John Bowlby Memorial Conference 2018

Shame Matters 

Friday 21st September 5:30pm - 9pm

Saturday 22nd September 9am - 5pm 

Speakers: Dr Ulrich Schultz Venrath, Dr. Colwyn Trevarthen, Dr. Judith Solomon, Dr. Richard Chefetz, Dr. Aileen Allyene, Dr. Adriano Schimmenti, Victoria Settle.

Venue: Institute of Child Health, UCL 30 Guildford Street,Institute of Child Health,London WC1N 1EH

CONFERENCE AIM

Shame can be one of the most paralysing and withering of affects and relational experiences. It can be unbearably painful and corrosive, attacking one’s body and identity. It threatens to freeze the self and can have a significant and long lasting negative impact on the quality of attachment relationships. Shame seems to emerge as a consequence of neglect, critical and humiliating caregiving and other attachment traumas. In the context of our clients’ experience in the therapeutic relationship, the feeling of shame may relate to past or current events, actions and memories. In the absence of meaningful relationships and connections, shame can often trigger the terror of aloneness and dissolution.

John Bowlby, along with an ever expanding body of empirical research, has taught us that secure relationships are the bedrock of affect regulation and reflective functioning, creative exploration and robust well being. Understanding shame as a relational problem, it is here that the client can gradually learn to move away from the overwhelming cycle of unbearable shame affects.