Befriending Shame

Harnessing the Power of Your Healthy Conscience

This experiential online course is designed to help you understand the difference between the healthy and unhealthy messages that affect your shame.

With the help of reflective exercises, experiential webinars, and a community forum, this course is designed to give you a greater understanding of your intricate relationship with shame, and tools to help you work with it.

Join dual-licensed Dynamic Emotional Integration^® Trainer and Consultant, Anchen Texter, to learn how to truly listen to shame. You’ll learn how to work with supportive, imaginal practices to clear old contracts with shame (and shaming messages!), and you’ll have the opportunity to develop a new relationship with your indispensable shame.

What You’ll Learn:

• The ways in which shame affects every part of your life, whether you know it or not.
• How having too little shame can be as detrimental as having too much.
• How shame interacts with your anger and boundaries, contentment, sadness, fear, and many other emotions.
• How you can change your relationship with shame so that it helps you live a value-driven life of integrity.
• How the 5 Empathic Mindfulness practices can help you work with shame and all of your emotions.

Course Details

Length: 4 weeks

Dates: Monday, April 24 to Friday, May 19, 2023

Price: $145

Learning and Interaction Structure: This multimedia course contains written curriculum units, PDF downloads, audio and video components, forum discussions, and live one-hour weekly webinars using the Zoom video conferencing program.

Live Zoom Webinar Discussions: These weekly one-hour sessions will be held on the Zoom webinar program each week of the course, and will be recorded if you cannot attend.

Webinar Schedule: To be announced.

Time Commitment: You’ll read the course curriculum and interact in the forum on your own schedule (plan for a minimum of two to three hours per week), and you’ll meet with Anchen and your classmates for one hour in the Zoom each week for additional discussion and experiential practices. You will continue to have access to the online course for 2 weeks once it ends; and receive a PDF of the written curriculum.

This Course Is Suitable For: Everyone interested in emotional skills, healthy behavior, and loving self-care.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the value of shame?

A: Listening to your shame helps you become a better communicator, take action that’s in alignment with your values, and have realistic expectations for yourself and others. When you have a good relationship with your shame, you’ll be in tune with your sense of integrity, and consciously aware of the ideas and beliefs and values that shape your behavior. Then, you can communicate those values to others when something doesn’t feel right, or take action for yourself.

Q: How does shame help you live up to and support your values?

A: Your shame alerts you when you’re about to do something, or have done something that doesn’t feel right. A big part of working with your shame is learning the different ways it shows up for you, and then listening to it and acting to either fix your behavior, or making amends if you’ve made a mistake.

Q: How does this class address the “pain of shame?”

A: In Befriending Shame, you’ll look at the emotion-shaming messages that you’ve taken on unconsciously, and you’ll evaluate which messages about shame (and other emotions) you want to keep, or modify, or throw out. You’ll learn a practice to help you release old ideas (Burning Contracts), and another practice to help you create new contracts. As you become more aware of your shame, you can tune in and change your behavior before it becomes a big deal, or a big embarrassment.

Q: How long is the course?

A: This course is 4 weeks long, and it includes weekly units of written curriculum, a forum where you can post questions and comments, and a weekly live webinar. You’ll have access to the curriculum and forum for 4 weeks after the course ends, and you’ll receive a PDF of the course curriculum as well.

Q: Who is this course for?

This course is for the absolute emotional beginner, or for someone who’s familiar with The Language of Emotions and wants support in going deeper into understanding and working with their shame. You’ll start by learning basic concepts that are essential to working with emotions, and as the weeks progress, you’ll look further into shame and your individual relationship with it.

About the Instructor

Anchen Texter

Anchen Texter helps you understand and embody emotional and empathic skills so that you can work with your emotions in the moment and move through situations gracefully and in a way you can be proud of.

She is the creator of the Befriending series here at Empathy Academy: Befriending Shame, Befriending Anger, Befriending Sadness, and Befriending Fear.