Do you work in a health care profession, or in a public facing role? It is likely that you will encounter patients or service users with low self-esteem and lack of confidence. You may find that some patients or service users struggle to feel good about themselves, and find it hard to make changes that positively impact their health and wellbeing. Would you like to know more about where low self-esteem comes from? Are you interested in learning more about how you can support and safely challenge their negative self-beliefs?

How will this course help me?

This course aims to help you to work more effectively with your patients by supporting them in building enhanced self-esteem and confidence.  This can be highly valuable in enabling patients to respond well to treatment and to more effectively manage their own recovery and wellbeing. You will learn about some of the main causes of low self-esteem, what it means for your patients and service users, and how you can help within the scope of your role.

The course has been created by the National Counselling Society in response to calls from various healthcare practitioners across the sector – midwives, nurses, domiciliary care workers, physiotherapists to name but a few – for access to low-cost, convenient, high-quality courses in Counselling Skills and related subjects. In addition to meeting CPD requirements, we were asked to provide training that healthcare practitioners could use to feel more confident and prepared in their day-to-day role.

Standards & Certification

This course has been certified by CPD UK – the CPD Certification Service. You can find our certificate by clicking here.
This course is intended to be suitable for the target audience defined in Tier 1 of the Mental Health Core Skills Education and Training Framework commissioned and funded by the Department of Health and developed in collaboration by Skills for Health, Skills for Care and Health Education England (HEE).

It will be valuable for support staff who may interact with those affected by mental health issues and therefore need to have an awareness and understanding of mental health issues.  It can help with establishing positive relationships with individuals who have mental health problems.

The Framework can be found here:

http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/services/item/525-mental-health-download

Learning Outcomes & Course Requirements

By the end of the course you will be able to:

1. Explain various ways of understanding self-esteem
2. Explain how issues of self-esteem and confidence are relevant to healthcare
3. Review a range of support skills
4. Evaluate how these skills can be used in your professional healthcare context
5. Apply learning appropriately to your own CPD requirements

Course Content:

• Understanding self-esteem and confidence
• The Inferiority Complex
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Self-esteem and Personality
• Jung’s Theory of Personality
• Definitions
• Self-esteem, gender and age
• Self-esteem and culture
• Measuring self-esteem
• Low self-esteem and lack of confidence
• Low self-esteem and health
• Chronic Illness & Self-esteem issues
• Emotional support and patient care
• Skills and Techniques
• Showing understanding
• Effective Communication
• Body Language
• Identifying and challenging negative beliefs
• Understanding Negative Thinking
• Practical Help with Negative Thinking

Further Information

This course is aimed at healthcare professionals from a range of backgrounds.

Topics covered by the course include, but are not limited to: understanding self-esteem and confidence; self-esteem and personality; self-esteem and upbringing; self-esteem, gender and age; self-esteem and culture; low self-esteem and health; chronic illness and self-esteem issues, and identifying and challenging negative beliefs.

The examples and activities given in the course are directly related to the healthcare profession, and will guide participants to think about how best to use relevant skills within their roles.

The course requires self-directed learning. You do not need to purchase any books or journals to complete this course, but there is a section on recommended reading at the end of the course should you wish to continue learning more.

Many of the skills and ideas presented in this course are used by professional counsellors and other talking therapists. Please be aware that this course is not designed to train you to become a counsellor or the sole provider of mental health support for your patients, but to give you the skills and tools to support them within your existing role alongside a qualified mental health professional where required.

To find out more about becoming a professional Counsellor, please visit the National Counselling Society website, where you can find Accredited training courses in your area.

Upon completion of this course you will be awarded a certificate for 10 CPD hours.