Social Enterprise with raiSE | Location: 195 Pearl's Hill Terrace #02-60 (MRT: Chinatown)
Self-esteem & Core beliefs
Developmental Psychotherapy
Self-esteem & Core beliefs
Restructuring Developmental Identity Patterns
Identity-level psychotherapy focused on restructuring deeply held beliefs about worth, adequacy and belonging. Integrates cognitive, schema and trauma-informed approaches to support lasting internal stability.​
​
Format & Structure
​
Session Duration
60-90 minutes
Session Fee
SGD 150 per session
​
This is a psychotherapeutic 8-session programme.
.
​​
What this is
Self-esteem is not confidence.
It is the internalised belief about who you are at your core.​
Deeply held core beliefs shape how we interpret experiences, relationships and failure. These beliefs form early and become organising principles of identity.
​
Examples include:
“I am not enough.”
“I am defective.”
“I must perform to be valued.”
“If I am fully seen, I will be rejected.”
Building on Beck’s work, Judith Beck emphasised that automatic thoughts and emotional reactions are driven by these deeper cognitive structures.
Jeffrey Young’s Schema Therapy further demonstrated that when core emotional needs are inconsistently met in childhood, enduring patterns — known as Early Maladaptive Schemas — can develop. These often cluster around themes such as:
Defectiveness and shame
Emotional deprivation
Failure
Subjugation
Unrelenting standards
Approval-seeking
These are not character flaws.
They are adaptive conclusions formed within particular developmental environments.Over time, they shape identity, ambition, self-criticism and relational expectations.
In this developmental psychotherapy programme, the work we do will integrate:​
​
-
Cognitive restructuring
-
Schema identification and mapping
-
Emotional processing of shame-based beliefs
-
Somatic awareness of embodied identity states
-
Experiential techniques to access emotional memory
-
Relational processing within the therapeutic relationship
As schema research demonstrates, beliefs are maintained not only by thoughts, but by coping styles.
Young identified three primary coping responses:
-
Surrender (submitting to the belief)
-
Avoidance (evading situations that activate it)
-
Overcompensation (counteracting it rigidly through achievement or control)
Many high-functioning adults present in overcompensation - externally competent, internally inadequate.
The aim is not to install positive beliefs. It is to increase flexibility, coherence and internal stability within your identity structure.
​
Facilitated by Lou
Trauma-informed Psychotherapist & Clinical Hypnotherapist​
Lou is a trauma-informed psychotherapist who believes that real healing happens when insight is embodied, not just understood. Her approach goes beyond talk therapy, integrating neuroscience, evidence-based modalities, and experiential work that engages both the mind and body.
Core areas explored
-
Performance-based worth
-
Chronic self-criticism
-
Perfectionism and unrelenting standards
-
Impostor patterns
-
Shame identity
-
Approval dependence
-
Fear of exposure
-
Subtle self-sabotage
We examine how these beliefs activate under stress and how they influence decision-making, relationships and self-perception.
​
Outcome
Research across cognitive and schema-based therapies shows that identity beliefs are not fixed traits. They are adaptive constructions that can be revised through reflective integration and corrective experience.
This work supports:
-
A stable sense of inherent worth
-
Reduced internal criticism
-
Greater congruence between self and behaviour
-
Freedom from compulsive proving
-
Clearer decision-making aligned with authentic values
