Folsom · Rancho Cordova · Sacramento · California Telehealth
Self-esteem therapy in Folsom, Rancho Cordova, and across California.
Self-esteem therapy with Amanda McBee, LMFT, is therapy for adults who are managing the outside of their lives well while feeling exhausted and second-guessing themselves underneath it, offered in person in Rancho Cordova and by telehealth across California.
A lot of the people I work with are managing the outside of their lives well and feeling exhausted and second-guessing themselves underneath it. Anxiety, codependency, or difficult relationship patterns leave them looking after everyone else first, apologizing before asking, and slowly losing the thread of what they actually want. This is therapy for the work of finding your way back to who you are, in Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, and across California by telehealth.
Amanda McBee, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
It is a no-pressure conversation to see if we are a good fit.
What it often looks like
Holding it together in a way that is not going to keep working.
The people I work with often describe some version of this: managing a lot on the outside while feeling stretched thin underneath it. Second-guessing yourself in rooms where you used to feel sure. Looking after everyone else first and being unable to name what you want when it is your turn. The people-pleasing that has you apologizing before you ask for anything. A quiet sense that the way you have been holding yourself together is not going to keep working.
Many of them name some combination of anxiety, codependency, or difficult relationship patterns. Those words are how the work is already described on my profile, and they are the cluster I most often see. Self-esteem, life transitions, and the coping habits we built to get through earlier seasons usually show up alongside them.
How we work on it
Not louder positive self-talk, but the pattern underneath it.
The work is integrative and evidence-based. The therapy is conversational by default, and the methods come in as the work calls for them. Cognitive behavioral work for the thinking patterns that keep self-criticism running on a loop. Schema therapy for the long-running templates from earlier seasons of life that still shape how you treat yourself now. EMDR or Brainspotting when the self-worth wounds are trauma-rooted. Psychodynamic and family-systems work for the relationship and family-of-origin layer. A person-centered and strength-based baseline throughout.
We are after something steadier than a more confident performance. We look at the pattern that has you second-guessing yourself in the first place, so the way you treat yourself stops being a translation of how you learned to survive.
When the pattern shows up in your relationships
Most of the time, this work surfaces inside a relationship: a partner, your own parents, an adult child, a close friend, a workplace dynamic. Codependency is one of the specialties I name on my profile, and many of the people I see would describe themselves that way. Others would not. The work is not about labeling who you are, it is about looking at the pattern that keeps you carrying more than you can hold and making yourself small to keep the relationship comfortable. It shows up in caregiving too, in the guilt and the quiet resentment of trying to set a boundary with a parent while you are the one taking care of them. From there we look at what it would mean to take up the space your own life actually needs.
When the work might also need something else
What looks like a self-worth or self-criticism pattern can sometimes be part of a different clinical picture. When the wounds are trauma-rooted (childhood emotional neglect, attachment trauma, complex post-traumatic stress), longer-term therapy is usually the right level of care, and some readers will benefit from a trauma specialist, a psychiatric evaluation, or group work alongside individual therapy. When the picture includes a depressive episode (not just self-criticism, but a loss of pleasure, hopelessness, or intrusive thoughts of worthlessness), a psychiatric evaluation is worth getting in addition to therapy. If substance use is part of the picture, that is outside my scope of practice; a referral to a specialist is the right next step.
If you are in crisis, please call 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or 911.
Related areas of work
Common questions
Common questions about self-esteem therapy.
Can therapy actually change how I feel about myself?
It can, and not in the way the self-help shelf tends to promise. We are not coaching you into cheerier affirmations. We are looking at the pattern that has you second-guessing yourself in the first place, so the way you treat yourself comes from a different place than the one you have been operating from.
Is this codependency therapy?
Codependency is one of the specialties listed on my profile, and many of the people I work with would describe themselves that way. Others would not. The work on this page is the broader pattern that shows up inside codependency and outside of it: managing on the outside, exhausted and second-guessing yourself, and trying to make yourself small to keep things comfortable.
What if my self-worth issues are tied to anxiety, parenting, or a hard relationship?
That is usually the shape of it. Anxiety, codependency, and difficult relationship patterns is the cluster I most often see, and they tend to run together. The work pays attention to all of those layers, plus the family-of-origin patterns that shaped them, rather than treating one of them as the whole story.
Can we meet online?
Yes. I see clients in person at my office in Rancho Cordova and by telehealth across California.
Do you take insurance?
I am out-of-network. I provide superbills you can submit for possible out-of-network reimbursement, depending on your plan.
What is self-esteem therapy?
Self-esteem therapy is work that looks at the pattern underneath how you treat yourself, the second-guessing, the people-pleasing, the making yourself small, rather than coaching you into louder positive self-talk. With me it is integrative and conversational, drawing on cognitive behavioral, schema, and family-systems work as the work calls for them. I offer it in person in Rancho Cordova and by telehealth across California.
Practical details
In person
11121 Sun Center Drive, Suite F1, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
Telehealth
Available to clients located anywhere in California, by secure video.
Service area
Sacramento Metro East, including Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Roseville, El Dorado Hills, and Cameron Park for in-person sessions. California-wide by video.
Fees
$170 per 50-minute session. A limited number of sliding-scale spots are available, please ask.
Take the first step
Finding your way back to who you are.
The first conversation is fifteen minutes, free, and no paperwork. We talk about what is going on for you, what you are hoping for, and whether we are a good fit.
(916) 337-8714 · amanda@amandamcbee.com