2-Day Shame-Informed Treatment Certification Course

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Patti Ashley, Ph.D., L.P.C. Related seminars and products: 3

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Patti Ashley, Ph.D., LPC,  has integrated 40 years of experience in special education, child development, and psychology into her wholehearted work as a psychotherapist, author, international speaker, and authenticity architect coach. She brings unique insights into the identification and treatment of shame, trauma, grief and dysfunctional family patterns.

Dr. Ashley owns and operates Authenticity Architects in Boulder, Colorado. Her inimitable Authenticity Architecture model facilitates long-term changes in the brain and nervous system, helping clients break through unconscious barriers and rediscover a sense of self-love, belonging, and connection. As a licensed professional counselor since 2000, Dr. Ashley has counseled a myriad of individuals, couples, families and groups in metal health agencies, psychiatric hospitals, and private practice settings. She also has many years of experience developing continuing education courses for physicians, hospital wellness programs, universities and other organizations.

Patti holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in psychology from the Union Institute and University, a Master of Education Degree in early childhood from Old Dominion University, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in special education from James Madison University. She is the author of Living in the Shadow of the Too-Good Mother Archetype (2014), Letters to Freedom,, and Shame-Informed Therapy: Treatment Strategies to Overcome Core Shame and Reconstruct the Authentic Self (2020). For more information, please visit  www.pattiashley.com.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Patti Ashley maintains a private practice. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.
Non-financial: Patti Ashley has no relevant non-financial relationship to disclose.

Additional Info

Program Information

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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