Description: Shame is an intensely painful human emotion, often associated with the belief that one is flawed and therefore unworthy of connection and belonging. When people experience shame, it is common to try to escape, avoid, or deny the emotion, or to pathologize the experience with thoughts that one is defective and alone. Shame is associated with addiction, violence, depression, and co-occurring mental health disorders. According to Brené Brown, author of shame resilience theory and its evidence-based curriculum, The Daring Way, shame is a silent epidemic: the more we keep it secret, the firmer its hold on us.
This workshop work explores how shame shows up in our own lives and the lives of our clients, affects how we live, and contributes to a society that is the “most obese, medicated, addicted, and in debt ever” (Brown, 2010).
Kate Thieda will draw from Brown’s work to help participants gain a deeper understanding of how to guide clients away from lives that are dictated by shame and towards greater empathy, self-compassion and wholehearted living. Participants will learn strategies to help heal wounds of shame and develop skills to identify and deflect shaming messages from families, workplaces, communities, and culture. This includes “shame resilience” tools to help recognize and accept personal vulnerability, cultivate empathy, discuss and deconstruct shame, and distinguish shame from guilt, embarrassment, humiliation, and other emotions that may arise.
Trainer: Kate Thieda, MS, LPC, NCC is a graduate of UNC-Greensboro’s Masters in counseling program, and specializes in treating adults with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. Kate is intensively trained in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and is a Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator – Candidate. She currently works at Duke University’s Personal Assistance Service and maintains a private practice is in Durham, North Carolina. In addition to her therapy practice, Kate is also a book author and blogger. Loving Someone with Anxiety (New Harbinger Publications, 2013) is a practical guide offering insight and day-to-day skills for partners of people suffering from anxiety. Her blog, Partnering in Mental Health: Loving Someone with Mental Illness, is on PsychologyToday.com. Kate has also been published on PsychCentral.com, in Counseling Today, and in the North Carolina Psychological Association’s newsletter.
Resources:
Handouts
UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work Clinical Lecture Series