Shame Therapy and Disclosure
The importance of this sub-section is to demonstrate how shame can have an impact on the amount of disclosure in therapy. It has been suggested that a lack of disclosure can influence therapeutic outcome. Based on research, participants have identified one of the reasons that they are unwilling to disclose is due to fear of the reaction of the therapist. The purpose of discussing shame and disclosure in therapy is to highlight how non-disclosure can be problematic with clients who feel shame in therapy. This is further emphasized by Lewis’ (1971) findings that in the therapeutic relationship, patients may not be aware of their feelings as shame (unidentified shame) and as such, will use other words to point to the shame experience. This means that therapists must be aware of the impact that the relational context has on clients who feel shame.
Key components of enabling a client to reveal shame seems to rely on the observations and experience of the therapist in recognizing a client who may be experiencing shame. This study has a role to play in this regard, it is hoped that the colleceted and analysed experiences of what it is like to feel shame, relationally, could act as signposts for therapist to recognize unspoken (and subtlties of spoken) shame. Therefore, one of the aims of this study is to product descriptive accounts that have good theoretical transferability to help the therapist in practice with other individuals.
Research
Profoundly interpersonal, the experience of shame is also therefore social and cultural. Shame is the result of feeling deficient, whether in relation to a parent, an admired friend, or a more powerful social group (39).
Unacknowledged Shame Theory is seen in a perspective that shame can cause a destructive emotion and can promote crime instead of preventing it if it is not managed positively. By using apology in return for forgiveness symbolises that reparation can commence (Braithwaite, 2004).
Esperanza’s situation is a reminder that shame can have a positive effect on people’s lives by being a source of motivation and inspiration.
When studying shame, Brené Brown (2006) found that many people brought up feelings of being trapped. These same people felt as though others had the same feelings of being trapped but still had difficulty sharing these feelings. The areas that most women had shame about were their body image, sexuality, parenting, their job, religion, aging, speaking out, surviving trauma, family, and motherhood (Brown, 2006) These same topics were the most common in the sessions I sat in on and in group. Many counselors at Mindful Soul specialized in areas such a trauma, parenting, and family due to how often they are the root causes of a clients visit.
Shame is unspoken, it is the main secret behind different forms of broken behaviors. The aspiring researcher Brene Brown, in her earlier talk, “The Power of Vulnerability”, which became a viral hit and the most favored TED Talk video, explores what the possibilities are when people confront their shame. Along with her most recent video “Listening to Shame”, Brown speaks of both shame and vulnerability throughout the presentation. She digs into the uncomfortable, unacceptable, and human emotions that we keep deep within us and dares us to show our authentic selves. The presentation includes the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos and pathos to build the fundamental objectives of the talk. In which throughout her talk, Brown portrays great credibility
This paper begins with a general idea of self-disclosure by therapists and the importance of keeping the client’s needs first. It covers many aspects of self-disclosure including ethically what to look for in the motives of using self-disclosure with a client. There are other aspects of self-disclosure which include transference and countertransference which are issues which need to be attended to immediately for the therapist to remain objective and not react to a client. Therapists must be cautious in disclosing information and make sure it is relevant to treatment. Beneficence and nonmaleficence are important things to consider when self-disclosing and the therapist must be educated, well trained, and have experience before considering self-disclosure. Also included in this paper are different orientations in relation to self-disclosure. Those orientations include Adlerian therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, feminist therapy, and relational therapy. Although these are only a few orientations,
How Therapist Self-Disclosure And Non-Disclosure Affects Clients”, stated that, “The study results suggest that therapist self‐disclosure has both positive and negative treatment implications.” It depends on how therapeutic the self-disclosure would benefit the client in that given situation, and the client’s receptiveness to what information is given to them; for example, one patient may respond positively to a therapist’s self –disclosure that reveals another safe point of view of an issue, while another patient might feel that therapist’s has over stepped their boundaries. Madill et al. stated that, “These were sometimes attributed to inexperience and sometimes the characteristics of the total situation, such as events from the therapist's personal life” (13). There are times when sharing something from the therapist can help explain an issue that is present during the time of that therapy appointment. Another problem with a therapist’s self-disclosure is that after years of treatment, the therapist can run out of examples to use to clarify a point made during the appointment. Years and years of treatment sometimes cover issues where the therapist, will add something about himself or herself. People who tend to talk for a very long time during therapy can relate on a level that is not crossing the boundaries. In addition, self –disclosure may be a major problem for therapists who live and work in rural communities, because
Shame is defined as feeling usually that an individual recognizes as abnormal or radically flubbed. Shame is also a painful emotion that can come from the exterior reference like a response from individuals. The exterior experience of shame Richard feels is when his teacher, makes a downgrade statement about Richard's poverty. The torment him via elucidating his lack of a father and his poor school performance, which she unsympathetic assumes is a result of idiotic.
Shame has been the difference between people reforming themselves and killing themselves. The effect that shame has on society today can make people commit suicide, lose jobs, or just flat out ruin lives. In The Scarlet Letter, Perry's article, and various ethnic news sources today can show, shame is very controlling and has a grip on everyone's lives. While reinforcement can help restrict the amount of harm that is given to someone through criticism, shame can still be used as an effective tool to influence someone to do good because of its prevalence in today's political and social systems, and its grip that it has on daily social media platforms.
According to Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston has said “The majority of shame researchers approve that the difference between shame and guilt is best understood as the difference between “I am bad” and “I did something bad”. Shame is about the humiliation that we go through, who we are, and guilt is about our actions.” Shame is dishonest all the time. It makes them do cruel things such as criminal acts. She believes that people can change their conduct when they feel guilty. Guilt is different from shame because it involves feeling remorse. Guilt is a feeling it is a form of anticipation of physical punishment. A drawback to public shaming is that it destroys confidence. It corrodes us the capability of change.
Goldfried, M.R., Burckell, L.A., & Eubanks-Carter, C. (2003). Therapist self-disclosure in cognitive-behavior therapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology, Special Issue: In Session, 59(5), 555-568.
Shame is the path to maturity and integrity, However, if those same needs are realized in a context of powerlessness, abandonment, abuse, and fear, Therefore, it can be led to discount ourselves and become emotionally distant from people. We may then exhibit symptoms mentioned above as we cover how we feel about ourselves, hoping that nobody notices the truth. What created is a phony self. We lie to ourselves, because of the person, we show to people. We avoid our needs, Our neediness is wrong and something that only seems to hurt us.
Some forms of self-disclosure are unavoidable. When a client walks into a therapy room they learn a great deal about their therapist. They will instantly see their therapist’s gender, approximate age, race, body type and style of dress (Peterson, 2002). In addition, information about credentials, where they were
“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change”(Brené Brown). In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman is publicly shamed for having a child with a man who is not her husband. Another example of public shame can be seen in modern day articles “Florida ‘Scarlet Letter’ Law is Repealed by Gov. Bush,” by Dana Canedy, and “Houston Couple Gets ‘The Scarlet Letter’ Treatment.” Both talk of public shame that people have had to endure in the present day. Public shaming is not an effective punishment because it is a cruel and unusual punishment, it does not deter crime, and it can emotionally traumatize the one being shamed.
Public shame negatively effects a person emotionally and mentally through its humiliation and seemingly never ending harassments. Constant attacks of threats and critics, and the hate and mockery gives someone the impression that they are isolated and alienated from everyone. They feel insecure about who they are and what they have done, blaming themselves for the mess that they have made, and allowing society to dig deeper into their wound. Monica Lewinsky, commonly known as “that woman”, was just 22 when she had firsthand experience with public