ABSTRACT
Being confident is really something of a mental attitude – people are as confident as they think they are. The challenge is to reorientate thinking in a more positive way. Life with little or no self-esteem is a very painful business. A person who lacks self-esteem will not be able to have most of their needs met. When a person rejects part of themself as unacceptable, it causes a great deal of pain. This, in turn, causes the person to avoid anything that might stimulate that pain of self-rejection. Having confidence and self-esteem are very important elements in interacting successfully in all situations and forming meaningful relationships. Being able to rebut and replace faulty thinking with more realistic and enabling statements is essential to avoid undermining confidence and self-esteem. Facilitators will be able to refer to other sessions for more details on some of the strategies outlined for helping to build confidence and self-esteem, such as assertiveness.
