Low Self-Esteem worksheets
8 evidence-based resources for Low Self-Esteem. Preview any worksheet, then assign it to a client as an interactive digital worksheet.
Written by Tarun Vermani, Trainee Clinical Psychologist Last reviewed
Low self-esteem runs across presentations rather than sitting inside one, and this collection follows Fennell's cognitive model of it (1997, 1999): early experience yields a global negative bottom line; rules for living hold it at bay; and when a rule is threatened, an anxious anticipatory cycle and a self-critical confirmatory cycle each return evidence that the bottom line was right. The Low Self-Esteem Formulation (Fennell) builds that longitudinal picture over several sessions.
Work then runs down both cycles. The Self-Criticism Monitoring Record catches the critical voice in the moment, the Strengths & Qualities Record gathers the positive data the bottom line filters out, and Challenging Guilt and Self-Criticism brings a compassion-focused stance to the shame that usually travels with it. Screen for risk as you go: low self-esteem travels with depression and hopelessness often enough that it belongs in the assessment rather than as an afterthought. Fennell's model is free to explore as an interactive, referenced diagram.
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Showing 8 of 8 resources
Low Self-Esteem
Low Self-Esteem Formulation (Fennell)
A longitudinal formulation based on Fennell's cognitive model of low self-esteem — mapping how early experiences created a negative bottom line that is maintained by biased processing and unhelpful rules.
Low Self-Esteem
Self-Compassion Worksheet
Practise responding to yourself with the same kindness you would offer a friend — challenging the self-critical voice with compassion.
Low Self-Esteem
Low Self-Esteem Formulation
Map out how early experiences led to negative core beliefs and the rules, triggers, and maintenance cycles that keep low self-esteem going.
Low Self-Esteem
Strengths & Qualities Record
Build a catalogue of your strengths, qualities, and achievements — evidence that doesn't fit the negative bottom line.
Low Self-Esteem
Challenging Guilt and Self-Criticism
A compassion-focused cognitive worksheet for working with guilt and harsh self-critical thoughts. It guides you to examine a self-critical or guilt-laden thought, weigh the evidence fairly, take an honest look at how much was truly within your control, and find a kinder, more balanced perspective - the kind you would offer a good friend.
Low Self-Esteem
Self-Criticism Monitoring Record
A diary for catching your inner critic in the moment - noticing what it says, the tone it uses, and the effect it has on you. This is about watching the critic with curiosity, before working on changing it.
Low Self-Esteem
Social Comparison and Self-Worth
A plain-language explainer on why comparing ourselves to others is normal, how it can quietly feed low self-worth, especially on social media, and what helps.
Low Self-Esteem
What Keeps Low Self-Esteem Going?
A maintenance-cycle explainer on how a deep belief like I am not good enough stays alive through a biased filter, anxious predictions, self-criticism and avoidance, and how the cycle breaks.
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Request a worksheetFrequently asked questions
Which model do these low self-esteem worksheets follow?
Fennell's cognitive model (1997, 1999): early experience produces a global negative bottom line about the self, rules for living develop to keep it out of view, and when a rule is threatened the anxious anticipatory cycle and the self-critical confirmatory cycle each deliver evidence that appears to confirm the bottom line.
Should I challenge the bottom line directly?
Usually not at first. Going at a global self-belief early tends to feel invalidating and can entrench it, and clients discount disconfirming evidence readily. Most clinicians work through the rules for living and the two maintaining cycles, accumulating positive data over weeks, before addressing the bottom line itself.
Is low self-esteem treated as a diagnosis here?
No — it is treated transdiagnostically, as a maintaining process that appears alongside depression, social anxiety, eating difficulties and much else, and that is often worth formulating in its own right. These worksheets sit alongside a disorder-specific protocol rather than competing with one.
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