The Self-Esteem Workbook

by Glenn R. Schiraldi, Matthew McKay (Foreword), Patrick Fanning (Foreword)

Every now and then, we all second-guess ourselves. If you have low self-esteem, or are constantly comparing your successes and failures with those of the people around you, it's time to take a step back and re-evaluate how you treat you.

The Self-Esteem Workbook is based on the author's original new research, which has shown that self-esteem can be significantly improved through the use of self-help materials. Now psychologist and health educator Glenn Schiraldi has shaped these tested resources into a comprehensive, self-directed program that guides readers through twenty essential skill-building activities, each focused on developing a crucial component of healthy self-esteem.

This classic is still the most comprehensive guide on the subject and the only book that offers proven techniques for talking back to your self-critical voice. Learn step-by-step techniques to help you:


Handle your mistakes and respond well to criticism
Foster compassion for yourself and others
Set up and achieve goals that will enrich your life
Use visualization for self-acceptance

If you are ready to stop being hard on yourself, and start showing compassion and understanding, this workbook can help you get started.

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Nonfiction, Self Esteem, Mental Health, Counselling, Personal Development

183 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2001

Reviews

[Kristie J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book was sometimes difficult to work through by myself, I think my time and effort were worth it because I learned several valuable concepts and skills to boost my self-esteem. This book made me feel good about myself and reminded me of all of my good qualities and my intrinsic core worth. Each lesson was relatively short and straightforward. I love the "Even though... Nevertheless" technique. It's easy to remember and apply wherever you are. For example, if you make a mistake or have negative thoughts about yourself, you respond with a statement such as, "Even though I botched that project, nevertheless I'm still a worthwhile person." This technique can be expanded to include self-love and appreciation such as, "Even though I am overweight, nevertheless I love me," or personal growth such as, "Even though I'm not perfect, nevertheless I'm growing." This is a great book to have on my shelf to refer to whenever I'm feeling down.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quotes:

Self-esteem is not positive thinking, where you tell yourself how wonderful and perfect you are, hoping that you will thereby become so. This kind of thinking is emotionally immature and stressful because it is not grounded in reality. People with self-esteem have no need to inflate themselves. Rather they are secure enough to accurately appraise both their strengths and weaknesses.

[Ana Stanciu-Dumitrache · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi-a plăcut tare mult, dar nu e o carte, ci un caiet de activități cu exerciții si întrebări care sa te ajute sa te cunosti. E foarte utila pentru toata lumea.

[Jessica Bratko · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had great skills and explanations. A great starting point.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible. It helped me view self-esteem in a different light and change my perspective on my worth (and other’s). I come from a place of very low self-esteem and have for the longest time felt "not good enough". My self-esteem was/is affected by other's like and approval of me. This book taught me that self-esteem should not be dependent on externals, but instead we all have equal value and worth simply because we are human beings. This is because from birth we are born with worth. We are born with all the capabilities we can develop as humans, we have at one point contributed to others, therefore we can't be worthless, as children we brought joy to others just by being a child, and our masterful creation of a body just furthers the point of our value. This book goes further to create a hierarchy of the components that need to be put in place to restore a person to good health and reduce stress symptoms beginning from the foundation: a spiritual foundation, self-esteem skills, unfinished grieving/trauma skills, depression/anxiety/anger skills, and stress management skills. This makes sense to me because I have suffered with social anxiety for half my life and learning how to cope with anxiety is not enough. I must fix the bottom portion of the hierarchy, which includes my self-esteem. This topic is only briefly described in one of the end chapters. The book mainly focuses on rebuilding self-esteem by employing CBT techniques.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

So practical, I LOVED it. Great perspective on what self esteem is - and how it can be built with practical activities and skill building.

[Martha Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book, it gives some awesome exercises to boost you up. I will continue to use this book and do the exercises.

[Luiza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is really a manual as the titled mentioned. Prepare yourself for homeworks, a serious process of learning, working and transforming. It would be nice to find some real exemples.

[Dumitru Moraru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aflând că Glenn Schiraldi a elaborat un program de management al stresului pentru angajații de la Pentagon, mi-am zis să-i dau o încercare. Am găsit multe exerciții bune pentru îmbunătățirea stimei de sine. Psihologul afirmă că omul are valoare imuabilă și nu depinde de factori externi. Mulți oameni se simt valoroși dacă obțin succese sau au mulți prieteni. Dar ce se întâmplă când omul experimentează eșecuri/pierde prieteni? Da, se consideră nevaloros. Iar aceasta e o convingere greșită. Practicând exercițiile din carte, cititorul va fi capabil să-și conștientizeze tiparele negative (exemplu: generalizare, gândul "totul sau nimic", autoblamarea, transformarea sentimentelor în adevăruri) și să le înlocuiască cu cele pozitive. De ce e important să avem stimă de sine sănătoasă? Pentru că pe baza acesteia vom lua decizii mai bune și respectiv, vom avea o viață mai bună.

