Working with Shame and Self-Blame in Trauma Therapy

This webinar satisfies requirements for live interactive CE credits for all professions.

DESCRIPTION: Shame and self-blame are among the most pervasive and clinically challenging forces in trauma work — yet they are often misread, minimized, or missed entirely. Clients who withdraw from care, relentlessly criticize themselves, present with persistent self-doubt, or seem stuck despite solid therapeutic progress may be living inside a shame response that neither they nor their clinicians have fully named. When shame goes unrecognized, treatment stalls and clients suffer unnecessarily.

This webinar offers clinicians a practical and theoretically grounded framework for understanding and working with shame and self-blame across trauma presentations. Drawing on key frameworks including Tangney’s shame-guilt distinction, Nathanson’s Compass of Shame, Brown’s Shame Resilience Theory, Etherson’s Shame Containment Theory, and Gilbert’s compassion-focused approach, participants will learn to recognize shame-based clinical presentations, understand their developmental and relational origins, and apply evidence-informed interventions in the therapy room. The course includes case illustrations and is applicable to psychologists, therapists, social workers, and counselors across disciplines who work with trauma-affected clients regardless of diagnosis or population.

Target audience: This course is appropriate for all mental health professionals

Content level: Introductory/Intermediate