Summit Counselling Services — Specialty
Self-Compassion & Self-EsteemThe most important relationship you'll ever have is the one with yourself.
How you talk to yourself, how you respond to your own mistakes, and how much you believe you deserve care — these things shape everything. Therapy builds a kinder, more honest relationship with yourself.
About This Work
What you say to yourself matters more than you think.
Most of us would never speak to a friend the way we speak to ourselves. The relentless criticism, the impossibly high standards, the quiet belief that we are somehow not quite enough — these are so familiar they feel like facts rather than patterns. They are patterns. And they can be changed.
Self-esteem is not about thinking you're perfect. It's not about positive affirmations that don't quite land. It's about developing a stable, grounded sense of your own worth — one that doesn't depend on external achievement, other people's approval, or how well a particular day went. That kind of self-worth is built in therapy, slowly and honestly, through understanding where these beliefs came from and what it would mean to hold yourself differently.
Self-compassion is the practice of treating yourself with the same care you'd offer someone you love — particularly when you're struggling, failing, or simply human. Research by Dr. Kristin Neff and others has shown that self-compassion is a stronger predictor of mental health and wellbeing than self-esteem alone — and that it's a skill that can be developed at any age, regardless of how long the inner critic has been running the show.
"Self-compassion isn't self-indulgence. It's the foundation that makes everything else possible — including the capacity to keep trying after you fall short."
Signs this work might be for you
- You hold yourself to standards you would never apply to others
- You find it hard to accept compliments or acknowledge your own achievements
- Mistakes feel catastrophic rather than instructive
- You believe, on some level, that you are fundamentally flawed
- You struggle to set limits without guilt or anxiety
- Your self-worth depends heavily on productivity, achievement, or others' approval
- You find it genuinely difficult to ask for help or support
- You compare yourself to others constantly and come up short
- You minimize your own pain or tell yourself you should be over things faster
- You know intellectually that you're doing okay, but you don't feel it
- Perfectionism is exhausting you — but you can't seem to stop
- Your inner critic is louder and more constant than you'd like
What We Work On
The building blocks of a healthier relationship with yourself
Self-compassion and self-esteem work touches several interconnected areas — each one reinforcing the others as the work deepens.
The Inner Critic
Most people have an inner critic — a voice that evaluates, compares, and finds fault. For some it's a background hum; for others it's relentless. Therapy helps you understand where that voice came from, what it's trying to do, and how to develop a different internal relationship — one with more perspective and less cruelty.
Shame & Guilt
Guilt says "I did something bad." Shame says "I am bad." They feel similar but function very differently — and shame, in particular, is one of the most corrosive forces in mental health. Therapy helps you identify shame, understand its roots, and begin to dismantle the belief that you are somehow fundamentally inadequate.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism is not high standards — it's the belief that your worth depends on flawless performance. It drives exhaustion, procrastination, and an inability to enjoy what you achieve because the bar keeps moving. Therapy addresses the anxiety and self-worth issues underneath perfectionism, not just the behaviour on top.
Self-Worth & Identity
Many people build their sense of worth on unstable foundations — achievement, appearance, productivity, other people's approval. Therapy helps you identify those foundations and begin building something more stable: a sense of self that doesn't collapse when circumstances change or when you fall short.
Boundaries & Self-Respect
The ability to set limits — in relationships, at work, with your own time and energy — requires a belief that your needs matter. Many people who struggle with limits also struggle with self-worth. As one grows, so does the other. Therapy builds both together.
Self-Compassion Practices
Drawing on Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) and the research of Dr. Kristin Neff, therapy builds practical self-compassion skills — including how to be present with your own suffering, how to recognize shared humanity rather than isolation, and how to speak to yourself with the warmth you'd offer a good friend.
Our Approach
Not self-improvement. Self-understanding.
The goal of this work is not to become a different person — it's to develop a more honest, more compassionate relationship with the person you already are. That distinction matters. Self-improvement culture often reinforces the very belief that drives low self-esteem: that you are not enough as you are and need to be fixed.
