ADVANCED PRACTICES

About the Offering

Chronic shame is a part of insecure attachment, and is woven into all aspects of a person, from the second year of life, to their present moment. Chronic shame is an unseen hand that has been guiding their life in all areas, from intra and interpersonal relationships, to professional life, to creativity and dreams for the future. The hiding in plain sight nature of chronic shame makes it incredibly difficult to work with clinically, for both client and therapist alike, as the presence of shame activates shame, which can be iatrogenic therapeutically.

In this advanced practices training, we will take a deep and nuanced look at chronic shame, at its many faces and guises, so that we as therapists, can more easily recognize its existence, and see the way that its presence in a client’s life both makes sense as an adaptation to early relational trauma, and see how punishing and debilitating it is in a client’s life.

We will examine the role that therapists own shame and shame reactions and avoidance impact working with chronic shame. We will also explore more nuanced aspects of clients relationships with chronic shame, including, humiliation, disgust, and dissociation.

This advanced practices is open to those clinicians who have completed the Somatic Attachment Psychotherapy clinic 4, and want to take a deeper dive into this ubiquitous, yet amorphous part of insecure attachment and relational trauma.

This training will offer learning through lecture, dialogue and case vignettes.