Self-esteem mirror activity

Mirror exposure therapy is associated with improved body image and enhanced self-esteem. This article provides an overview of mirror gazing and provides tips for using the self-esteem mirror activity with clients. 

We’ve included a free downloadable self-esteem mirror worksheet that you can save to your electronic health record (EHR) and use in your practice.

What are mirror exercises?

People with poor body image tend to avoid looking in the mirror altogether or look in the mirror excessively, focusing on areas they perceive as flawed, causing low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. 

The self-esteem mirror activity is a technique that helps clients rebuild self-esteem and confidence, enhances emotional well-being, promotes self-compassion, and reduces stress. 

There are two types of mirror activities: 

1. Mirror gazing: A self-reflective practice to build self-esteem and confidence.

2. Mirror exposure therapy: A technique used by therapists to improve body image disturbances in people with eating disorders, and for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and sexual dysfunction. 

Researchers have found that mirror activities help to achieve more body acceptance by:

• Challenging negative beliefs: People with poor body image tend to hold negative beliefs or have distorted thoughts about themselves, others, and the world around them. Mirror exercises can help challenge and reframe this pattern of thinking and behaving.

• Refocusing the gaze: Clients redirect attention to the body parts they appreciate, which reduces focus on disliked areas and supports greater body acceptance.

• Reducing distress: By having clients confront feared or disliked body parts in the mirror, this exposure gradually decreases negative perceptions of their body.

• Changing the narrative: This technique helps clients find more neutral language to describe their body. For example, a client might reframe "really fat" as "I have a rounded belly."

Mirror activity for adults

The mirror activity is easy to guide clients through with a few simple steps:

1. Have the client find a comfortable space free from distractions.

2. Before beginning the activity, ask the client to consider what they want to achieve. For example, they might want to find ways to love their body.

3. Have the client stand in front of the mirror and look into their eyes for a few seconds.

4. Instruct the client to greet themselves. They can say their name or silently acknowledge themselves.

5. Ask the client to take a minute to appreciate the parts of their body they like without judgment. For example, their legs or their eye color.

6. Encourage the client to use positive affirmations or a mantra that holds meaning for them. For example, "I am strong," "I am capable," or "I love myself."

7. Have the client practice the exercise a few times a week until they feel more confident about their body.

Once the client has been practicing the exercise for a while, they might progress to challenging their negative beliefs or thought errors in the following way:

1. Identify the situation: Have the client think about a recent event or situation in which they felt distressed or had an uncomfortable emotional response, and describe what happened. For example, "My coworker looked at my skirt when I walked into the office this morning."

2. Identify the feelings and emotions: Ask the client to name how they felt about the situation. For example, "I felt embarrassed."

3. Identify the underlying thoughts: Have the client identify the specific thoughts they had at that moment. For example, "I thought my legs looked huge in that skirt. It was too tight."

4. Identify the distortion: Thought distortions are unhelpful thoughts that skew a client's perception of reality. For example, mind-reading assumes the client knows what others think. In this situation, the client believes their coworker had a negative thought with no evidence, but instead projected self-critical judgments.

5. Challenge the unhelpful thinking: Ask the client how accurate their assumption is.

6. Reframe the thought: Based on the client's evaluation, help them identify a more realistic way of thinking about the situation. For example, "I felt uncomfortable and self-conscious in the skirt."

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How to use the self-esteem mirror worksheet 

You can download and use the self-esteem mirror worksheet in several ways:

• Use the worksheet to provide psychoeducation about triggers and coping skills.

• Complete the self-esteem mirror activity during the session. 

• Ask the client to complete the self-esteem mirror exercise between sessions and report their reflections at their next therapy appointment. 

• Use the self-esteem mirror activity in group therapy sessions to encourage clients to share more about themselves with other participants.

• Share the worksheet with coworkers or leave copies in your office.

• Combine this worksheet with other positive psychology resources, such as the self-esteem sentence completion worksheet, our positive traits worksheet, the self-esteem journal, and the positive experiences worksheet.

• Use the self-esteem mirror worksheet to provide training to interns or supervisees.

Sources

• Petrocchi, N., Ottaviani, C., & Couyoumdjian, A. (2017). Compassion at the mirror: Exposure to a mirror increases the efficacy of a self-compassion manipulation in enhancing soothing positive affect and heart rate variability. The Journal of Positive Psychology.

• Tanck, J. A., Hartmann, A. S., Svaldi, J., & Vocks, S. (2021). Effects of full-body mirror exposure on eating pathology, body image and emotional states: Comparison between positive and negative verbalization. PLoS ONE.

• Tramacere, A. (2022). Face yourself: The social neuroscience of mirror gazing. Frontiers in Psychology.

• Well, T. (2020). What the mirror can teach you about yourself: Advice from a mirror gazing expert. Mindful.org.

• Werthmann, J., Naumann, E., Vocks, S., Tuschen-Caffier, B., & Hilbert, A. (2025). A look in the mirror: Body exposure in clinical practice. Journal of Eating Disorders.

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