Shame-informed Counselling and Psychotherapy; Eastern and Western Perspectives; 1

Unhealthy or maladaptive shame is believed by many to be the root cause of a diverse range of mental health problems. If we want to offer a more reparative healing to people contending with these psychological issues, we must ultimately trace back and resolve their underlying shame. This book offers researchers practitioners and students a balance of theoretical and empirical evidence for a practical approach in shame-informed counselling and psychotherapy approach. Drawing on empirical field study evidence on shame, and making references to both Western and Eastern literature on the subject, Ng advocates that shame-informed interventions be applied following or alongside the contemporary counselling modalities and protocols. Using his 15 years' professional practice in the field, he offers a shame-informed counselling and psychotherapy approach which aims not merely to help the individual cope with or suppress the shame as commonly advocated in current literature, but also deals with its roots through the restructuring of core beliefs and early memories. Shame-informed Counselling and Psychotherapy Cover -1 Endorsements 2 Half Title 6 Title Page 8 Copyright Page 9 Contents 10 Figures 12 Tables 13 Foreword 14 Acknowledgements 16 Abbreviations 18 Part I: Understanding shame 20 1. Introduction 22 Why study of shame not emphasized 22 Centrality of shame 23 Overview of the book 23 Shame as a natural, primary emotion 24 Illustrations of shame-related cases 25 Book structure 27 Bibliography 28 2. Hiddenness of shame 30 Two-year study 30 Hidden behind secondary emotions 31 Is there shame? 32 Hiddenness as a notion of face 33 Psychological reasons for hiding shame 34 Uncovering hidden shame 35 Bibliography 36 3. Shame's dualistic nature 38 Two foci 38 Two functions 39 Two awareness 40 Two sources 41 Two indicators 41 Two states 42 Bibliography 42 4. Development stages of intensified shame 43 Shame in early childhood 43 Transgenerational shaming 44 Other social settings of shaming 45 Bibliography 46 5. My own struggles with shame 48 Growing up 48 Famous in school 49 Shame in loss 50 Graduate school 51 Bibliography 51 6. Empirical findings of my study 53 Past and present shame 53 Shame as mediator 54 Self-esteem vs shame 55 Education and shame 56 Bibliography 57 7. Qualitative findings of my study 58 Participants of the qualitative study 58 Data collection and transcription 58 Process precepts of data analysis 60 Phase 1: familiarizing with the data 60 Phase 2: generating initial codes 60 Phase 3: searching for themes 60 Phase 4: reviewing the themes 60 Phase 5: defining and naming themes 60 Phase 6: producing the report 61 Results of analysis 61 Intrapsychic consequences 61 Interpersonal consequences 62 Interpersonal findings 64 Bibliography 67 8. East-West distinctives 68 Shame in Asia 68 Illustration of Chinese cultural impact on shame 69 Guilt vs shame 70 Mundane with same dynamics at work 71 Bibliography 72 9. Healthy shame 74 Anticipatory shame 74 Vicarious shame 75 Clinical implications 76 Bibliography 77 10. Unhealthy shame 79 Acute shame 79 Internalized shame 80 Clinical implications 81 Bibliography 82 11. Continuum of shame 83 Prevalence of shamefulness 83 Prevalence of shamelessness 84 Continuum of shame 85 Incorporating the setting 86 Bibliography 87 Part II: Addressing shame 88 12. Getting to the roots 90 The typical approach to treat depression 90 Physiological and psychological causes 92 Why we develop the symptoms? 93 What can we conclude from here? 94 Bibliography 95 13. Connecting the symptoms to shame 96 Initial awareness of the link 96 Surfacing the shame 98 Making the connection 99 Bibliography 101 14. Preparing for shame-informed psychotherapy 102 Can past shame memories be changed? 102 Process of reframing through imagery 103 Enhancing the outcome with experiencing 104 Enhancing with symbolic acts 105 Bibliography 105 15. Application of shame memory reframing 106 Verbatim of Anne's case 106 Counteracting the inner vow 109 Recovering disowned parts of the self 110 Bibliography 110 16. Other antidotes to unhealthy shame 112 Self-affirming scripts 112 Self-acceptance 113 Judge not self 114 Judge not others 114 Bibliography 115 17. Therapist's skills 116 Recognizing shame 116 Handling client's resistance 117 Some online therapy skills 118 Termination of therapy 119 Bibliography 120 18. Therapist's shame 121 Self-awareness 121 Shaming and re-shaming 122 Setting too high expectations 123 Bibliography 123 19. Countering shamelessness 125 Social cohesion vs social unrests 125 Concern for rising shamelessness 126 Not socializing our children on shame 127 Application in society 127 Bibliography 129 Appendix: Summary of 2018-2019 study and its quantitative results 130 Participants 130 Procedure 130 Measures 131 Results 133 Calculation of statistical correlations 136 Bibliography 138 Index 139 ""Unhealthy or maladaptive shame is believed by many to be the root cause of a diverse range of mental health problems. If we want to offer a more reparative healing to people contending with these psychological issues, we must ultimately trace back and resolve their underlying shame. This book offers researchers and students a balance of theoretical and empirical evidence for a shame-informed counselling and psychotherapy approach. Drawing on empirical field study evidence on shame, and making references to both Western and Eastern literature on the subject, Ng advocates that shame-informed interventions be applied following or alongside the contemporary counselling modalities and protocols. Using his 15 years' professional practice in the field, he offers a shame-informed counselling and psychotherapy approach which aims not merely to help the individual to cope with or suppress the shame as commonly advocated in current literature, but also deals with its roots through the restructuring of core beliefs and early memories.""-- Provided by publisher Unhealthy or maladaptive shame is believed to be the root cause of a diverse range of mental health problems. Ng draws on field study evidence, 15 years' of professional practice as well as Western and Eastern literature, to offer practical shame-informed interventions.