Framing resistance thus, as a phobia of realization, can aid our psychotherapeutic approaches by allowing us to:

• View therapeutic impasses as co-created stalemates instead of placing the blame on resistant or untreatable clients 
• Develop a compassionate and curious focus on the reasons for resistance, so as to work through impediments; with a view to improving distress and symptoms
• Recognize and distinguish between physiological and psychological resistance – where client responses of fight, flight or freeze are recognized as physiological conditions and not deliberate impediments to the therapeutic process

Progressing past resistance is just one of the challenges of therapy for Trauma however – another therapeutic inhibitor we need to address is Chronic Shame. Just like resistance, shame can involve intense physiological activation – our clients may want to disappear, hide, camouflage themselves or shut down; impeding our therapeutic endeavours in multiple ways. To effectively work with chronic shame, whether co-existent with resistance or otherwise, we not only need to fully comprehend its functions, but the profound disconnection and hiddenness of shame must be compassionately experienced by client and therapist together.

Designed to be of practical value to psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, counsellors and psychiatrists, this  workshop by Kathy Steele, helps us explore ways of improving our therapeutic effectiveness with two of the most challenging aspects of Trauma therapy. We first focus on understanding ‘resistance’ as protection, and as an inevitable part of therapy that should be both welcomed and expected. The workshop discusses:

• Identifying our own possible contributions to our client’s resistance from a systems perspective
• Different types of resistances; ways to approach resistance with compassion and clarity
• Collaborative goal-setting as a strategy for diminishing resistance
• Four different therapeutic interventions we can deploy to reduce and resolve resistance

We then explore chronic shame – how we can recognize it and how we can work effectively with it. We also learn to identify and approach our own shame with compassion and acceptance. The workshop discusses:

• Utilizing several therapeutic approaches to chronic shame
• The four main defences against shame that actually maintain chronic shame
• antidotes to shame and how our clients can build resilience in the face of shame

Throughout the workshop, we will consider the role of disorganised attachment and dependency conflicts in addressing both resistance and chronic shame.