Shame and Self-Loathing in the Treatment of Trauma - Janina Fisher

Course Overview: This course provides therapists with a comprehensive framework for addressing shame and self-loathing as core components of trauma recovery. Dr. Janina Fisher presents her revolutionary approach, emphasizing the neurobiological underpinnings of shame as a survival response and integrating somatic, cognitive-behavioral, and psychodynamic techniques to facilitate profound healing. Participants will learn how to help clients navigate the deeply embedded wounds of shame, rebuild self-esteem, and establish a more compassionate relationship with themselves.

Target Audience: This course is ideal for mental health professionals, including psychologists, therapists, counselors, social workers, and other practitioners working with individuals who have experienced trauma, particularly those struggling with persistent shame, self-criticism, and self-loathing. It is suitable for both seasoned trauma therapists and those looking to deepen their understanding and expand their clinical toolkit.

Main Content & Key Learning Objectives:

• Understanding Shame as a Survival Response: Explore the neurobiology of shame and its evolutionary purpose, recognizing it as a deeply ingrained survival strategy in the aftermath of trauma.
• The Meaning of Shame in Trauma Treatment: Delve into how shame contributes to traumatic experience, becomes embedded in cognitive schemas, and perpetuates vicious cycles of self-condemnation.
• Treating Shame from the “Bottom Up”: Learn to integrate Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, a body-based modality, to address the physiological manifestations of shame and access trauma wounds that talk therapy alone may not reach.
• Healing Shame and Attachment Wounds: Understand the link between shame and traumatic attachment, and develop strategies to repair these wounds within the therapeutic relationship.
• Working with Fragmented Parts: Discover an ego state approach to addressing shame, helping clients develop compassion for the “ashamed part” of themselves.
• Practical Interventions: Acquire a toolkit of experiential exercises and techniques to help clients:
  • Relate to symptoms with mindful dual awareness and curiosity.
  • Challenge negative internal voices and shame-based beliefs.
  • Transform non-verbal shame-holding patterns through movement practices.
  • Rebuild self-esteem and foster self-compassion.
  • Address dysregulated autonomic arousal, overwhelming affects, intrusive memories, impulsivity, and dissociative phenomena.

Why This Course Is Essential: Shame often remains an unaddressed barrier to recovery in trauma treatment, undermining progress despite otherwise effective interventions. This course provides crucial insights and actionable strategies to confront and transform this debilitating emotion, empowering therapists to guide their clients toward lasting healing, resilience, and a life free from the grip of shame and self-loathing.