When we help clients neurobiologically separate out early shame from grief, we bring them to the awareness of how present day experiences are actually a confusing entanglement of calling cards from the past. As the responses separate and integrate with support into the client’s present day self, a felt sense of choice and autonomy emerge. […]

Editor’s Note: The ‘client’ in this blog represents a collage of stories and experiences to represent the writer’s perspective. This is not a real person. PDF version available here   Her cheeks were beet red and her blonde wig hung down in front of her face hiding much of her eyes from my view. “What’s happening […]

Shame is often experienced as a massive, tornado-like swirl of helplessness and hopelessness that keeps tearing through our hearts and minds, through the very core of our being. Its redundant looping can become stuck on any number of thoughts of inadequacy: I am such a terrible failure; there is no way anyone could ever love […]

I recently had the honor of working with an 80-year-old client, a magnificent embodiment teacher and leader in her own right. When she first came to me, she was spinning in such shame-chaos that a crucial legal document needing attention remained unaddressed, which only compounded her shame, self-blame, and worry, and increased real world consequences. She […]