[Matei Suica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pot sa imi imaginez ca ar aduce valoare unei persoane cu stima de sine scazuta dar ma indoiesc ca poate fi utila fara intrumare. Desi se vrea a fi practica, unele exercitii propuse sunt de-a dreptul ridicole: are un fel de exercitiu de meditatie imposibil de facut in timp ce … il citesti. Tabele peste tabele ca sa umple foile si o doza buna de bull shhht cu iubirea de sine. Mi-a fost recomandata de psiholog pentru partea cu analizarea gandurilor automate dar stiu sigur ca o sa ne amuzam impreuna discutant valoarea infinita si dragostea sacra 😅

Pe scurt, nu recomand decat in cazul in care simti ca ai probleme grave cu stima de sine si nu stii de unde sa o apuci ptr ca terapia e scumpa. Altfel, e o pierdere de timp mai mare decat un podcast de duzina

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book - very comprehensive. Has an absolutely fabulous section on unconditional worth. The author clearly comes from a Christian perspective, though the book is not. Though I would've wished for mention and more in the basis for our worth (God), this book also considers the spiritual element, which surprised me. I think both secular and Christian counselors (who aren't offended by the concept of self-esteem which I believe shares some common ground with a Christian view of persons) would find this book useful. Full of great exercises and has a 'softer' CBT feel to it than many that are out there.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

dinging it for the diet nonsense, friend almost died from starvation, gave herself a friggen heart attack at 31 from her food issues, I am intolerant of so called mental health professionals who continue to tie self worth to looks or weight. there are parts of this book I think are well done but hard to get past what I consider an absolute travesty at the beginning.

[James Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and found the reflection and other exercises very calming. It was comforting performing an inventory in such a non-judgement context, and helped to show me where I was already strong in self-advocacy and compassion. I am not unfamiliar with many of the concepts included in this book, particularly the exercise of preparing for how one might feel during an event and following up with reflection to develop a better mental model of enjoyment or stress. I do not feel that I learned a great deal of new information from this, but feel it is an excellent introduction and even with my past knowledge it was pleasant to read and remind myself of my strengths.

[Silvica MSI · Rating 5 out of 5]

O carte în care te (re)descoperi... cu fiecare pagină citită.
Începi să te apreciezi mai mult, să-ți iubești și să îți respecți corpul, să te gândești, să meditezi la origini, la cine ești de fapt? Stai față în față cu sinele tău din trecut, prezent, viitor!
"Gândește-te la ceea ce ai mai degrabă decât la ceea ce îți lipsește. Din lucrurile pe care le ai, alege-le pe cele mai bune și gândește-te apoi la cât de înflăcărat le-ai fi căutat dacă nu le-ai fi avut."

[Hemsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book dragged on in some parts, there were many informative sections that helped me gain a new perspective on self-esteem and what it means. I'm satisfied with this book overall and will be using the exercises mentioned in this book.


- I received this through a giveaway.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great therapy for a bargain.

[Latonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice refresher.

[Elizabeth Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains excellent tools for building emotional resilience and self-acceptance that I think anyone would find beneficial. If only this sort of curriculum was taught in school!

[Alis · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 ✨! This book really makes you work on yourself!!!

[Christopher E · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really got me started on a path to a sort of self-guided CBT. It's quite approachable, and not too flowery, but simplifies, identifies, and categorizes internal dialogue and thoughts. From there, it provides quite logical approaches and arguments to deal with those generalized categories of thoughts. It was through this book and on reflection that it occurred to me high self-esteem and low self-esteem (the rollercoaster I lived in breathed growing up) are each unhealthy, and the focus ought to be on developing a healthy self-esteem--which is to say, irrespective of external factors.

I didn't take advantage of the actual workbook portion, but instead created flashcards on my own. In time, I was quickly able to identify and contend with negative or unhelpful thinking, and eventually those automatic thoughts stop altogether, but I still find a little maintenance/practice to be helpful from time to time.

[Anastasia Bareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Два года я читала эту книгу. А точнее делала практики из неё. То подолгу забывала, то регулярно делала. Ценной её делает именно практика. Но так как практика заняла у меня так долго времени, то я сделала оценку на 4, я не была готова к такой долгой работе.

[Corbin Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guided self-love. Can’t go wrong with this bad boy.
92% of individuals struggling with mental health have an unhealthy and low level of self-esteem. Here’s a book that can help be a part of that solution 🙏🏽

[Fatima oday · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explained to me what self-esteem means
And how to build it
And how to maintain it
I consider it a must read for anyone wants to know more about this topic or want to build or develop their self esteem.
Thank you ^^

[V. F. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too bland and repetitive i.m.o.

[Cristhofer O · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got to page 110, learned nothing. But I truly believe this can help people who really suffer from living life in a negative way.

[John Turlockton · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of the exercises seem to be visualisations which in my experience and in the scientific literature I've read, do not work. Other big parts of the book seem to be based around just telling you that you're worthwhile. Thirdly the research papers that are cited in the book are very old, even for the time that this book was published, mostly from the 80s with some even from the 70s. The scientific consensus had changed a lot in that time and I wonder how relevant that material was in the 00s. The sudden references to a 'Higher Power' were also concerning, and unhelpful for anyone not in such a community.

It's unclear to me that the various strategies the book attempts to build self-esteem actually have an effect and the book certainly didn't convince that there was scientific backing for its ideas. Often there was no reference to scientific literature, or else only individual, outdated papers.

I would hope that there are better books out there now on self-esteem.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comments from a reader

This is an excellent resource for those with low self-esteem. It is I think a good read after you complete the book Self-Esteem by Dr. Matthew McKay. The one criticism I have of this workbook is that it does not do a good enough job of explaining that forgiveness is not required and is at times inappropriate.

[Lavender · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains some interesting information that could be useful for someone who has self esteem issues, including many exercises and journaling activities.

I won this book via Goodreads Giveaways.

[Tamzin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was life changing to me. The philosophy on self worth has changed my life, and if you have self worth issues (particularly if you are questioning why you have innate worth) this book may help you. I will keep this book and treasure it forever.

[Alyssa King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to buy this book in bulk and give it to everyone I know. If you’ve ever questioned your worth, felt down about where you are at in life, felt bad about how you look, played the comparison game- give this book a try.