Feeling Like Crap: Young People and the Meaning of Self-Esteem

We use the word all the time, but what exactly is self-esteem, and how do young people develop it? Feeling Like Crap explores how a young person's self is constructed, and what might really help that self to feel more valued and confident. Through accounts of his individual and group work with young people, Nick Luxmoore demonstrates how listening to, engaging with and being respectful of young people can provide the support they need to help them repair their sense of self and offer them new possibilities and directions in life. When Grace was three, her parents split up and she went to live with her father while her sister stayed with their mother. Allie has slipped behind with her school work since falling out with her best friend, and any positive feelings about himself that Conor may have dared to develop have been beaten out of him by his father. This compassionate and thought-provoking book will be an invaluable resource for counsellors, teachers, youth workers, and anyone else working to help young people with self-esteem issues.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction. 2. A Developing Self. 3. A Fragmented Self. 4. A `School Self'. 5. A Potential Self. References. Index.

About the Author :
Nick Luxmoore was a school counsellor, trainer, teacher, youth worker and UKCP registered Psychodrama psychotherapist. He had over 35 years' experience of work with young people and with the professionals who support them. He worked as the Counsellor at King Alfred's Academy, Wantage, UK.

Review :
Another gem from Nick Luxmoore. This very well written text comes from someone who 'gets it' and understands, and who explains 'feeling like crap' to the reader and what it might mean for young people, and why...This text is thoroughly recommended as essential reading to all those who work with young people, especially in educational settings. It offers an informed, refreshing and enlightened way of thinking about self esteem and youth. I found it a really easy, enjoyable read with lots of interesting case studies used to illustrate the theory. It had some good ideas for working with groups, and the section on the impact of your physical surrounding on how both individuals and teams function was also quite enlightening. This would be a useful resource for therapist working with young people with self-esteem or other emotional issues. Nick Luxmore draws on over 30 years' experience. The practical experiences that the author draws on are woven throughout the text alongside theories exploring how a young person'[s self might be constructed… The message of this book is clear that a positive sense of self - of being understandable and being understood - is always possible. EP's, school counsellors, teachers and pastoral workers would find it a useful and highly readable book This is highly accessible, insightful and, at times, deeply emotional book about the noble art of helping young people to help themselves. As a school counsellor, I found this book extremely interesting and thought provoking. Luxmoore clearly demonstrates, working with young people can be very challenging as well as extremely rewarding. He also highlights how as counsellors working with young people we need to keep an open mind and be flexible in our approach. This book will prove to be an invaluable resource for helping with self-esteem issues. This book gives many pointers to think about young people's questions about themselves and how we as therapists can help to look at them in a respectful way. Nick Luxmoore is someone who tries to understand young people. He listens, reflects, challenges, and in the end helps the young person feel less isolated. He has written with great thought, sensitivity, and with an understanding of the dilemmas that young people face a real gem of a book. I think he has excelled this time with a book that is rich in story of the lives young people live and how as a therapist based in the school environment we need to take into account the dynamics of the young people in their family lives, social/peer lives, school lives, and the wide community outside of the school gates. It is an engaging read with the young people at the forefront with the stories of Pete, Connor, Jade, Grace, Allie, and Ledley taking centre stage with their internal and external struggles to be seen or seen in a different way shown through their narratives. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone working with adolescents and in particular, with those young people who feel they lack personal efficacy, those who, as the title declares, feel 'like crap'. Nick Luxmoore works with young people and has 30 year's experience in the field. The core theoretical model behind this work is essentially psychodynamic and it provides a very effective tool for the practitioner in making sense of the challenges faced by disaffected young people. Here is on courageous man who doesn't look the other way but rather stands by, supports and rebuilds the traumatised adolescent. His book is a potent resource for all who would work with young people. Feeling like Crap helps to inform understanding of self-esteem and, more importantly, how to work with young people who present with varied life stories, the reader can better understand how young people's environment and their early experiences significantly impact on their confidence and hopes for the future. The book was as easy read and not difficult to follow.