Potential of the Shame-Affect Forum to Support *Systems Interventions*

• Reintegrative shaming praised by Rich Kuyper, 1/30/97
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    • Shame in systems by Rich Kuyper, 2/1/97
      
      

In order to work with clients' shame successfully, therapists have to have worked with their own shame and restored at least some of their own previously disowned and cutoff parts. This takes vulnerability, patience, compassion----and a lot of courage to keep looking for truth when others (or some parts of one's self) are telling you not to.

That's what attracted me to Gershen Kaufman's work ten year`s ago. He started his book Shame by revealing how he had been shamed as a child and how he had made mistakes (inadvertently broken the interpersonal bridge with clients) as a counselor. I said to myself, Here is a person who doesn't need to be in control! This was during my intern days at age 52 (when I was being overcontrolled/shamed by supervisors). I've written several times to Kaufman but have not yet met him. Obviously he's a personal hero for me. That he endorsed Judy's and my book that extends his work into the workplace, is a very big deal for me.

This forum holds the possibility/potential of supporting people who are working on lonely, scary (sometimes terrifying!) endeavors---like Margaret Blakely's and Rich Kuyper's, that seen from a larger perspective are "systems interventions." I'm holding on to the hope that it will be. I need that support; but it will be shaming to receive it at first (I'm working on a disowned part!). I have to go on the radio, etc. soon to promote the book. I've done two books before, but this one is really scary because it is a massive workplace intervention. Chauncey (workfamily@workmail.com)

• Support and Vacations by Vick Kelly, 2/12/97