TRANSFORMING SHAME

We begin by uncovering why shame is a deeply felt but also invisible barrier to emotional healing. While attachment work and compassion-based approaches are essential to the healing process, they can inadvertently bypass or soothe shame rather than get into relationship with it. You’ll learn how shame hides in plain sight — and how seeing how it does this is the first step in beginning a new healing relationship with it. We explore specific shame protectors and how to work with them in order to gain access to the core shame narratives that are keeping our clients stuck in pain and inner conflict. This foundational session prepares you to shift your own orientation as a clinician so you can move out of the shame-freeze and become shame-responsive!

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the adaptive roots of shame and its relational function.
  

• Learn why many of our therapeutic approaches may unintentionally reinforce shame patterns.
  

• Explore the nervous system’s response to shame and the limits of cognitive processing alone.

In this module, we lay out a flexible but necessary blueprint that provides a structured yet dynamic approach to working with shame. You’ll learn the core components required to meet shame in the therapy room — including relational safety, emotional permission, and language shifts that allow clients to stay present with their experience. We’ll also dive deep into the critical differences between shame and guilt, and how failing to address this distinction can stall therapeutic progress and block access to shame. You’ll leave this module with clarity on how to identify shame in action and with a sense that there are actions you can actively take when meeting core shame beliefs. 

Key Takeaways:

• Learn essential pillars of the blueprint for transforming shame.
  

• Gain clarity and language to clarify differences between shame and guilt so clients can gain access to their core shame narratives.
  

• Explore how to address shame protectors so that you and your clients can work more directly with the shame wounds and dilemmas that keep clients stuck.

This session shifts into direct application of the blueprint. We will watch a taped demonstration of the navigation of shame protectors and their core shame narratives while being able to stop and discuss what we are seeing together! The demonstration brings the clinical techniques and strategies to life in a way that feels accessible and understandable. 

Key Takeaways:

• How to use specific and delineated strategies for managing the shame freeze and protections from shame in the moment.
  

• Learn how we work with the client’s nervous system when activating shame so that we can continue to access it without losing our connection to the client when they go into freeze or overwhelm.
  

• Watching the strategies in action with a client allows us to consider our own clients and how we might apply the same strategies with them!

In this session, we continue refining the blueprint and explore how to tailor shame interventions to different clients — including those with trauma histories, identity-based shame, or chronic self-judgment. We’ll continue breaking down the demonstration and answer questions about how these moves can be applied to your specific clients through direct coaching with you! 

Key Takeaways:

• Shame can be met and transformed by applying the specific “moves” of the blueprint. Therapist shame may also be transformed by learning more about how this all works together!
  

• We deepen our understanding of how to bring the blueprint to life through practice, question and answers, observations and direct engagement (if willing - not required).
  

• Practice applying the shame blueprint across different client presentations and challenges through case consultation and coaching.

Our final session synthesizes all prior modules into a comprehensive clinical framework you can use in your practice immediately. We’ll explore how to integrate this shame-responsive blueprint into various modalities — including IFS, EMDR, depth-approaches, somatic therapy, and more. You'll also learn how to extend invitations to shame again and again, which builds client capacity for self-compassion, and how to deeply support clients from the inside-out so your clients don’t just survive their shame — they transform their connection to it with trust and open-heartedness. 

Key Takeaways:

• Application of the approach to your specific clients continues through q & a, coaching and live demonstrations.
  

• Integrate your understanding of the transforming shame blueprint. Discuss how the approach can be applied across different treatment modalities.
  

• Leave with specific strategies and language, understanding and an increased sense of  confidence, to guide clients from the confines of stuck shame to a sense of freedom and capacity to heal deeply from the inside-out.