Working with Shame in the ACT Model

Dr Russ Harris provides a practical and comprehensive resource for working with shame.

The following is an excerpt from ‘Tips For Working With Shame’ page 9, 2017, Dr Russ Harris.

Working with Shame in the ACT Model can involve any or all of the following:

- Body posture.

- Defusion (including noticing & naming).

- Acceptance (including normalizing, validating & expansive awareness).

- Contacting the present moment (including grounding & centering).

- Self-as-context (including noticing how shame changes over time).

- Values.

- Committed action.

- Self-compassion.

- Exposure.

- Urge-surfing.

- Acting flexibly with shame.

- Insight into how shame developed, and functions it has had both past and present.

(Note: in ACT, insight is not an end within itself but rather a means to facilitate defusion, acceptance, self-compassion).

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