Self Crush Self-Esteem Group gives girls and women confidence building tools
By Shelley Widhalm
The Surveyor
The negative messages girls and women tell themselves don’t have to be a permanent reality.
Heather Meyer, licensed professional counselor and owner of Victory Counseling Services, Ltd., in Berthoud, will give girls and women the tools they need to change those messages to positive, self-esteem-building affirmations. She will offer these tools through her Self Crush Self-Esteem Group, offered in April for the first time through her private practice.
“It’s human nature to hold onto the negative messages and not so much the positive,” said Meyer, who lives in the Berthoud area. “It’s those negative messages told to us at an early age that stick with us, and we hold onto that. We need to learn how to get out of the negative framing patterns, so we can reframe what people tell us.”
Meyer began offering the self-esteem group a year ago through the Neurofeedback Clinic of Northern Colorado in Fort Collins, where she has worked for more than two years as a behavioral therapist and neurofeedback specialist. She is moving the group to her office at 310 Mountain Ave., Ste. D, and will offer separate sessions for girls and women. Meyer began Victory Counseling Services a year ago to provide individual counseling for adults and children, play therapy, group therapy, and life coaching, and initially worked out of Grace Place before moving to her own location three months ago.
She developed the curriculum for the self-esteem group after attending a seminar about the negative messages girls and women tell themselves about themselves. She teaches them how to identify those messages, ask where they come from, and challenge and reframe them to build their self-esteem and gain a more positive perspective about who they are.
“We turn the negative messages into positive messages through positive self-affirmation,” Meyer said. “They’re learning how to love themselves the way they are.”
The group meets for six weeks with each session building off the previous session. Every week there is a different activity with time for journaling and reflection and a homework assignment.
“The journaling helps them to acknowledge how far they’ve come,” Meyer said. “Journaling is a good way to process things.”
During the first session Meyer will address how difficult it is for girls and women to acknowledge their positive attributes. In the following five sessions group members will take a journey through identifying negative messages they’ve internalized and think about where those came from, look at those messages and challenge their validity, engage in self-affirmation and finally acknowledge personal successes through the process and review from the first session until the last the changes and growth they’ve made along the way.
Meyer explained the idea is that girls and women will see their value and self-worth and have gained self-esteem.
“Sometimes when you’re struggle with self-esteem, it can be a very lonely place,” Meyer said. “It increases their worth and their value, and they see they’re not alone struggling with self-esteem.”
Meyer plans to offer the group once a quarter. The cost is $20 a session or $100 for all six sessions if paid up front.
For girls age 10-17, the group will meet on Tuesdays starting April 16 to May 21 from 5:15-6:15 p.m. and the women’s group for those 18 and older will meet Wednesdays beginning April 17 to May 22 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. The group will ideally have between six to 10 participants per session.
For details, visit www.victorycounselingservices.org or contact Meyer at [email protected] or 719-480-1525.
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