health record (EHR) for future use.
What is a self-esteem journal?
Self-esteem is how we feel about ourselves, our worth and value, and our emotional well-being.
It even impacts how we cope with stress. Our experiences, thoughts, and relationships also influence self-esteem. Trauma, conflicts, and other negative experiences can directly impact our self-esteem.
For example, children might feel like they don’t fit in at school, experience abuse or neglect, and have difficulty making friends.
These experiences have the potential to cause:
- Self-doubt
- Negative self-talk
- Anxiety and depression
- Relationship difficulties
- Poor quality of life
- Increased likelihood of substance use disorders
Using tools like a self-confidence journal or self-esteem completion worksheet is a great way for clients to boost their self-esteem and confidence, among other benefits.
Benefits of using a self-esteem journal
Self-esteem journal worksheets can be a helpful therapeutic tool with several benefits, including:
- Lowered stress and anxiety: Journaling helps clients process their thoughts and feelings and find ways to show themselves compassion for doing the best they can.
- Improved self-esteem: Through journaling and using self-esteem journal prompts, clients externalize their thoughts and feelings, consider things differently, and acknowledge their accomplishments.
- Enhanced self-confidence: Regular journaling and reflection can help clients observe challenges they have overcome, their strengths, and their resources, leading to them feeling more confident in their abilities.
- Increased self-awareness: Daily journaling helps clients get into the practice of reflecting on their thoughts and feelings. They may notice patterns, triggers, and even unhelpful people or influences.
- Improved self-compassion: Clients may use a self-compassion worksheet or journal to promote the same kindness and compassion they’d offer to a friend, which in turn, helps them form more compassionate self-dialogue.
Examples of self-esteem journal prompts
- Gratitude lists: A gratitude journal is a great way to shift a client's mindset from focusing on things that are not going as planned to the people and things that are.
- Self-esteem sentence completion worksheet: Sentence completion is a great tool to prompt clients who struggle to identify their strengths and qualities, using prompts such as:
- I am good at _____.
- My partner would describe me as ____.
- My friends think my qualities are ___.
- Self-esteem journal worksheets, which include prompts for each day of the week, such as:
- Accomplishments
- Boundaries maintained
- Something you’re proud of
- Challenges overcome
- Strengths worksheet: Clients can either list their strengths in their self-esteem journal or choose from an existing list of strengths to prompt them.
- Accomplishments record: Listing daily accomplishments is a great way to build self-esteem and gain perspective. It seems simple, but can be very effective at boosting self-esteem.
- Self-love journal template: Using a list of positive affirmation prompts, clients can acknowledge how they tried their best and navigated other challenges. For example:
- I did the best I could with the resources I had.
- This was not my fault.
- I am not responsible for caretaking others' feelings in response to setting a boundary.
- It’s OK to tell someone they hurt my feelings.
- Sometimes mistakes happen. I can acknowledge where I went wrong and try again tomorrow.
- Challenging negative thoughts: Worksheets like a thought record can help clients feel empowered to name and reframe unhelpful thoughts.
How to use the self-esteem journaling worksheets
You can use the self-esteem journaling worksheet in several ways:
- In session, you can use the worksheet to illustrate the benefits of self-esteem journaling, and to empower the client to identify their strengths and values with self-esteem journal prompts.
- The worksheet can be given to clients as a handout or homework, or even as a self-love journal template to complete in between sessions.
Sources
- Bailey J. A., 2nd (2003). The foundation of self-esteem. Journal of the National Medical Association.
- Gold, A. (2016). Why self-esteem is important for mental health. National Alliance on Mental Illness.
- Center for Clinical Interventions. Self esteem. Government of Western Australia.
- Network of Care. (2024). Journaling improves health and self-esteem. RIO-Net Aging and Disability Resource Center.
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