MASTER
 
 

IFS Therapy for Shame and Guilt: Martha Sweezy, PhD

By IFSCA (other events)

Friday, November 3 2023 2:00 PM 5:00 PM EST
 
ABOUT ABOUT

Dick Schwartz refers to the burden of shame being held by core exiles.

To see a brief video where Martha describes the workshop please CLICK HERE

This workshop will help you to:

  • differentiate between parts connected to shaming, guilting, shamefulness and guiltiness
  • recognise when guilt may be adaptive or maladaptive
  • use the above to determine which IFS interventions to use
  • understand how common separation and survivor guilt present as examples of maladaptive guilt
  • tease apart when guilt and shame may be fused
  • identify guilt-based relational burdens often taken on by a parentified child

Martha Sweezy has published several books on IFS therapy, and has authored  many articles & chapters. She is an assistant professor, part time, in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a program consultant and supervisor at Cambridge Health Alliance, and a psychotherapist in private practice in Northampton, MA. For more about Martha please visit her website

From Martha's book: Internal Family Systems Therapy for Shame and Guilt

"Shame and guilt are called the self-conscious emotions. Both feelings involve someone inside observing and blaming— shaming or guilting— and someone else inside feeling shameful or guilty. For a number of reasons, young children are exceptionally vulnerable to being shamed or guilted by external others. For one thing, they are radically innocent. Every experience is new and open to interpretation once. For another, they are completely dependent and highly attuned to adult caretakers. Shaming, which picks on specific characteristics of behavior or appearance, is news—bad news—for a child’s internal system about a member of the internal community or some feature of the body. When either a part or the body is shamed, other parts, who are often the same age or just slightly older, galvanize for action. They may report having sensed that something fundamental at the child’s core was under attack. They may say, for example, that the openhearted child invites predation, the curious child gets reprimanded, the brave one is a threat, the loud one is too much, the joyful one provokes censure, the compassionate one evokes fear, and the one who is unwanted must hide."

To read a chapter from the book please click here