Healing Shame: A Workshop for Therapists
with Bret Lyon, PhD and Shelia Rubin, LMFT, RDT/BCT

•Please go to HealingShame.com for the most current and comprehensive information about Healing Shame Workshops.

Shame is perhaps the most painful of all emotions. It is at the root of both “the inner critic” and perfectionism. It binds with and hides behind other emotions, such as anger and fear, so that it is often hard to detect. Many individuals and couples go to great lengths to avoid acknowledging or even feeling shame – and this gets in the way of making progress in treatment. Shame often fuels and promotes the negative cycle between members of a couple. Where there is blame, there is shame.

The difficulty we feel in dealing with shame carries over into the therapy situation. For many clients who don’t get better in therapy, shame – unacknowledged and not worked through – is the primary factor. Both therapists and clients need to be educated about shame – how it develops, what it is and how it works. And therapists need help in developing a working model of how to help their clients identify, work through and heal their shame.

In this workshop, we will learn how to help our clients recognize shame, work through it and gain a new sense of compassion for themselves – and their partners. We will become more sensitive to the shaming often implicit in the therapy situation and learn how to counter shame in therapy. We will be able to help clients separate feelings of shame from other emotions. And we’ll learn how to take clients back to early shaming situations and reverse the outcome – helping clients move their energy powerfully outward rather than turn it against themselves. We will look at working with individuals – as well as unpacking the dance of shame that arises within a couple in the reactive cycle as neither partner gets their attachment needs met.

“Best workshop I attended all year. Essential knowledge for anyone who does any kind of emotionally based psychotherapy. Greatly needed information which will be immediately useful.”
– Richard Doleman, MFT, Certified EFT Therapist

"This may be the best, most helpful CEU workshop I have been to."
– Nancy Gifford, LCSW

“Best workshop I've been to this year.  Loved it. Somatic and experiential focus, with excellent cognitive framing.”
– Jay Seiff-Haron, PsyD

"It was all very helpful – the demos, the sharing, the didactic. Good balance. It was all relevant – personally and professionally."
– Jan Di Santo, MFT, Certified EFT Therapist.

“My work with clients has deepened as I am seeing and addressing shame so much more and educating clients about it, often with dramatically positive results.”
– Dinah Bachrach, LMFT

“I want to thank you guys again for a wonderful, stimulating, evocative workshop.  I do think that the perspective you bring to the central importance of shame in healing the psyche is unique and timely. The safe environment that you created in the group was special. I was touched by your courage in putting yourselves out there to work in front of the group. I loved the soft, gentle but persistent way each of you tracked the client–finding ways to connect with and highlight their underlying process.”
– Paul Aiken, Ph.D.

Mailing List:

To be added to the Healing Shame email list and receive notice of upcoming workshops, please email Bret at bret@1bret.net

Schedule of Upcoming Workshops

For a current schedule of upcoming Healing Shame workshops in Berkeley, California and other locations in the United States and Canada, click here.

CEUs for MFTs and LCSWs
All weekend workshops meet the qualifications for continuing education credits (CEUs) for MFTs and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. PCE #4456.

Other Training for Therapists with Bret Lyon, Ph.D.

After being a featured presenter at every CAMFT chapter in the Bay Area, I am now offering training designed especially for therapists who want to bring awareness of breathing and body "armoring" into their therapy practice -- and to learn to create safety and build empathy with their clients.

My approach is based on the work of Wilhelm Reich, the father of all somatic therapies. Reich developed a mind-body therapy which works directly with the clients' breath and energy flow. Breathing, Reich found, is the key element which connects mind and body.


Creating Safety and Building Empathy through Reichian Breathwork, Focusing & Non-Verbal Communication

Some studies suggest that up to 93% of communication is non-verbal. Yet as therapists, we often give great emphasis to words -- ours and our clients'. While words are indeed important, much of the work in therapy takes place in silence. Indeed, in creating safety and building empathy, much of the conversation is non-verbal. When words are feeling-based and body-based, arising out of the non-verbal, they are fewer and more effective. Often, our challenge with clients is to bring them out of their heads and into their bodies -- and to slow them down so they can find words for what is really going on. In this workshop, you will learn new skills which will help both you and your client gain the benefits of increased body awareness and full, free breathing. When you are breathing fully, your very presence will make clients feel more comfortable and open. Noticing variations in the clients' breathing and body language can lead to new insights. You will learn to use subtle, non-verbal communication to help clients stay in their feelings and in their bodies. You will explore new ways of creating safety, building empathy, increasing rapport, and reducing anxiety -- while avoiding the stress and exhaustion that comes from trying too hard to be helpful.

Dates to be scheduled as needed.


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