The Unshaming Way

A revolutionary 3-part model for dismantling shame: integrate trauma, unlearn self-blame, and reclaim your personal power

For readers of Brené Brown, Curt Thompson, and Tara Brach

We’re sold the idea that shame serves a purpose: it must protect us from something…otherwise it wouldn’t be there. Right?

Not really. In Unshamed, author, therapist, and professor David Bedrick reveals that there really is no good “use” for shame—and offers a revolutionary model to dismantle it. He shows how shame affects us all…and often in ways we might not expect. Shame connects to our struggles, our relationships, how we show up in the world, and how the world shows up (or fails to) for us. So how we can shed our shame, integrate our trauma, and unleash the personal power, efficacy, and confidence that are our birthright? Bedrick breaks it down in three parts:

• Respect: how the practice of witnessing can help us be fully seen, heard, and held—and what that can do for our self-power and self-esteem
• Relating: how to restore our sense of mattering—especially when our hurt, neglect, or trauma shows up as shame
• Radical belief: how we can reclaim our voice, experiences, and embodied truths by owning our authority, autonomy, and authentic needs without projecting our shame and trauma onto others 

Bedrick explores the roots of shame, sharing the connections between trauma, shame, and experiential validation—and explains how shame shows up when woundedness isn’t seen, held, and appreciated by ourselves and our loved ones.

He helps us understand the role of boundaries in healing from shame; how shame impacts our physical health and wellness; how to unshame disturbing feelings; and the interconnections among body, social issues, shame, and abuse. With exercises, profound insights, case studies, and psychological science, Unshamed is an easy-to-understand guide to breaking shame down for good.