Dawn Ascanio
Therapist + Therapeutic Coach
I Know Having a Trauma History Makes Everything in Your Life Harder.
Maybe you second-guess yourself constantly, question whether you’re good enough, or have a hard time trusting your own judgment. You may accomplish something and immediately focus on what you could have done better. A mistake can turn into hours of beating yourself up. A harsh inner critic may keep up a steady stream of negative self-talk, pointing out your flaws, comparing you to other people, or convincing you that you’re somehow falling short.
And even when other people see you as capable and successful, imposter syndrome can leave you wondering whether you really deserve to be where you are.
Living with that much self-doubt and self-criticism can make almost everything harder. Decisions become more difficult. Boundaries can feel harder to set. Challenges can feel heavier when you’re dealing with the situation itself and judging yourself for how you’re handling it.
And when you’re already struggling with anxiety, depression, stress, or a difficult period in your life, being hard on yourself can add another layer of pain. Over time, a persistent sense of unworthiness can wear you down and affect how you feel about yourself, your relationships, and the choices you make.
Build a Stronger Relationship With Yourself
You can develop a stronger, more supportive relationship with yourself. Therapy can help you loosen the grip of self-doubt and harsh self-judgment and build greater self-acceptance, self-compassion, and a deeper sense of your own worth.
How I Help
Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based approaches, and compassion-focused work, I’ll help you learn practical skills for noticing self-critical thoughts, beliefs, and self-talk, recognizing them as products of your mind, and choosing how much influence to give them. We can also learn to understand your inner critic differently, including the ways it may be trying to protect you, so you can respond to yourself with greater awareness and choice.
At the same time, we’ll actively strengthen a kinder and more accepting way of relating to yourself. With practice, self-compassion and self-kindness can begin to take root and become increasingly natural.
Benefits
This work can help you:
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Develop deeper self-worth and self-acceptance so your sense of yourself feels stronger and more stable.
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Trust yourself and stand up for yourself by recognizing your needs, values, and personal rights, including your right to be treated with fairness and respect.
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Free up mental and emotional bandwidth so more of your energy can go toward the people, experiences, and priorities that matter most to you.
This is deep work, and it’s also practical. I’ll give you tools, strategies, and skills you can practice between sessions to build these changes step by step. As your relationship with yourself becomes steadier and more supportive, life’s challenges can become easier to navigate.
What Sets Me Apart
What makes me uniquely qualified to help you with self-doubt and self-worth
Helping people overcome self-doubt and build a solid sense of self-worth is one of the areas of therapy I care most about. One of the most important things I’ve developed in my own life is self-compassion, which has led to a deep and lasting sense of self-acceptance.
To me, self-acceptance means that you’re still okay with yourself at the end of the day, even when you’ve made mistakes, struggled, or haven’t lived up to your own standards and expectations. Self-esteem and self-confidence naturally rise and fall depending on the day and what’s happening in our lives. Few of us feel good about ourselves or confident in our abilities every second of every day. A lasting sense of self-acceptance gives us a foundation to land on when life gets difficult, we fall short, or we disappoint someone else or ourselves.
From the foundation of acceptance, a deeper sense of self-worth can grow and support us as we navigate our lives.
Professional Experience
I bring nearly two decades of experience as a therapist to this work. My approach draws heavily from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), compassion-focused approaches, and mindfulness-based practices, which offer practical ways to work with self-judgment, a harsh inner critic, and deeply held beliefs that you aren’t good enough. I’ve found this combination of approaches especially helpful for working with self-doubt and developing a more compassionate, accepting relationship with yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why am I so hard on myself?
Many people have a harsh inner critic or find themselves being much harder on themselves than they would ever be on someone else. Our minds are very good at looking for problems, mistakes, and potential threats, partly because they’re trying to protect us and help us function well. Sometimes that protective system becomes overactive, and the result is a steady stream of self-judgment, negative self-talk, and thoughts about everything we should be doing better. Thoughts often show up automatically, and therapy can help you learn new ways to respond to them so they have less power over how you feel and what you do.
What causes low self-esteem or self-doubt?
Low self-esteem and self-doubt can develop for many reasons. Difficult childhood experiences, criticism, rejection, trauma, relationships, cultural expectations, and messages about what it means to be successful, likable, attractive, productive, or a “good” woman can all shape how we learn to see ourselves. Sometimes there’s an obvious source, and sometimes these beliefs develop gradually through many experiences over time.
What is imposter syndrome, and why do I feel like a fraud even when I’m doing well?
Can therapy help with self-doubt, low self-esteem, and imposter syndrome?
Imposter syndrome is a form of self-doubt in which you question whether you truly belong or deserve your accomplishments, even when there’s plenty of evidence that you’re capable. It can show up at work, in parenting, in relationships, or in almost any role that matters to you. Your inner critic may tell you that you’re somehow fooling people, that you aren’t good enough to be where you are, or that other people would judge you if they knew the “real” you. These thoughts can feel very convincing, especially when they connect with longstanding beliefs about your worth or abilities.
Yes. Therapy can help you understand the experiences and patterns that have shaped the way you see yourself while also giving you practical tools for responding differently to self-doubt and self-criticism. In our work, we can build self-compassion first, strengthen self-acceptance, and gradually develop a deeper and more stable sense of self-worth. Over time, that gives you a stronger foundation to return to when you make mistakes, struggle, disappoint yourself or someone else, or simply have a difficult day.