Unpacking and Healing Shame: Theory and Practice for Counseling Practitioners

Description

Shame is often the silent barrier that keeps clients stuck—disconnected from their emotions, isolated from others, and cut off from their own inner healing. This course offers behavioral health clinicians a vital lens and practical tools for recognizing, understanding, and helping clients heal shame in its many forms.

Whether you’re navigating trauma, addiction, or identity with your clients, this training invites you to examine how shame silently shapes emotional health—and how to bring empathy and clarity to your clinical work through embodied, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed practices.

Shira Sameroff, LCSW, is a therapist, coach, and teacher with over three decades of experience supporting individuals and communities in healing work. Her expertise in holistic, somatic, and anti-oppressive modalities—along with her deeply intuitive and collaborative style—makes her an insightful guide on the topic of shame. Shira’s background spans psychotherapy, supervision, and training across diverse settings, making her uniquely equipped to guide fellow clinicians through the complexities of shame-based experiences.

Shira’s approach blends evidence-informed theory with compassionate, embodied practice. She integrates Internal Family Systems (IFS), Hakomi, somatic psychology, and nature-based healing to help learners translate insight into clinical skill. Her delivery emphasizes reflection, humility, and connection—as well as respect for each participant's lived and professional experience.

This self-study course unpacks the origins and impact of shame across personal, interpersonal, and systemic levels. Topics include the difference between shame and guilt, shame’s role in trauma and addiction, how shame shows up in practice (and in the practitioner), and how oppressive systems contribute to and reinforce shame. Participants will explore somatic and relational interventions to support healing and wholeness in their clients.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the roots and consequences of shame: Gain insight into how early experiences, trauma, and systemic factors shape shame-based beliefs and behaviors.

• Distinguish shame from guilt and its clinical implications: Learn how to identify and respond to each emotion in practice.

• Develop culturally responsive, somatic strategies: Address shame with tools that integrate body, mind, and social context.

Why This Course?

• Clinician-focused and trauma-informed: Created specifically for mental health professionals navigating the emotional complexities of shame with clients.

• Led by a seasoned practitioner: Shira Sameroff’s decades of hands-on experience and integration of anti-oppressive and somatic work make this training uniquely relevant and impactful.

• Offered by a trusted CE provider: Telehealth Certification Institute equips clinicians with practical, high-quality continuing education that supports both professional and personal growth.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the origins and development of shame and its impact on emotional well-being.

• Differentiate between shame and guilt.

• Explore the relationship between shame and addiction.

• Recognize cultural and societal influences on shame.

• Address the role of shame in perpetuating oppression.

Engaging, grounded, and rich with insight, this course invites you to deepen your understanding of a powerful emotion that shapes human behavior—and to strengthen your role as a healing presence for your clients.

Add this course to your cart to begin the journey of unpacking and healing shame.

Format and Access

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Instruction consists of 3 hours of video instruction and a post-test.

Course Details

Availability: 

From the time of registration, you have six months to access the coursework.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services. This continuing education course is designed for licensed behavioral health professionals and provides training in suicide prevention using expressive arts as an integrative approach. However, this is not a creative arts therapy course and does not provide training in creative arts therapy.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructor

About Shira Sameroff, LCSW

Shira Sameroff is a therapist, coach, and teacher with experience rooted in decades of practice with people of diverse identities, ages, and life stories in a wide array of settings. Professional roles have included therapy, supervision, professional development training, coaching, teaching, community organizing, transformative decluttering and a decade and a half on the leadership team of a community-based social work agency in Brooklyn, NY, US.

Shira weaves a range of therapeutic healing modalities, including IFS, Hakomi, and other holistic, somatic, nature-based, and anti-oppressive practices into her practice. Shira offers therapy, coaching, and professional development for individuals and organizations around themes including group facilitation, working with shame, oppression-ending practices, giving and receiving feedback, empowering practice with youth, and tending to self as a practitioner.

Shira’s approach is collaborative, intuitive, creative, and full of heart and is rooted in my own lived experience of healing, learning, and emerging.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

Credit Hours:

This course consists of 3 continuing education hours of credit.

Counselors:

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No, 6693.  Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified.  Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Mental Health Counselors. #MHC-0048.

Marriage and Family Therapists:

Many MFT licensing boards accept our courses or one of the approvals which we have from professional associations.  You can check with your board to determine if your licensing board would accept this course.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0135, effective May 8, 2025.

Social Workers:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, #1609, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 05/02/2024 – 05/02/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 3 clinical continuing education credits.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers #SW-0435.

Addiction Professionals:

This course has been approved by Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #193104, Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

Psychologists:

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0128.

Art Therapists:

Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Creative Arts Therapists #CAT-0093.

Other Professionals:

This course qualifies for 180 minutes of instructional content as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and professional organizations.  Retain your certificate of completion and contact your board or organization for specific filing requirements.

This course is a non-interactive, online self-study.

Participants may request a printed version of their certificate of completion to be delivered by mail. A shipping/handling fee of $6.95 will be charged per request. Shipping internationally may require an additional charge.

Accommodations and Policies

Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations.

You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
• Cancellation Policy
• Grievance Policy
• Support Options
• Disclosure Statement