How to work with trauma based shame in order to heal (children, teenagers and adults)

PRESENTER: DR MARGOT SUNDERLAND

Firstly, Margot Sunderland will explain the neuroscience of shame and how the body responds to the psychological wounding of shame in the same way as to a physical wound. Yet shaming remains a very common way of using power to control others, e.g., in how we discipline our children, in our schools, in the media, on social media, in politics, in psychiatric labelling, in the prison system. Margot will focus on the neuroscientific evidence of how shame kills creativity, spontaneity, social play, explorative and expansive ways of being in the world. When we live with an ongoing sense of shame, so much life force, our daily elan vitale, becomes focused on defending ourselves and avoiding situations which are perceived as threatening and dangerous because they are potentially shame-inducing.

Margot will focus on the evidence-based research which shows how trauma-based shame is a core underlying pain fuelling many mental health symptoms, e.g. depression, hopelessness and anxiety, something many people are unaware of. She will then address recovery from trauma-based shame, using principles from emotion focused therapy, She provides case material of people who feel they are defective and whose lives have been blighted by shame, to explore how to reach the core pain of trauma-based shame and address it in the safety of a therapeutic relationship. She describes the importance of addressing unmet emotional needs for connection and validation and from there to move to healthy emotions: empowered anger, grieving and self-compassion.