Guilt, Shame, and the Traumatized Client: Finding Release from Toxic Emotions

CPD

Handouts

Speaker

Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA Related seminars and products

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Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA, is a recognized expert in the strengths-based, depathologized treatment of trauma and has been in private practice for more than 35 years. She’s a trainer and clinical consultant to practitioners and mental health agencies worldwide. And she’s the author of Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Trauma Survivors, Letting Go of Self-Destructive Behaviors, and Finding Your Ruby Slippers.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Lisa Ferentz maintains a private practice and is the founder and president of the Ferentz Institute. She receives royalties as a published author and is a consultant for Northwest Hospital. Lisa Ferentz receives a speaking honorarium and product royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Lisa Ferentz is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the American Psychotherapy Association.
 

Objectives

1. Determine the difference between guilt and shame for clients, and why shame is so difficult to resolve. 
2. Determine the specific dynamics of trauma and early childhood coping strategies that promote and sustain shame. 
3. Evaluate how secondary gain and “protective parts” impact clients’ willingness to let go of shame. 
4. Assess the role the therapeutic relationship plays in helping clients process shame. 
5. Determine how to cognitively, somatically, and creatively enhance clients’ self-compassion and curiosity to help them let go of shame. 

Outline

• Explain the difference between guilt and shame for clients, and why shame is so difficult to resolve. 
  • Guilt as a byproduct of an interpersonal exchange or a behavioural choice versus core feelings of worthlessness or being inherently damaged or “bad.”  
  • Apologizing and making amends versus fundamentally changing one’s sense of self 
• Determine the specific dynamics of trauma and early childhood coping strategies that promote and sustain shame. 
  • Witnessing abuse, survivor guilt, the shame of keeping silent, the shame of “participating” in sexual trauma, misunderstanding the freeze response 
  • Taking ownership of trauma to preserve familial loyalty 
• Explore how secondary gain and “protective parts” impact clients’ willingness to let go of shame. 
  • Reducing expectations, the risk of failing or disappointing others 
  • Rationalizing self-destructive and addictive behaviours 
  • Inner critics using shame to “motivate” and prevent abandonment 
• Consider the role the therapeutic relationship plays in helping clients process shame. 
  • Modelling self-compassion and positive self-talk  
  • Using psychoeducation and curiosity to release clients from self-blame 
  • The healing impact of attunement 
• Describe how to cognitively, somatically, and creatively enhance clients’ self-compassion and curiosity to help them let go of shame. 
  • Using the “crossroad of a thought” and “double standard” cognitive strategies to let go of shame 
  • Using “remembered resource,” sand tray work, art strategies, two-handed writing, and spirituality to creatively enhance compassion 
  • Using “focusing,” body map, and somatic resourcing to understand the somatic impact of shame and bring comfort to the debilitating emotion 

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Addiction Counsellors
• Case Managers
• Physicians
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals

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