According to Brene Brown, there are three common ways that we disconnect from the pain of shame, these are called shame shields. Which Shame shields do you gravitate toward? Who are you most likely to use shame shields with? Are there certain situations that prompt you to use shame shields?
For a lot of people, it can be challenging to find balance between all the different roles they fill within their lives: a worker, a parent, a spouse, a child, a homemaker, a student, a citizen, and a leisurite. To start finding balance, it can be helpful to take inventory of how much time we’re spending in each role currently, as well as ideally how much time we would like to spend in each role. To do this, first create a pie chart that shows how your roles are currently balanced in your life. Next, create another pie chart that shows how you could ideally balance your life. Finally, you can begin to explore ways to get closer to your ideal balance
Daring Greatly: In her book, Daring Greatly, researcher and author Brené Brown beautifully defines vulnerability as “uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure… [that] is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy courage, empathy, and creativity.” In other words, vulnerability is uncomfortable but often necessary to foster emotions and experiences that help us feel fulfilled and satisfied in life. Take some time to think about ways you can practice vulnerability in big and small ways, and maybe even challenge yourself to experiment with being vulnerable.
This is a guided meditation activity that can help clients identify feelings and physical sensations of feelings intheir bodies.
This intervention is useful for helping children more tangibly understand how they display or hide feelings from others in their life. This can be a helpful intervention to gather information and reflect what can be worked on in the therapy setting.
This is an intervention that can be used to hep with identification of emotions / thoughts, cognitive challenging / reframing, instillation of hope, and empowerment.
This guided practice is intended to help ease fear, anxiety, or any heavy feelings you may have at this time. It’s nothing more than breathing and focusing your intention on deep healing.
This practice can help clients accept and face shame, and practice attending to it and distracting from it.
Accepting our own vulnerability is made easier when give ourselves compassion. Use this self-compassion break with clients in session or encourage them to use it on their own when working with difficult or vulnerable emotions.
“Containment is a powerful skill for all of us. Containment allows us to give our nervous systems a break from distress and choose what and when we want to think about certain things.”
