Helping your teen overcome low self-esteem
Life coach, Anthony Spanjaard, shares advice on how parents can help children suffering from low self-esteem.
Every parent wants to raise confident kids. Children need to have good self-esteem to thrive in life and to be confident in their relationships with others.
So, what do you do when your child suffers from low self-esteem?
Life coach Anthony Spanjaard, who has more than ten years’ experience as a coach, says parents should avoid blaming themselves if this is the case.
“Sometimes even the most perfect, loving environments will still have teens questioning their identity and worth and how they fit into this world,” he says.
In order to help children overcome low self-esteem, Anthony says the first thing parents need to do is establish a line of communication. He says often children are afraid of sharing what is wrong or bothering them.
“Establishing a clear and honest line of communication between parent (mom or dad) and teen is paramount in getting through many of the inevitable challenges which will occur,” says Anthony.
Other things parents can do to help their children overcome low self-esteem are:
- Compliment your children. A compliment goes a long way and can boost confidence. But, be careful not to over compliment or be insincere about your compliments, because that will negatively affect your child.
- Assure them of your unconditional love. Sometimes children might doubt their parent’s love, especially when they are battling with eternal issues or feeling they aren’t good enough. Let your children know your love for them is
unconditional.
- Tell them words of affirmation. Let your children know that they are special, important and gifted.
- Lead by example. Children learn by watching, so you need to be confident in order to model confidence to your children.
- Get a professional or outsider to help. Anthony says, "sometimes helping requires just getting someone with an outside perspective to assist in passing on tools to deal with the anxiety or to have someone with a particular skillset
engage with the teen for a short period of time to set things straight and assist them with establishing some certainty and identity.”
Having originally come from a corporate background and having sat on the board of 2 small JSE listed companies, Anthony Spanjaard has thousands of hours of results coaching experience with teens, families and schools. He continues to run his results coaching practice with 80% of his clients being teens and schools and 20% being
adults and execs of small companies. Anthony also works in partnership with a range of professionals in the clinical psychology and research psychology space.
For more information or to get in contact email him on [email protected].