Shame in the Therapy Hour: Recognizing, Managing, and Transforming Our Darkest Emotion

Abstract

Although clinicians often use the terms “shame” and “guilt” interchangeably, ample research indicates that these are distinct emotions with very different implications for motivation and behavior (Tangney, et al., 2007). This workshop summarizes research on the phenomenology of shame and guilt (Wicker, et al., 1983; Tangney, et al., 1996), as well as clinically relevant empirical work demonstrating a link between shame and denial, defensiveness, and aggression (e.g., Stuewig, et al., 2010). Although ubiquitous in clinical settings, shame is a silent emotion. Clients rarely announce that they feel shame. Participants will become familiar with empirically validated verbal and non-verbal markers of shame (Keltner, 1995). Strategies for responding to, managing, and transforming or resolving client shame will be discussed, drawing on a handful of explicitly shame-focused therapies with empirical support (Gilbert, 2014; Rizvi & Linehan, 2005), augmented by observations of “master clinicians” presented in a recent edited volume on Shame in the Therapy Hour (Dearing & Tangney, 2011). The workshop will close with a consideration of therapists’ shame, as well as shame in supervisor-supervisee relationships.