Guilt, Shame, and the Traumatized Client: Finding Release from Toxic Emotions

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Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA Related seminars and products

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Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA, is a recognized expert in the strengths-based, de-pathologized treatment of trauma and has been in private practice for over 40 years. She has been an adjunct faculty member at several universities, and is the founder of The Ferentz Institute, now in its seventeenth year of providing continuing education to mental health professionals and graduating several thousand clinicians from her two certificate programs in advanced trauma treatment. In 2009 she was voted the “Social Worker of the Year” by the Maryland Society for Clinical Social Work. She is the author of Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Trauma Survivors: A Clinician’s Guide, now in its second edition, Letting Go of Self-Destructive Behaviors: A Workbook of Hope and Healing and Finding Your Ruby Slippers: Transformative Life Lessons from the Therapist’s Couch.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Lisa Ferentz maintains a private practice and is the founder and president of the Ferentz Institute. She receives royalties as a published author and is a consultant for Northwest Hospital. Lisa Ferentz receives a speaking honorarium and product royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Lisa Ferentz is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the American Psychotherapy Association.

Additional Info

Program Information

Access never expires for this product. For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.

Objectives

1. Determine the difference between guilt and shame for clients, and why shame is so difficult to resolve. 
2. Determine the specific dynamics of trauma and early childhood coping strategies that promote and sustain shame. 
3. Evaluate how secondary gain and “protective parts” impact clients’ willingness to let go of shame. 
4. Assess the role the therapeutic relationship plays in helping clients process shame. 
5. Determine how to cognitively, somatically, and creatively enhance clients’ self-compassion and curiosity to help them let go of shame. 

Outline

• Explain the difference between guilt and shame for clients, and why shame is so difficult to resolve. 
  • Guilt as a byproduct of an interpersonal exchange or a behavioral choice versus core feelings of worthlessness or being inherently damaged or “bad.”  
  • Apologizing and making amends versus fundamentally changing one’s sense of self 
• Determine the specific dynamics of trauma and early childhood coping strategies that promote and sustain shame. 
  • Witnessing abuse, survivor guilt, the shame of keeping silent, the shame of “participating” in sexual trauma, misunderstanding the freeze response 
  • Taking ownership of trauma to preserve familial loyalty 
• Explore how secondary gain and “protective parts” impact clients’ willingness to let go of shame. 
  • Reducing expectations, the risk of failing or disappointing others 
  • Rationalizing self-destructive and addictive behaviors 
  • Inner critics using shame to “motivate” and prevent abandonment 
• Consider the role the therapeutic relationship plays in helping clients process shame. 
  • Modeling self-compassion and positive self-talk  
  • Using psychoeducation and curiosity to release clients from self-blame 
  • The healing impact of attunement 
• Describe how to cognitively, somatically, and creatively enhance clients’ self-compassion and curiosity to help them let go of shame. 
  • Using the “crossroad of a thought” and “double standard” cognitive strategies to let go of shame 
  • Using “remembered resource,” sand tray work, art strategies, two-handed writing, and spirituality to creatively enhance compassion 
  • Using “focusing,” body map, and somatic resourcing to understand the somatic impact of shame and bring comfort to the debilitating emotion 

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Physicians
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals

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