Foster Care Training

Shame is a demonized emotion it has been used to categorize certain people or ourselves as ‘bad’ Shame can also be a barrier to accountability the stories we tell ourselves and our bodily responses when experiencing shame can keep us away from returning to moving with integrity. How do we bring shame out of the shadows in order to heal it and work with it? How do we use it to support being in accountable relationships with others, break cycles of harm, and help us build a world that does not binarize people as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and instead allows for seeing each other in fullness, which includes the messy and harmful parts? This course provides a reframe of shame and uses a somatic lens to help individuals better track how shame shows up, resides in and can be moved through or worked with in their system, through connecting to their own personal histories and understanding the tools and strategies they need in order to not let shame call the shots. Through this, individuals will come to understand shame as a relational emotion that guides how we show up or don’t in relationships. In this course, individuals will bring compassion to shame and themselves, which supports deconstructing purity culture and carceral logics that keep us from deeper, values-aligned relationships with each other. Through guided reflections, embodied activities, and small and large group discussion, participants will gain knowledge and skills to increase their capacity to be with shame and move authentically in their relationships, especially when navigating differences.