Addressing trauma-based shame in children who hate themselves

This presentation will cover the whole concept of trauma-based shame as a core pain which can result in so many mental health problems and particularly depression and anxiety.

Dr Margot Sunderland will present case material of young people whose lives are marred by trauma-based shame. They feel worthless, hopeless and as a result do not want to live. She will discuss how she helped them safely access core memories of shame in terms of “feelings have to be felt to be changed" (Leslie Greenberg). From this place, and through empathic interventions and collaborative sense-making, she will demonstrate how the young people were able to ‘change emotion with emotion’ resulting in a shift from self-hate to self- compassion.

With the safety of a relationship with an emotionally available adult. delegates will learn key interventions in this rich therapeutic journey with children and young people. The aim is that delegates feel empowered to support young people to move into living a life no longer blighted by shame where they are free to live their lives well.

Dr Margot Sunderland

Director of Education and Training at The Centre for Child Mental Health, Director of Innovation and Research Trauma Informed Schools UK, Honorary Visiting Fellow at London Metropolitan University and Child Psychotherapist with over thirty years’ experience of working with children and families.

Trained initially in Child psychotherapy with John Hood Williams (former Principal - Institute of Child Psychology - Lowenfeld training). Worked for years as a child and adolescent psychotherapist in children’s homes and adolescent units.

Author of over twenty books in the field of child mental health, which collectively have been translated into eighteen languages and published in twenty-four countries. Internationally acclaimed book, “The Science of Parenting” (Dorling Kindersley), won First Prize in the British Medical Association Medical Book awards 2007 Popular Medicine section. Dr Sunderland has two doctorates, one in child psychotherapy, thesis entitled “The Application of Art and Science to the Psychological Treatment of Children.”