Our therapists approach this work with genuine curiosity about your experience — where these patterns came from, what they protected you from, and what it would mean to hold yourself differently now. The work is often tender. It is almost always meaningful. And it ripples outward into every other area of your life.
Sessions are available in person at our Brewery District, St. Albert, and Windermere locations, and virtually for clients anywhere in Alberta.
What Shifts
What building self-compassion actually looks like
The changes that come from this work are often quieter than people expect — and more significant.
A Quieter Inner Critic
Not silent — but less constant, less cruel, and less in charge. You develop the capacity to notice the critical voice without being fully captured by it, and to respond to it with something more balanced and kind.
More Stability in Difficult Moments
When things go wrong — when you make a mistake, face rejection, or fall short — the ground doesn't disappear beneath you. Self-compassion builds the capacity to be with difficulty without it becoming catastrophic.
Genuine Limits
The ability to say no — and mean it — without hours of guilt and second-guessing. Limits that come from self-respect rather than self-protection feel different, and they hold better.
Less Dependent on External Validation
You begin to need other people's approval a little less — not because you stop caring about relationships, but because your sense of worth no longer lives entirely in someone else's hands.
Improved Relationships
How you relate to others is shaped by how you relate to yourself. As the inner relationship changes, so do the outer ones — often in ways that surprise people with how natural the shift feels.
A Sense of Enoughness
Not complacency. Not the absence of ambition. Just the quiet, settled sense that you are enough — right now, as you are — while still caring about growth. That combination is the goal.
Therapeutic Approaches
How our therapists work
Our therapists draw on a range of evidence-based approaches — each particularly well-suited to different aspects of self-compassion and self-esteem work.
Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC)
Based on the research of Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Christopher Germer, MSC is an evidence-based programme that builds self-compassion through mindfulness, common humanity, and self-kindness practices. Several of our therapists have specific training in this approach.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT identifies the specific thought patterns — the all-or-nothing thinking, the catastrophizing, the "should" statements — that underpin low self-esteem and perfectionism. It builds more accurate, flexible ways of evaluating yourself and your experience.
Attachment Therapy
Low self-esteem and self-compassion difficulties are often rooted in early experiences — the messages received about worth and belonging in childhood. Attachment-based work explores those roots and begins to build something more secure from the inside out.
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT works with the emotional experience of shame, self-criticism, and unworthiness at a felt level — not just cognitively. Accessing and transforming the core emotional experience produces deep, lasting change that thinking alone often can't reach.
EMDR
When low self-esteem or shame is connected to specific traumatic experiences — early rejection, abuse, humiliation, or a family environment that communicated inadequacy — EMDR processes those experiences and reduces their ongoing charge in the present.
Positive Psychology & Mindfulness
Mindfulness builds the capacity to notice self-critical thoughts without being swept away by them. Positive psychology approaches help identify strengths, values, and what's already working — building a more balanced picture of who you are.
Book a Session
Find us in Edmonton, St. Albert & Windermere
Self-compassion and self-esteem therapy is available in person at all three Summit locations, with virtual sessions available across Alberta.
Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ (Oliver)
Grandin Plaza, 2nd Floor
Edmonton, AB
Common Questions
Self-compassion therapy — your questions answered
Our Therapists
Therapists specializing in self-compassion & self-esteem
The clinicians below specialize in self-compassion and self-esteem work. Start with a free 15-minute consultation — no commitment, just a conversation about fit.
Related Support
Other areas we work with
Start building a better relationship with yourself.
Your first consultation is free — no commitment, no pressure. Just a conversation about where you are and whether we're the right fit.
We acknowledge that our practice is located in Treaty 6 territory, on the traditional lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Métis, and Nakota Sioux Peoples, including our Brewery District office in Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ (Oliver). We recognize that healing and reconciliation is a responsibility shared by all.