Workshop Description:

The experience of trauma, abuse, or neglect impacts clients’ thoughts, feelings, and behavioral choices in a myriad of ways. However, there is a universal component as well: most trauma survivors grapple with varying degrees of guilt and shame. These emotions are so pervasive they are often accepted and “normalized’ as an inevitable and intractable part of a trauma survivor’s daily existence.

Yet “trauma-informed” therapists know that until these powerful and debilitating emotions are identified and addressed, it is nearly impossible for clients to achieve the level of healing they deserve and need. Regardless of the therapeutic approach, when clients continue to live with unmetabolized guilt and shame therapy can stall and a glass ceiling gets placed on growth and healing. These clients remain vulnerable to negative self-talk, are far more likely to engage in a wide range of self-destructive behaviors, and either stay in unfulfilling and emotionally abusive relationships or refrain from any emotional intimacy at all.

This workshop will provide a clinical framework so therapists can compassionately assist their clients in understanding and addressing the root causes of guilt and shame.  We will explore the importance of incorporating  psychoeducation so clients gain insight and awareness about the inevitable byproducts and coping strategies that are associated with trauma. We will also identify and experientially process creative strategies that use the power of the therapeutic relationship, cognitive re-framing, parts work, somatic and expressive modalities that allow for the processing and releasing of these toxic emotions.

‍

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the difference between guilt and shame and why shame is so difficult to resolve.

2. Identify at least three specific dynamics of trauma and early childhood coping strategies that promote and sustain shame.

3. Identify at last four indirect benefits that clients get from holding on to feelings of guilt and shame.

4. Explain the role of the Inner Critic and the “protective” nature of a self-effacing internal monologue.

5. Describe the role that attunement and the therapeutic relationship play in helping clients process and let go of shame.

6. Explain the role that self-compassion and curiosity play in providing antidotes to shame.

7. Implement at least three creative strategies designed to cognitively, somatically, and emotionally alleviate guilt and shame in trauma survivors.