I had low self-worth. I felt awful about myself.
What didn't work:
'You have the following virtues [X, Y, Z]; the following defects [X, Y, Z] do not matter as much as you think they do; you're wonderful for the following reasons [X, Y, Z].'
What also didn't work:
'You're lovable. We love you. God loves you.'
Why? The human being, in its physical manifestation, is made of dust, water, and electricity and is a vessel for all sorts of behaviours that are anything but valuable, in addition to those that are. There's a fundamental problem here, too. Who is the 'you' who loves me? Who is the 'we' who loves me? Who, even, is the 'God' who loves me? What does 'love' mean? In the world, it usually means, 'You fulfil my perceived ego needs. You are situationally valuable to me.' Populating a tainted word with a pure notion is putting new wine in old wine skins.
What did work?
The self that I despised is not me, and is not even real.
I'm spirit operating through a set of masks, a set of roles, and a body. I am not the masks, I am not the roles, I am not the body. When this is properly established, the ego engine is uncoupled from the transmission, and the masks, roles, and body become harmless at worst and benevolent at best.
What is this spirit 'worth'? The notion of worth cannot exist in a unified system. 'Worth' is about transaction and exchange, and both are about getting more than you give, or the trade would not take place. The very question is flawed.
Can spirit love spirit? Can I, as spirit, love you as spirit? Can God, as spirit, love you or me?
Well, no. The word 'love' is a metaphor for recognition of identity.
So let's call it that, and dissolve the boundaries.
Let's leave 'love' out of it.
Instead, there is a whole, intact, harmonious oneness extending forever, beyond space and time.