Shame is perhaps the most painful of all emotions. It is at the root of both the inner critic and perfectionism. It binds with other emotions, such as anger and fear, so it is often hard to detect. Also, revealing shame can be in itself shameful. For many clients who don’t get better in therapy, shame — unacknowledged and not worked through — is the primary factor.

2 Saturdays: May 10 & 17, 2025

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In this advanced workshop, you will learn to help yourselves and your clients shift the shame, transforming it from toxic freeze to helpful change agent. How do we learn from and modify our words and behaviors without going into the toxic freeze state of shame? Even when we have been shamed or abused, how do we take responsibility for the part of what happened that is ours, even if it is quite small, and learn from it? We will cover the shame produced in many situations in which we feel we have let someone down or broken some important rules, including affairs.

4 Fridays, 10am–1:30pm Pacific Time (March 21, 28, April 4, 11, 2025).

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Though we may develop adult bodies and think our childhood is long behind us, somewhere inside the child is still alive, deeply influencing our thoughts, words and actions. In this workshop, we will teach you how to help your clients reestablish a healthy relationship with their inner child—so that they can both listen and talk to that sensitive, creative and essential part of us.

2 Saturdays: December 7 & 14, 2024, 10 AM - 6 PM Pacific Time

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Shame is an embodied belief that "something is wrong with me." Because shame exists in the body as well as in the mind, it is helpful for therapists to work with shame somatically. In this workshop, you will explore how to utilize somatic techniques to connect more quickly with the client and forge a strong therapeutic alliance. You will learn how to prevent somatic counter-transference and avoid taking on the client's physical shame patterns, explore how to keep your clients more present in the room with you, and counter over-verbalization, dissociation and freezing.

2 Saturdays: November 2 & 9, 2024, 10 AM - 6 PM Pacific Time

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In many studies of the effectiveness of therapy, a strong connection between therapist and client has been noted as the clearest predictor of success. And yet our own fear and shame of doing the wrong thing can get in the way of that connection. In this workshop, you will discover powerful tools to connect with a client quickly and deeply. We will provide demonstrations to help you decide when to hold back and when to bring yourself forward, both emotionally and physically, and we will examine ways to level the playing field that shame distorts—and combine the seemingly contradictory roles of caring friend and trusted expert.

2 Saturdays: September 21 & 28, 2024, 10 AM - 6 PM Pacific Time

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Working with shame cognitively can only get us so far. When clients get stuck in shame, the most powerful way to help them get unstuck is to activate their imagination. In this workshop, we will utilize techniques from Drama Therapy, Focusing, Expressive Arts Therapy, Jungian active imagination processing and Hakomi to explore the critical voices and/or the childhood scenes that are still driving the internal shame dynamic in the client.

2 Saturdays: July 13 & 20, 2024, 10 AM - 6 PM Pacific Time

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Shame is designed to keep us safe by binding with the other primary emotions, lower their intensity, and keep them from completing in an action, such as grieving, reaching out, or setting a boundary. When shame binds with anger, fear, joy, curiosity, or grief, those emotions cannot finish. We get caught in a maze of feelings, with no end. In this workshop, we will learn how to help clients untangle shame from the other primary emotions so that they can complete. And we will learn techniques to untangle the binds so the client can live their life in a fuller, more productive, and more joyful way.

2 Saturdays: June 8 & 15, 2024 10am–6:00pm Pacific Time

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 By popular demand, this will be our first in-person workshop in many years.  It will be a chance to reconnect - or connect for the first time - in person.  

Saturday and Sunday: In-person, 10am – 6 pm Pacific Time

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Shame and trauma are both states of freeze. Shame, like trauma, puts the body in a freeze state and lowers the ability to think and act clearly. Shame almost always accompanies trauma—and being shamed can have a traumatic effect. In this intermediate workshop, we will explore the connection between shame and trauma and look at ways to unlock somatic and imaginal resources to work with both effectively.

Prerequisite: Open to students who have taken at least one previous Healing Shame workshop with us or have significant training in working with trauma.

4 Fridays: April 5, 12, 19, 26, 2024 10am - 1:30pm Pacific Time

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The more we care about each other, the more vulnerable we are to shame. Intentionally or unintentionally, we poke each other in the tender spots. In this workshop we will explore the blame/shame game people in relationships can fall into and learn how to help them stop shaming each other and work together to create a secure base and heal the wounds of the past.

Open to helping professionals alone or with their partner

2 Saturdays: March 16 & 23, 10am - 6pm Pacific Time

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Shame is perhaps the most painful of all emotions. It is at the root of both the inner critic and perfectionism. It binds with other emotions, such as anger and fear, so that is often hard to detect. Also, revealing shame can be in itself shameful. For many clients who don’t get better in therapy, shame — unacknowledged and not worked through — is the primary factor.

2 Saturdays: February 10, 17, 2024 10am - 6pm Pacific Time

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This in-depth workshop for advanced Healing Shame students provides a chance to practice specific techniques for working with shame so that you can be even more precise and effective in helping clients gently feel into and integrate their shame. You will gain practical experience in attuning more fully to your clients and developing and keeping a safe container so that shame can be explored delicately, without overwhelming yourself or the client.

4 Fridays: February 2, 9, 16, 23, 2024 10am–1:30pm Pacific Time

Prerequisite: Two previous Healing Shame workshops with us.

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We all go through it. No one is immune. And nothing produces more universal shame in our society than aging. And it starts when we have barely begun to enjoy our adulthood. By mid-thirties, we are already beginning to experience the changes. Whereas many societies have deep respect for people as they age and see a vital role for elders, our society still worships youth. In this workshop, we will learn how to be more comfortable with our own aging process, and we will look at ways to help clients talk about, explore and heal their own shame around aging.

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While no one has an easy time with shame, and many societies don’t really want to acknowledge it, for many men it can be especially hard. Men often don't even realize that they feel shame. This workshop will help you discover and address the invisible shame in many men. You will learn how to countershame them and invite them to join you rather than fight you when shame is activated in the session.

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Shame is designed to keep us safe by binding with the other primary emotions, lower their intensity, and keep them from completing in an action, such as grieving, reaching out, or setting a boundary. When shame binds with anger, fear, joy, curiosity, or grief, those emotions cannot finish. We get caught in a maze of feelings, with no end. In this workshop, we will learn how to help clients untangle shame from the other primary emotions so that they can complete. And we will learn techniques to untangle the binds so the client can live their life in a fuller, more productive, and more joyful way.

2 Saturdays 10am–6:30pm Pacific Time

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Understanding, reducing and transforming shame is the key to freeing someone from addiction.  Working with addictions can be challenging because letting go of the addiction is a huge, terrifying unknown.  In this workshop, you will learn how to work very carefully and directly, with compassion and psycho-education, to counter the shame that has been causing and maintains the addiction.  You will learn how to become a true support to the part of the client that wants to heal and help them find new paths, while also gently challenging the unhelpful behavior, and help clients broaden their experience and find and seek out resources - people, places and other sources of pleasure, ease and belonging - that can sustain them.

2 Fridays and Saturdays/Half Days, 10am–1:30pm Pacific Time

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