Overcoming Chronic Shame - 20 hours

Service Description

If you struggle with recurring addiction, depression, anxiety, low self esteem, or chronic self doubt the cause might be deeply buried shame. No matter how hard you try to overcome this kind of core pain - whether through career success, distractions, women, addiction, adventure, scrolling - the underlying hurt remains. This is more than just simple embarrassment, guilt, or shame, however; these symptoms are likely an indicator of shame so pervasive and entrenched that it is bound to your identity. It is tangled up in all that you do and all that you are. This is toxic shame. Not every man who struggles with the problems I mentioned does so because of toxic shame, but men with this kind of shame will almost certainly have histories of these problems. The biggest challenge is acknowledging such shame is even present. Most men want to believe they have overcome abusive childhoods. But we are incredibly susceptible to shame when we are young and there are many ways to induce shame in a child. Overt and consistent rejection, criticism, ridicule, abandonment, abuse of any kind (whether physical, sexual, or emotional), are just some of the ways young children can internalize a view of themselves as flawed, wrong, problematic, weak, and shameful. Quite often I work with men who struggle with toxic shame but came to me only after their loved ones (usually a wife or girlfriend) pushed them to finally acknowledge a problem and either get to work or end the relationship. We men can be a stubborn bunch. Toxic shame is a miserable experience that feeds off of secrecy and avoidance. Men hide their pain through in various ways. Work success, female conquests, addictions, and distractions are common. Using the latest in evidence-based treatment for shame we work systematically to uncover the sources of your shame, challenge the beliefs and behaviors that maintain shame, and help you move beyond shame to freedom and health.