Self Esteem Archives - Kathleen Hassan

You Are Here! But Where Do You Want to Be?

You are here! You know that map at the mall? The one you look at when you're trying to find Forever 21? In order to get there you have to know where you're coming from. It's the same thing in life. You can't get where you're going until you know the starting point. Last week was the final session of my brand new pilot program called Buried Treasure: A Girl's Guide to Discovering Inner Strength and Confidence. It's a social emotional curriculum that helps girls deal with their feelings and relationships more effectively so they can navigate the onslaught of pop culture that constantly sets them up for feeling like they're not good enough. This particular program was a six-week after school program, but will be adapted for a weekend retreat experience as well. The Buried Treasure™ curriculum was developed to help girls explore their place in the world, to [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-06-05T15:50:09-05:00 June 5th, 2017|

One More Trip to the Mall is Not Going to Solve Your Daughter’s Self-Esteem Problem

“The only time my daughter wants to hang out with me is when it involves spending money and most often that means another trip to the mall.” Sound familiar? I've heard this over and over again from so many moms who keep caving in and resorting to the only strategy that seems to work. But does it really? There’s even a book, dedicated to beleaguered parents of teens called, “Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall.!” It may sound amusingly tongue in cheek, but the reality is that this is an all too familiar scenario for most mothers of teen girls. One mother, who’s daughter suffers from body anxiety and who was having full blown panic attacks each morning as she was getting dressed for school, readily admitted, “My current solution of ‘let’s go shopping’ has become an exhausting, monotonous, vicious [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T11:34:37-05:00 October 3rd, 2016|

I Got My Daughter Back!

“I got my daughter back!” Those are the very words I heard this week from a client who hired me to coach her daughter that had lost her way and was in crisis. Nothing brings me more joy than to see a girl begin to really understand her own worth and power while helping both the mother and daughter learn how to communicate more effectively while creating a relationship based on trust and mutual respect. I can’t think of a more perfect Mother’s Day gift than this. Today I am honoring and celebrating this most sacred relationship and over the next few months will be sharing some of the strategies I used to coach this amazing turnaround. Just two months ago, I received an email from a distraught mother, begging for help. Her fifteen year old daughter had been sneaking out of the house and getting into all kinds of [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T11:48:29-05:00 May 8th, 2016|

I Am Enough – free meditation podcast

You are more than enough! You are awesome!!

By Kathleen| 2019-04-27T12:10:25-05:00 April 30th, 2016|

Raising Teen Girls in a Social Media World

Social media is everywhere and a huge part of how teens communicate. By the time you finish reading this article, how likely are you to have received a text from your teen? A 2012 Common Sense Media study found that 75 percent of teens have a profile on a social networking site like Facebook; 68 percent text every day and 23 percent use at least two types of social media every day. Those are some pretty significant statistics. But just because it’s common, doesn’t mean it’s good. The same study found that: 57 percent of girls sometimes feel left out after seeing photos of others online 45 percent of girls are concerned about other people posting photos of them 28 percent of girls have edited photos of themselves before posting them Like Dickens’ famous line from A Tale of Two Cities, technology has created both both the best of times [...]

By Kathleen| 2014-05-07T20:11:55-05:00 May 7th, 2014|

I’m Not Much – But I’m All I Think About: The Selfie Phenomenon

There's a war going on and the battlefield is in our own mind. We are in a perpetual state of conflict. Paradoxically, like an ego maniac with an inferiority complex... We desperately want to be loved and yet we hate ourselves. We suffer from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and yet we isolate. We want to be treated with respect and tolerance and yet we criticize and judge others. And I say "we" because I feel and act that way sometimes too. (and don't even think about denying the fact that you do too!!) All of these conflicted thoughts, feelings and actions - actions that completely contradict what we say we want - are amplified and magnified through social media. The "Selfie" Phenomenon Currently, the hashtag #selfie yields more than 31 million hits on Instagram. The Oxford English Dictionary named selfie Word of the Year and defines it as "a [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T12:37:38-05:00 December 17th, 2013|

Mothers and Daughters: What Happened to My Little Girl?

In my 15 plus years of working with girls and coaching mothers and daughters, I have observed, and have seen it played out over and over again, this deep desire to be acknowledged and to be heard. This morning, while listening to Deepak Chopra's 21 day Meditation Challenge, Oprah, in her introduction to the meditation, gave her #! lesson that she has learned in life. I hit the pause button, grabbed my pen and jotted down her quote (below) because when I heard it, I knew it in my core to be the truth. I started thinking about all the mothers and daughters that I've coached over the years, and felt a nudge from the Universe to write about this deep need to be noticed and appreciated. “If there is one lesson I have to say I’ve learned during my time on this planet it is this: the number one [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T12:43:00-05:00 August 18th, 2013|

Camera Shy: Don’t Look At Me vs. Selfies: Like Me

Let's face it. We live in a mixed up world of extremes. We want to stand out and fit in. We want to be part of the crowd and yet we isolate and feel all alone. We want to be loved and yet we hate ourselves. We yell, "Don't look at me" and we post selfies all over social media and encourage the world to "like" us, subscribe and share. All of this can reek havoc on self-esteem and can cause all kinds of issues that stem from getting validation externally instead of finding power and worth from within. Self-esteem is basically how we perceive ourselves. It is based on our self-worth, competency or how well we achieve. In part, we get a sense of how successful, talented and proficient we are by comparing ourselves to others. In today’s digital world, the playground on which we make that comparison is [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T12:45:50-05:00 August 10th, 2013|

Finding the Beauty Within

Real Self-Confidence Comes From Within There is nothing more beautiful than a confident woman! You can have perfect face, body, car, house and still not feel confident. It's easy to focus on everything that's wrong in the world and even easier to list all the things we don't like about ourselves. Remember - confidence and high self-esteem don’t come from false praise or taking the easy way out. Real confidence comes from hard work and from learning how to deal with life’s challenges. As a Bostonian, the horrific events at the Boston Marathon hit me hard. I knew friends and family members who had been running or watching the race and one of my son’s friends was injured in the blast. It’s been two weeks since the bombings, but the images of the blast and the media frenzy of the ensuing manhunt left so many people feeling scared and vulnerable. [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T12:54:09-05:00 May 1st, 2013|

Top Ten Reasons to Hire a Life Coach for Your Daughter

1. Girls need someone to talk to besides their parents and friends. As girls maneuver their way through relationships, their BFF one day can very often become their Frenemy the next. Having a coach who not only listens, but helps girls figure out their own next, best move is incredibly empowering and reassuring. 2. Every girl wants to be attractive and a good coach will help her understand that like a magnet, she can attract whatever it is that she really wants. But girls often confuse the outside external stuff with the inner force of attraction. It always comes from within. 3. Girls are often afraid to speak up and they care way too much about what everyone else thinks. Not only will a good coach help her to correctly identify her feelings and emotions, but will also help her find her voice and speak her truth about what she [...]

By Kathleen| 2017-03-07T13:36:10-05:00 March 19th, 2013|