Counseling tips on the importance of helping patients with shame

In General Practice, it’s very common for us to see folks with primary emotion of shame (I am bad/not good enough), which is of course associated with a sense of disconnection leading to fear/anxiety, leading to the fight/flight/freeze responses + distractions like emotional eating and drinking, which then create more shame/disconnection. 

If we can help folks become aware, process, “zoom out”, or defuse from that shame, then it might solve a lot problems. 

So how do we that?  Through ....

• supportive counseling and unconditional positive regard
• compassionate reflection
• self compassion
• better emotional literacy and self awareness
• defusion and “unhooking” from thoughts associated with shame
• taking value based actions
• breaking the cycle above!