Transforming shame and self-disdain

Series of three video lectures to address the issue of shame and contempt patients feel towards them.

Therapists often face the negative impact of shame on their clients' and patients' ability to find relief and perspective.

Their feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy interfere with promoting positive experiences, leaving only despair.

Attempts to increase patients' capacity for self-affirmation are undermined by beliefs of worthlessness.... Even progress in treatment or greater success in life stimulates more shame and self-judgment rather than pride. The patient, repeatedly takes two steps forward, then one step back.

This seminar will introduce participants to understanding shame from a dynamic, neurobiological perspective as a survival strategy that drives somatic responses of "total submission," disconnection and numbing. In this lecture series, participants will learn how to help clients learn to relate to their shame with curiosity rather than self-hatred.

When traditional psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral techniques are integrated with sensorimotor psychotherapy interventions that emphasize posture, movement, and gesture, shame issues can become an avenue for transformation rather than a source of inability to treat.