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This study presents a preliminary step towards approaching a cognitive-affective course or, in Forgas' (2001) terms, an affect into thought infusion course, which focuses on reading open-ended stories. By relying on the course in which open-ended stories were used as materials to provide the basis for the broad objectives of the study, attempts were made to investigate the impact of a cognitive affective course on learners' self-esteem. The studies in the literature empirically support the positive relationship between self-esteem on the one hand, and academic success, second language performance and language learning strategy use, on the other. This study was based on a quasi-experimental design in which Pre-test post-test method was used.  Eighty intermediate EFL students studying English at Iran Language Institute (ILI) with the age range of 13-15, participated in this study. The participants' self-esteem was measured by Coppersmith's self-esteem scale (1967) before and after a ten-week interval. Meanwhile, the participants in the experimental group were provided with open-ended stories where they were asked to empathize with characters, predict the ending of the story to reflect their own choice and feeling and also connect the themes of the stories to their own experiences. The results of covariance analyses (ANCOVA) indicated that using open-ended stories in the cognitive-affective reading-based course helped the participants improve their self-esteem. Also, this study provided the empirical evidence for the therapeutic role of the cognitive-affective reading-based course in which open-ended stories were used.