Shame Resources

Quiz

Books

Blog Posts

• Best 20 Healing Shame Exercises To Break Free From Toxic Shame
• How to Replace Shame With Self-Respect?
• Why Shame Feels Like Truth (But Isn’t)
• Shame and Intimacy: Why Vulnerability Feels So Dangerous
• How to Release Shame Stored From Childhood Experiences?
• Guilt And Shame In Recovery: Top 10 Tips to Overcome Them
• How to Break Shame Cycle? Top 8 Strategies
• How to Support Someone Struggling With Shame?
• How to Calm Body Shame When It Hits Out of Nowhere?

Shame Journal Prompts 

1. What is your first memory of shame?

2. Has shame been a lifelong problem for you?

3. At what age did you begin to notice that you’re struggling with feelings of shame? Has it worsened or improved over time?

4. Are you aware of any early experiences that may have caused shame?

5. How is shame causing problems in your life and relationships with others (e.g., friendships, romantic relationship, parenting)?

Shame Podcasts

• The Self-Abandonment Loop: Shame, Self-Criticism, and How to Break Free — Being Well
  Click here
  Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson examine a cycle in which shame leads to self-defeating behavior, which then creates even more shame and criticism. The episode focuses on identifying the loop and changing what you do when the inner critic creates a situation where nothing feels good enough.
• Changing Your Relationship to Shame — Being Well
  Click here
  Explains the difference between guilt and shame, questions the assumptions underneath shame, and examines where your standards about being “good enough” came from. It also discusses how to challenge a shame story instead of letting it define your identity.
• Shame and Self-Stigma: Strategies for Change — Flourishing After Addiction
  Click here
  Psychologist Jason Luoma discusses shame, self-criticism, stigma, and how these patterns can interfere with behavior change and addiction recovery. The episode focuses on practical ways of changing your relationship with shame rather than simply trying to suppress it.
• What Is Shame? A Psychologist Explains Its Hidden Power — Psychology, Actually
  Click here
  Clinical psychologist Dr. Marianne Trent explains how shame differs from guilt and how it may develop through childhood experiences, rejection, relationships, and trauma. She also discusses less obvious signs such as perfectionism, people-pleasing, avoidance, and constant self-criticism.
• Why You Feel Shame — Move Your Mind With Nick Bracks and Dr. Debra Lieberman
  Click here
  Evolutionary psychologist Debra Lieberman explains why people experience shame and guilt, how they differ, why fear of losing social value matters, and how validation-seeking and self-criticism can strengthen shame.

TED & TEDx Talks About Shame

• Listening to Shame — Brené Brown
  Click here
  One of the best-known talks about shame. Brené Brown examines how secrecy, fear of judgment, and feeling fundamentally inadequate can keep shame alive and how directly talking about shame can weaken its influence over behavior.
• What’s the Difference Between Guilt and Shame? — June Tangney
  Click here
  Clinical psychologist and shame researcher June Tangney clearly distinguishes guilt from shame. Guilt can focus attention on a specific behavior that needs correcting, while shame can turn one mistake into a much broader judgment about the entire person.
• Changing Perspective From Shame to Self-Worth — Sue Bryce
  Click here
  A personal TEDx talk about how shame can shape the way someone interprets their abilities, appearance, achievements, and worth. Bryce discusses challenging that viewpoint rather than continuing to look at yourself through the same shame-based lens.
• The Journey From Self-Stigma to Self-Worth — Nadine Ferris France
  Click here
  Explores how internalized stigma and shame can become beliefs about who you are. The talk focuses on examining those beliefs and separating other people’s judgments from your own worth.
• Unbelonging & the Self-Perpetuating Cycle of Shame — Julie Batten
  Click here
  Looks at the connection between shame, secrecy, isolation, and feeling as though you do not belong. Useful for understanding how hiding experiences because of shame can strengthen the very beliefs that make someone want to hide.