18 pages: the book is as thick as the file is long. Move the pointer over it to turn it.
Self-Esteem Worksheets for Adults
The inner critic, shame, conditions of worth and self-compassion
Client worksheets, 18 pages, PDF, instant download.
On Etsy it is listed as “Self Esteem Worksheets for Adults, Inner Critic, Self Compassion, Self Worth, Shame and Guilt, Therapy Handouts for Counselors, PDF”. After payment the file is in your Etsy purchases, and Etsy emails you the download link.
Most self-esteem materials ask clients to think more positively about themselves. These fourteen worksheets start from the idea that low self-esteem is usually a relationship rather than a shortage of positive thoughts, a relationship with a critical voice that was once outside. They help the client meet that voice, ask whose it is and what it protects, tell shame from guilt, notice the conditions attached to their worth and slowly build a kinder way of being with themselves.
Abstract
Read the abstract
This pack of fourteen client worksheets addresses self-esteem in adults whose sense of worth is fragile, conditional or under constant internal attack. It approaches low self-esteem as an internalized relationship with a critical voice rather than as a deficit of positive thinking. Three strands inform it: psychoanalytic thinking on the inner critic and on self-worth as first conferred through being seen (Kohut's mirroring), research on contingent self-worth and self-compassion (Crocker, Neff, Gilbert), and the analysis of the demand (Carli and Paniccia), which reads many of the demands clients place on themselves as inherited from a context. The sheets map where self-esteem is fragile, explore the critic's voice, origins, function and demands, distinguish shame from guilt, examine conditions of worth and support a kinder witness, accurate mirrors, fairer comparison and small acts of self-respect.
Who it's for
Therapists and counselors working with adult clients who live under a harsh inner critic, with chronic shame or with worth that depends on performance and approval.
Contents
- For the therapist: how to use the pack
- 01 What self-esteem is, and isn't
- 02 Where my self-esteem is fragile
- 03 Meet the inner critic
- 04 Whose voice is it?
- 05 What the critic is trying to do
- 06 The demands I make on myself
- 07 Shame or guilt?
- 08 "I'm OK only if…"
- 09 Evidence I don't count
- 10 A kinder witness
- 11 Mirrors
- 12 The comparison trap
- 13 Small acts of self-respect
- 14 My self-worth statement
- Sources and further reading
Format and license
- Format
- PDF, 18 pages
- Delivery
- Instant download from your Etsy account once payment clears
- License
- For one therapist's own clinical practice; worksheets may be printed for your clients
- Status
- Educational material for clinicians, not a validated instrument and not clinical advice
Sale prices belong to the shop's autumn opening offer, 30% off until November 10. Prices are in US dollars as shown on Etsy on October 22, 2026. Etsy shows the current price in your currency, and any tax, before you pay.
