ABSTRACT
This chapter provides direction for the treatment of shame concerns. Shame issues offer counselors an opportunity to establish powerful connections with their clients. Perhaps more than elsewhere, clients need the help of their counselors in exposing their shame, accepting themselves in their shameful state, and learning how to move past overwhelming shame toward realistic pride. Shamed persons run from contact with others, including their counselors. Shamed clients bring into therapy many old feelings and fears; they are particularly afraid of being abandoned in midstream by their therapists or of being renounced after they reveal their hidden selves. Therapists should also be alert to countertransference issues when dealing with shame. Many therapists find that they are most uncomfortable with a client's shame when it touches their own shame. The fear of shame may be a greater problem than shame itself with certain clients.
