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For further information about booking or for any other questions about the available training sessions, contact Viv Bates: [email protected]

To enquire about booking any further training sessions, contact James Woodhams:

[email protected]

To learn more about Shame Competence training visit The Shame Lab or contact Luna Dolezal: [email protected]

More Information

Despite the clear links between shame and trauma, understanding shame has not traditionally been an explicit focus of trauma-informed approaches. While trauma-informed approaches ask the important question ‘What happened to you?’ (instead of ‘What is wrong with you?’), the shame competent approach additionally asks, ‘What are you experiencing right now?’. This focus gives practitioners a practical understanding of how to best manage interactions and services in order to respond appropriately to individuals’ emotional and cognitive states, working towards positive outcomes and less disengagement. 

Professor Luna Dolezal worked in collaboration with the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network to develop this innovative and evidence-based Shame Competence for Trauma Informed Practitioners Training.

The aim of the shame competence training is to enable individuals and organizations to begin to create and systematise nuanced and collaborative understandings of how shame is produced and experienced as a result of particular interactions, experiences, policies and practice, enhancing organizational and individual emotional intelligence, in order to understand the impacts and effects of shame within professional practice.

These trainings will be delivered by Vicky Brooks and Sarah Cox:

Vicky Brooks

With 20 years’ experience working in drug and alcohol services with people who have experienced profound and complex trauma, Vicky initially worked within the criminal justice system with the Prolific Offender Unit, then within the child protection & safeguarding arena working with parents. Vicky spent 3 years working across the South West Peninsula with the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC), a fundamentally trauma-informed approach to supporting families through care proceedings. Vicky was network coordinator of the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network from 2021-2024 which involved developing & delivering trauma informed practice training to over 3,000 people alongside Sarah Cox. Vicky’s background is in delivering training and facilitating group work and she has been delivering training specifically on trauma informed approaches since 2020. Vicky also delivers trauma-informed programmes with Zebra Collective.

Sarah Cox

As a Social Worker Sarah has 20 years of experience working with children and families. Sarah’s roles have included working as a child protection Social Worker, child protection chair and a LADO. She has also worked in a specialist sexual abuse service working therapeutically with children and young people who have been affected by sexual abuse and/or who have shown sexualised behaviours. Sarah has worked with adults where there is a concern of a risk of sexual harm to children along with protective parents.  Alongside Vicky, Sarah was involved in developing and delivering the trauma informed practice training, which has now been delivered to over 3,000 people. Sarah is also a consultant trainer for a national organisation who specialise in improving understanding of and responses to child sexual abuse. 

The Shame Competence training was developed by Luna Dolezal:

Luna is Professor of Philosophy and Medical Humanities at the University of Exeter, and currently co-Director of the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health. She has been researching shame for over 15 years, and is PI of the Shame and Medicine Project (2020-2025), funded by the Wellcome Trust, and was PI of the Scenes of Shame and Stigma in COVID-19 Project (2020-2022), funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. Luna is author of The Body and Shame: Phenomenology, Feminism and the Socially Shaped Body (Lexington Books, 2015), and co-author of Covid-19 and Shame: Political Emotions and Public Health in the UK (Bloomsbury, 2023), co-authored with Fred Cooper and Arthur Rose. She worked with Matthew Gibson to develop principles for Shame-Sensitive Practice, and subsequently Luna developed training in ‘shame competence’ in collaboration with the Devon & Cornwall Police. She has also worked closely with the Plymouth Trauma Informed Network to embed shame competence into trauma-informed approaches to practice. See Luna’s University of Exeter Staff Profile here.

Luna worked with Haley Peckham (Facilitator and Training Developer), Meg-John Barker (Creative Consultant), Devon & Cornwall Police, the wider Police Feedback Network and the Trauma Informed Plymouth Network to develop and pilot the Shame Competence for Trauma Informed Practitioners training in 2022. The development of the training was funded by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) and Devon & Cornwall Police Serious Violence Prevention Programme, and Open Innovation Platform Collaboration Funding, University of Exeter (2022).

The Shame Lab is an international hub founded by scholars at the University of Exeter, UK and Duke University, USA that researches shame and its effects in professional practice and organisations; provides consultancy and training in Shame Competence; and drives impact through community engagement, outreach and policy design.

Why Shame?

Shame and trauma are inextricably bound together. Recent research in trauma studies has argued that “post-traumatic shame” is a key experience that shapes post-trauma states (Theisen-Womersley, 2021). Shame is a world-organising emotion for many trauma survivors, and shame is also behind much of the understandable behaviour associated with trauma, post-traumatic stress and other post-trauma states. As a result, it is clear that trauma-informed practitioners will benefit from a deeper awareness and understanding of shame, along with competence about how to recognise and manage shame dynamics.

What is Shame Competence?

Shame is a powerful force that can profoundly impact individuals who have experienced trauma, often in a negative and destructive way. To address shame, which often remains unspoken and unacknowledged, and to begin to work constructively with shame, then shame competence is needed. Shame Competence is a set of skills, principles, and practices that can be learned by individuals and applied throughout an organisation. The aim is to engage shame constructively in order to create more engagement, wellbeing, dignity and inclusion. Shame Competence involves practitioners having a theoretical and practical understanding of shame. Practitioners must understand what shame is, be aware of, and able to identify, behaviours that are used to cope with shame. Practitioners must also be aware of shame dynamics, how shame circulates interpersonally, and develop on-going competence in identifying their own shame and its effects on their thinking, actions and behaviour within professional practice.

What can a Shame Competent Professional Do?

·         Recognise shame in themselves and in others; 

·         Understand common shame defenses and recognise hidden shame; 

·         Respond appropriately to shame and manage shame dynamics for positive outcomes; 

·         Recognise shaming and avoid using shaming; 

·         Understand how shame shows up in organisations;

·         Create psychological safety;

·         Enact trauma-informed practice.

These training sessions have been partially funded by an ESRC Impact Accelerator Award, from the University of Exeter.