Abstract

Counselling Skills for Working with Shame helps professionals to understand and identify shame and to build shame resilience in both the client and themselves.

Shame is ubiquitous in counselling where there is an increased vulnerability and risk of exposure to shame. While many clients experience feelings of shame, it is often overlooked in the therapeutic process and as a result can be left untreated. It is particularly pertinent when working with clients who have experienced trauma, domestic or complex abuse, or who struggle with addiction, compulsion and sexual behaviours. Written in an accessible style, this is a hands-on, skills-based guide which helps practitioners to identify what elicits, evokes or triggers shame. It gives a general introduction to the nature of shame in both client and counsellor and how these become entwined in the therapeutic relationship. It focuses on increasing awareness of shame and how to release it in order to build shame resilience.

With points for reflection, helpful exercises, top tips, reminders and suggestions for how to work with clients, this is a highly practical guide for counsellors, therapists, mental health practitioners, nurses, social workers, educators, human resources, trainee counsellors and students.

Jung said 'Shame is a soul eating emotion'. Sanderson through this publication deconstructs shame and its crippling implications. She gives purpose to shame itself, providing food for thought and practical hints, tips and exercises to use for those brave enough to look into their own souls and those with whom they share a journey. This book is a must-have for all professionals and anyone who has ever felt shamed.
Linda Dominguez, Director of One in Four
Working through chronic shame, while intense and uncomfortable, can be incredibly worthwhile for people, and their counsellors. Sanderson has used extensive reading and clinical experience to develop a resource that will help counsellors, and I suspect their clients, to work with shame, rather than avoiding it. This book will also help well-intentioned but unaware counsellors prevent the loss of clients through inadvertently re-shaming them. Sanderson provides a myriad of tips to help us all navigate the mortifying and isolating effects of toxic shame. And in doing so, will help us move towards a more compassionate way of being, both to ourselves, and to others.
Dr Rebecca Gray, University of New South Wales, Australia
Christiane Sanderson BSc., MSc. is a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Roehampton. With 26 years' experience working in child sexual abuse, sexual violence, complex trauma and domestic abuse, she has run consultancy and training for parents, teachers, social workers, nurses, therapists, counsellors, solicitors, the NSPCC, the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Committee, the Methodist Church, the Metropolitan Police Service and the Refugee Council. She is the author of Counselling Skills for Working with Trauma, Introduction to Counselling Survivors of Interpersonal Trauma, Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse and The Seduction of Children, also published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
This book is a significant contribution not only to the literature on shame but how those working with clients and others can harness this powerful emotion to facilitate recovery. Christiane Sanderson's thought provoking book enables practitioners to understand shame and how this can be distinguished from other social emotions. This is not an easy task and Christiane has drawn on her considerable knowledge and skill as an academic and practitioner to provide a book that not only contributes to the debate 'what is shame and how can it be distinguished from other social emotions' but also how to work, across a wide range of clinical spheres, into utilizing such an emotion to the good. We are privileged to have Christiane working in our department.
Dr Diane Bray, Head of Department, Department of Psychology, University of Roehampton
Counselling Skills for Working with Shame provides a comprehensive understanding of shame as encountered in the clinical setting. It is theoretically sound, well researched, up to date, and brimming with creative suggestions for therapeutic intervention. The book also skilfully prompts the reader to engage in self-reflection. The author is to be commended for her endeavours to translate shame theory into sound therapeutic application across a broad sweep of clinical manifestations. This book stands out from most other shame texts in its deeply considered application to the clinical situation, including supervision. It would be a valuable addition to the bookshelf of every counsellor, psychologist and psychotherapist engaged in clinical work.
Maggie Down, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist