Shame is a harmful emotion that can not only hurt yourself, but also your relationships with others. According to Pew Research, nearly half of Americans have a family member or close friend who’s been addicted to drugs. Addiction can significantly impact relationships for the worse. Fortunately, family therapy allows relationships to be rebuilt that may have been broken by addiction. Keep reading to learn more about dealing with shame in experiential family therapy.
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What is Experiential Family Therapy?
Before diving into what is the process of dealing with shame in experiential family therapy, it’s critical to understand what is experiential family therapy. Experiential family therapy is when you incorporate a specific activity or action into family therapy. For example, role playing or recreating a conflict situation between you and your family members during a family therapy session can help your therapist observe both your actions and behaviors. This also allows you and your family members to be more aware of your own actions and behaviors when real conflict arises.
4 Ways to Deal with Shame in Experiential Family Therapy
Experiential family therapy can help rebuild relationships that may have been broken, such as in the case of a family that’s experienced drug problems. Oftentimes, shame can linger during the recovery process. It’s critical to identify and address these feelings of shame so family members can progress and rebuild their relationships with one another.
- Create a Safe Space
The first step toward the process of dealing with shame in experiential family therapy is creating a safe, non-judgmental space where each family member feels seen, heard, and valued. Shame is a vulnerable emotion and it can be easy for many people, especially recovering addicts who’ve hurt their loved ones because of their addiction, to feel a great deal of shame and guilt for the pain they’ve caused their loved ones. This is why it’s critical to first create a safe, open, honest environment to explore vulnerable feelings like shame.
- Locate the Source of Shame
Next, it’s important to locate or identify the sources of shame individuals may be experiencing while in experiential family therapy. For example, a recovering addict may feel guilt or shame for the pain they’ve caused their family members at the hands of their addiction. Likewise, an addict’s parent(s) may suffer from feelings of shame or guilt potentially for not being there for their child struggling with addiction. While each instance may be different, it’s important to identify these source(s) of shame.
- Rebuild Connections Among Family Members
Next, it’s important to rebuild connections among family members during the experiential family therapy sessions. This can look like role-playing to show how appreciative you are of your family members or understand how you may have hurt your family members by looking at their perspective.
- Ask for Forgiveness and Improve Communications
Last but not least, forgiveness and improving communication in experiential family therapy are other ways to deal with shame and strengthen your relationship with your family. Forgiveness allows family members to let go of past hurts and move forward so shame does not weigh them down.
Help Is Available
As you can see, the process of dealing with shame in experiential family therapy is important so each family member feels seen, heard, and understood. While experiential family therapy can help with a wide range of issues, it can be especially helpful with families dealing with addiction and addiction recovery. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, it’s critical you seek professional help to safely break free of addiction for good.
Maui Recovery is committed to helping patients safely overcome addiction and lead healthier, happier lives. You should never feel ashamed or afraid to ask for help in leading a healthier life. Our compassionate team of addiction specialists and mental health professionals are here to help you every step of the way along your road to recovery. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you progress along your recovery journey.
