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Shame

38 techniques · 13 approaches
ACT
Continuous You
Continuous You
A self-as-context exercise. The client recalls different life stages and notices that thoughts, roles, body and circumstances have changed, …
ACT
RAIN Technique
RAIN Technique (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Non-identification)
A four-step protocol for accepting difficult emotions: Recognize, Allow, Investigate and Non-identification. Developed in mindfulness contex…
ACT
Sky and Weather
Sky and Weather
A self-as-context metaphor. The sky holds all weather: sun, clouds, rain and storms. The sky is not damaged by the weather. Likewise, awaren…
Bruges
Solution-Focused Relapse Conversation
Solution-Focused Relapse Conversation
A key difference of the Bruges Model from traditional programs: relapse is not seen as a failure requiring prevention, but as part of the pr…
CBT
Evidence For and Against
Evidence For and Against
A systematic two-column collection of facts for and against an automatic thought. The task is not intuition or reassurance, but real evidenc…
CBT
Responsibility Pie
Responsibility Pie
A visual method for distributing responsibility across all contributing factors. The client first estimates their own responsibility, then l…
CFT
CFT Chair Work (Two-Chair / Three-Chair)
CFT Chair Work (Two-Chair / Three-Chair)
An experiential technique in which the client embodies different parts of the self by moving between chairs. The key feature of the CFT vers…
CFT
Compassionate CFT Case Formulation
Compassionate CFT Case Formulation
A structured shared map for understanding the client's difficulties through a CFT lens. It explains how early experience shaped the key fear…
CFT
Compassionate Exposure
Compassionate Exposure
An adaptation of classical exposure in CFT: the client meets avoided situations, emotions, or memories from the position of the compassionat…
CFT
Compassionate Image (Ideal Compassionate Being)
Compassionate Image (Ideal Compassionate Being)
A CFT imagery technique in which the client builds an inner image of an ideal compassionate being and interacts with it. The brain does not …
CFT
Compassionate Imagery Rescripting
Compassionate Imagery Rescripting
An imagery technique for working through painful memories: the adult "compassionate self" "enters" the memory and supports the child who was…
CFT
Compassionate Letter Writing
Compassionate Letter Writing
A written practice in which the client writes a letter to themselves from the position of the compassionate self or an imagined wise, kind f…
CFT
Compassionate Self
Compassionate Self
The central CFT technique — identifying with the "best version of self", the part that holds wisdom, strength, and warmth. It draws on the "…
CFT
Fears, Blocks and Resistances to Compassion (FBR)
Fears, Blocks and Resistances to Compassion (FBR)
A diagnostic and therapeutic work with what stops the client from receiving compassion — to self, from others, to others. Gilbert distinguis…
CFT
Functional Analysis of Self-Criticism
Functional Analysis of Self-Criticism
A technique for exploring the functions of the self-critical inner voice through guided discovery. For most clients, self-criticism is not m…
CFT
Loving Kindness / Compassionate Wishes Practice (Metta)
Loving Kindness / Compassionate Wishes Practice (Metta)
An adaptation of the Buddhist practice of metta in the CFT version of Gilbert & Choden. The three flows of compassion are used together with…
CFT
Receiving Compassion from Others
Receiving Compassion from Others
A specific CFT practice aimed at developing the capacity to receive care, warmth, and support from others. Many clients can give compassion …
CFT
Soothing Rhythm Breathing (SRB)
Soothing Rhythm Breathing (SRB)
The basic bodily practice of CFT, aimed at activating the parasympathetic nervous system and the soothing/affiliative system. Slow diaphragm…
CFT
Three Circles Model (Threat-Drive-Soothing)
Three Circles Model (Threat-Drive-Soothing)
A psychoeducational CFT model that describes three evolutionarily shaped emotion-regulation systems: threat, drive/incentive, and soothing/a…
CFT
Working with Shame (De-Shaming)
Working with Shame (De-Shaming)
A set of CFT interventions targeted at shame as the central pathogenic affect. Gilbert distinguishes external shame (fear of being rejected)…
DBT
Non-judgmentally
Non-judgmentally
Building the capacity to see facts without moral labels: not "I am terrible" but "I was late"; not "this is a catastrophe" but "this happene…
DBT
Opposite Action
Opposite Action
When the emotion does not fit the facts of the situation — do the action opposite to the urge that the emotion produces. Fear says "flee" — …
EMDR
Blind to Therapist Protocol
Blind to Therapist Protocol
The client goes through the standard EMDR process without disclosing the content of the trauma to the therapist. The therapist knows there i…
IFS
Do-Over / Reparenting
Do-Over / Reparenting
After witnessing, the Self offers the Exile what was missing back then: protection, comfort, love, fairness. This is not a change of the mem…
IFS
IFS with Shame and Guilt
IFS with Shame and Guilt
Martha Sweezy describes the specifics of working with shame and guilt in IFS. Shame is the burden of an Exile ("I am bad through and through…
IFS
Inviting the Part
Inviting the Part
A gentle technique of first contact with a part that is not yet ready for dialogue or is actively avoiding it. The therapist helps the clien…
IFS
Unburdening
Unburdening
The central transforming technique of IFS. After the Exile has been seen, given a corrective experience, and retrieved into the present, it …
IFS
Witnessing the Exile
Witnessing the Exile
Witnessing is the first and most important step of work with an Exile, after permission has been granted by the Protectors. The client's Sel…
IFS
Working with a Firefighter Part
Working with a Firefighter Part
Firefighters are reactive Protectors who activate when the Exile has "broken through" and the pain is already being felt. The aim of a Firef…
MBCT
Self-Compassion / Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta)
Self-Compassion / Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta)
The client deliberately directs wishes of kindness and care toward themselves, using phrases like "May I be well". Self-compassion in MBCT i…
MI
Expressing Empathy
Expressing Empathy
One of the four original principles of MI. Empathy in MI is the accurate understanding of the client's inner experience, conveyed through re…
REBT
Rational Emotive Imagery (REI)
Rational Emotive Imagery (REI)
An emotive technique developed by Maxie Maultsby and adapted by Ellis. The client vividly imagines the distressing situation, lets themselve…
REBT
Shame-Attacking Exercises
Shame-Attacking Exercises
The client deliberately does something "awkward" or "embarrassing" in a public place — not to cause harm, but to confront the fear of social…
SFBT
Normalizing
Normalizing
A technique that shows the client that their state, feelings, and behavior are a normal reaction to the situation. This is not a defect of p…
Schema
Reattribution
Reattribution
The client reinterprets a childhood event, shifting the blame and responsibility from themselves to the real causes — the parent's behavior,…
Schema
Schema Psychoeducation
Schema Psychoeducation
A structured explanation to the client of the concept of early maladaptive schemas, the mechanisms of their formation in childhood, the thre…
Schema
Setting Limits on Punitive Parent Mode
Setting Limits on Punitive Parent Mode
The client learns to actively reject the internal voice of cruel criticism (the Punitive Parent mode), using the technique of externalizing …
Yalom
Working with Guilt (Yalom / Frankl)
Working with Guilt (Yalom / Frankl)
Distinguishing neurotic guilt (irrational, not tied to a real violation of values — the constant feeling that "I am not good enough") from e…
Materials are informational and educational and summarize publicly available scientific sources. They are not medical or psychological advice, are not intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment, and do not replace consultation with a qualified professional.