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Leila, I have been thinking about what you wrote about shame. It's such a fascinating almost taboo subject. In the past, I really didn't like the idea of having shame, but now I see it so differently--I actually look for the places where it might exist so that I can work through it. Maybe it's when it's unconscious and/or repressed that it becomes dangerous, but it can be such a portal to deeper emotions. What do you think?

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I agree, we are just stating to understand the role shame plays in trauma, guilt for example is an emotion that has been widely researchers (survivors guilt etc), but some psychologists think that shame is the key to working with trauma and PTSD.

They describe it as ‘a devaluing experience that places blame on the self’ (Sippel, Marshall 2011

Not all trauma or events result in PTSD, clearly, but the role of shame could conceivably sit with experiences that don’t surface.

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‘The curious thing about shame is that it likes to hang around with our self-esteem’. Yes, this resonated.

When I’m anxious I have nightmares about being in a maths GCSE exam. But I had the most amazing teacher who taught me how to write well so my mental scaffolding about those two areas is firmly in place... I spend a lot of time showing my students how to edit their work because I was shown how to do it by that teacher and I can see now what difference that made to my life.

Empire of Light is a brilliant film. Olivia Colman should get an Oscar.

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When I signed up to do psychology I didn’t realise how much maths was involved and I think this ignorance was the only thing that kept the anxiety at bay 🫣.

I love that you are passing on that writing knowledge and scaffolding 💛

I’m very much in love with Olivia, and I can’t wait to watch this (struggling for a child sitter at the moment! ).

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I’m crazy about Olivia too

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