2-Day Treating Trauma in the Shame-Prone Client: A Shame-Informed Treatment Specialist (CSTS) Certification Course

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Faculty

Patti Ashley, PhD, LPC Related seminars and products

---

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. Differentiate between guilt and trauma-based core shame and elaborate on the clinical implications.  
2. Analyze the role of shame proneness as it relates to posttraumatic cognitions and posttraumatic stress symptoms. 
3. Investigate the neurophysiological and psychological development of shame in order to determine how a therapist might recognize deep-rooted shame in their clients. 
4. Evaluate research on the therapeutic implications of guilt and shame, including their relationship to PTSD treatment approaches and outcomes. 
5. Use interview questions to assess clients for patterns which might point therapists toward the presence of core shame.  
6. Analyze defence mechanisms which are commonly used to control, avoid or deny shame. 
7. Formulate treatment plans that incorporate a somatic focus alongside traditional cognitive approaches in trauma therapy with shame-prone clients.  
8. Employ mindfulness-based strategies to help reduce shame in clients and increase their acceptance of emotional experiences.   
9. Use co-regulation strategies to create a sense of safety in the therapeutic relationship with shame-prone clients.  
10. Use narrative therapy techniques to externalize clients’ feelings of guilt and help them detach from unhealthy core beliefs.  
11. Employ self-compassionate visualization and letter-writing interventions to reduce clients’ levels of shame experiences.   
12. Apply a shame-informed approach to working with co-occurring disorders including eating disorders, depression, anxiety and substance use disorders.  

Outline

• Guilt vs. core shame
• Neurophysiological effects of trauma, attachment disorders, and core shame
• Developmental theories relevant to emotional safety
• The evolution of social-emotional development
• Polyvagal theory, neuroception and shame
• Trauma, shame and subsequent adult attachment styles

• Reactions that develop in attempts to find safety
• How clients use perfectionism to keep shame at bay
• Anger, rage and blame
• How trauma and shame-based beliefs or “stories” impact clients

• Nonverbal, implicit, and sensory aspects of trauma and shame
• Interview questions for assessing shame in relationships and current patterns
• Subtle cues of shame in the therapy room
• Why self-compassion is so hard to access

• Attunement as the key to therapeutic change
• Assessing adult attachment styles and shame
• Exercises to establish safety and trust
• Co-regulation strategies that create safety in the therapeutic relationship
• Self-assessment: identifying your own shame
• Interest inventories and values assessment
• Psycho-educational opportunities that demystify shame

• The importance of non-judgmental awareness
• Breathing techniques to bring emotional and physical calm
• Mandalas as a meditation tool
• Mindfulness and meditation apps for clients
• Reconnect to the self with nature therapy strategies
• Self-compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude exercises
• The role of yoga, dance, and movement in mediating shame

• Narrative therapy techniques to externalize clients’ feelings of shame
• Self-compassionate visualization and letter-writing interventions
• Homework assignments, prompts and using timelines
• Re-storying shame scripts and stepping into strength
• Creating, telling and using metaphors to de-shame trauma responses
• Therapeutic art techniques – how clients can process pain outside of themselves
• Combining top-down and bottom-up strategies in treatment

• Compassion and forgiveness exercises to let go of anger
• Choice Awareness Training for eating disorders and disordered eating
• How internalized shame can deepen depression
• Mediate the stress and anxiety of perfection with self-acceptance
• Addressing the shame of relapse with substance use disorders
• Research, risks and treatment limitations

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Psychiatrists
• Physicians
• Addictions Counselors
• Psychiatric Nurses
• Nurse Practitioners