2-Day Shame-Informed Treatment Certification Course

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Patti Ashley, PhD, LPC Related seminars and products

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Patti Ashley, PhD, LPC, is a psychotherapist, international speaker and best-selling author of Shame-Informed Therapy: Treatment Strategies to Overcome Core Shame and Reconstruct the Authentic Self (PESI Publishing, 2020).

With over 20 years of experience as a licensed counselor, Dr. Ashley brings unique insights into the identification and treatment of trauma, shame, grief and dysfunctional family patterns. She has counseled individuals, couples, families and groups in mental health agencies, psychiatric hospitals, and private practice settings. She currently maintains a private practice in Colorado where her Authenticity Architecture model helps clients break through unconscious barriers and rediscover a sense of self-love, belong, and connection.

In addition to her book for psychotherapists, Dr. Ashley is the author of Living in the Shadow of the Too-Good Mother Archetype (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2014) and Letters to Freedom (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2019). In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Ashley develops and teaches continuing education courses for psychotherapists, physicians, hospital wellness programs, universities, and several private organizations.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Patti Ashley has an employment relationship with Authenticity Architects. She receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Ashley receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Patti Ashley has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Objectives

1. Discriminate between guilt and core shame and elaborate on the adaptive, social and clinical implications. 
2. Evaluate the role of attachment in the formation of a shame-based identity.
3. Investigate the neurophysiology of shame as seen through the lens of Porges’ polyvagal theory.
4. Assess for verbal and non-verbal signs of shame in clients.
5. Employ interview questions for assessing shame in clients’ relationships and current patterns.
6. Investigate how clinicians can enhance attunement to create trust and openness with shame-prone clients.
7. Evaluate how therapists can use co-regulation to create a sense of safety and equal power in the therapeutic relationship.
8. Support how clinicians can increase vulnerability and self-awareness of their own shame to overcome barriers of relational presence.
9. Investigate how shame acts as a cover for anger and explain how compassion exercises can be employed to help clients let go of anger.
10. Evaluate the importance of managing shame in clients with substance use issues in efforts to prevent relapse.
11. Employ somatic interventions to help cultivate secure attachment in trauma clients.
12. Communicate how shame pushes clients into binge eating and clarify how self-acceptance interventions can be used to reduce emotional eating.

Outline

Shame, Attachment and Social-Emotional Development

• The difference between guilt, shame and core shame
• Shame and attachment
• Ruptured interpersonal bridges
• The evolution of social-emotional development
• Why self-compassion is so hard to access

The Neurophysiology of Shame:
Polyvagal Theory, Shame and the Shutdown Response

• Shame and the Vagus Nerve
• Neuroception, shame and felt safety
• Core shame and implicit memory
• Three common responses to shame
• How addressing shame expedites treatment

Recognizing Shame: Assessment Tools

• Why shame goes undetected by clinicians
• Multicultural perspectives
• Perfectionism, rage, blame and other defences against shame
• Reading the body - non-verbal signs of shame
• Interview questions for assessing shame in relationships and current patterns
• Self-assessment: identify your own shame

How to Create a Safe and Empathetic Therapeutic Environment

• Mirror neurons and relational presence
• Attunement as the key to therapeutic change
• Large Empathy and being vulnerable
• Avoid stigmatizing language in therapy
• Co-regulating safety and equal power in the therapeutic relationship

Re-Write the Story of Shame into “I Am Enough”:
Clinical Strategies to Cultivate Secure Attachment and Self-Compassion

• Somatic approaches to cultivate secure attachment
• Self-compassion and gratitude exercises
• The four therapeutic “R”s: Recognize, Respect, Regulate and Re-Story
• Four “C” shovels to calm nervous system and self-regulate shame response
• Exercises to strengthen connections
• Creative arts, music and poetry – increase neuroplasticity
• Playfulness, humour and being in nature can rewire the brain
• Mindfulness and meditations for non-judgmental awareness of shame
• Narratives and visualizations to re-write clients stories to safety and being enough
• Research, limitations and potential risks

Connect Shame-Informed Clinical Strategies to the Treatment of:
Anger and Rage

• Shame of fear: Shame as a cover for anger
• Self-acceptance techniques for internal damage control
• Compassion and forgiveness exercises to let go of anger

Trauma

• Somatic interventions
• Strategies to survive without guilt
• Exercises to rediscover self-worth

Stress and Anxiety

• Mediate the paralysis of perfection with self-acceptance
• Social anxiety as shame & self-doubt
• Mindfulness-based, non-anxious self-consciousness

Eating Disorders

• How shame pushes clients into binge eating
• Choice Awareness Training for moderation & presence
• Self-acceptance strategies for emotional eating

Substance Abuse and Addiction

• Addressing the shame of relapse
• Self-assertive trigger avoidance
• Choice awareness techniques for habit modification
• Build craving/impulse control skill power

Depression, Self-Harm & Suicidality

• Recognize how internalized shame can deepen depression
• Developing healthy coping strategies for uncomfortable feelings
• Demystifying shame responses and returning them to their origin

Target Audience

• Licensed Professional Counselor
• Psychologist
• Clinical Social Worker
• Certified Addictions Counselor
• Marriage and Family Therapist
• Psychiatrist
• Psychiatric Nurses and NPs
• School Counselor
• School Psychologist