Unshaming Somatic Process Work

Your experience of being human, including the struggles that come with it is not a problem to be fixed. Rather, it can be a deep call to remember the intelligence of the body, your inherent medicine, and the core of your authenticity.

The unshaming paradigm, developed by David Bedrick, turns upside down the belief that “something is wrong with you” and that healing means trying to get rid of difficult parts of yourself. Instead, we become curious about what is arising in your life. Together we create space for these experiences to express themselves and reveal the body’s own wisdom.

Through this work, you may begin to discover parts of yourself that have been silenced, overlooked, or hidden. Rather than seeing these parts as things to fix or eliminate, unshaming approaches them as messengers — carrying meaning, insight, aliveness, and intelligence.

When these parts are met with curiosity and care, they often reveal deeper aspects of your authenticity and wholeness.

Unshaming is a loving and curious way of witnessing a person’s authentic experience. Parts that have been marginalized, suppressed, or shamed are given space to exist and express themselves with respect and attention.

As these parts are welcomed, your inner gifts, medicine, and deeper identity can begin to emerge more fully. This process supports greater embodiment, self-connection, and a more authentic way of living.

Understanding Shame

Shame often enters our systems early in life. It can hide our truths, our gifts, and disconnect us from the life that might otherwise unfold naturally for us.

Shame can be subtle and pervasive. It often creates the feeling that something is fundamentally wrong with us, or that we are somehow undeserving of care, belonging, or happiness.

In unshaming work, shame is understood as an internalized critical witness. This inner voice dismisses, denies, or minimizes painful experiences — particularly those involving trauma or abuse — and can lead us to believe that the problem lies within ourselves.

Over time, shame can cause us to pathologize our own feelings, needs, and responses. Parts of ourselves become hidden or pushed into the shadows.

Healing from shame often requires the presence of an unshaming witness — someone who can meet these experiences with curiosity, respect, and compassion rather than judgment.

Working with Trauma

When we do not have a loving unshaming protective witness to situations in our life, trauma and shame can enter.

No matter how much training someone has, there is always some risk of re-traumatization when exploring sensitive material. Because of this, care, pacing, and consent are central to the process.

If signs of trauma arise in a session, I tend to this by:

• Slowing the pace of the exploration

• Supporting you to titrate the experience (approaching difficult material gradually)

• Helping you stay connected to resources and grounding

• Supporting your autonomy and choice throughout the process

• Working with the shaming witness. Often in situations that were traumatic, we had no loving protective witness. I enquire about who witnessed the situation, who you may or may not have told and why.

• Working with dissociation. I do not shame or see dissociation as bad or something to “fix,” but more so the bodies intelligence. I use this with awareness and care, to support the body to get distance and felt safety away from the traumatic experience. I then carefully guide and support to re-connect and recover your sense of power with the situation.