Rejection, Trauma, Chronic Shame and Psychopathology
- Types of rejection and their relationship with psychopathology
- Identity-based rejection: compounding factors
- Parental rejection in childhood and developmental trauma
- Insecure attachment, rejection sensitivity, and pathological narcissism
- Limitations of the research and potential risks
- Case example: David, 42, anxious-avoidant attachment
Working with Core Needs and Shame-Based Identifications
- Core beliefs: “I’m Bad” and environmental failure
- Reconstruct the client’s developmental history and environmental deficits
- EMDR’s AIP model and unprocessed rejection memories
- Development and maintenance of chronic shame and isolation
- Skill: Three types of Resource and Development Installation exercises
Internal Attachment Repair and Developing an Inner Soothing System: Parts Work, Narrative and Self-Compassion Tools
- Clinical Skills to Address Rejection and Shame in the Moment
- Bring implicit shame into explicit awareness
- Parts of self: the rejected child, the harsh critic, the protector
- Use shame-sensitivity techniques
- Case example: Elisabeth, 56, complex PTSD, disorganized attachment
- Create a more positive and adaptive self-concept
- Link events and emotions: connect adult patterns to childhood rejection experiences
- Co-create a coherent narrative
- Establish co-equality in the therapeutic relationship
- Self-compassion and self-parenting techniques
- Risks, research and limitations
Processing the Grief of the Lost Childhood
- Grieving the “healing fantasy”
- Mourning the self
- Sentence completion exercise
- Risks, research and limitations
Use the Therapeutic Relationship as a New Attachment Experience
- The Relational Foundation
- Empathic attunement and vitality affect
- Mutual affective bond
- Use your own feelings to enhance clinical outcomes
- Interpret countertransference
- Therapeutic use of self-disclosure about relational dynamics
- Process the inevitable rupture and repair


