Working with Shame with LGBTQ Clients (2 CE Hours)

Description:

This 2-hour training introduces Shame Containment Theory (SCT) as a relational and attachment-informed framework for understanding shame and its clinical significance when working with LGBTQ+ clients. The presentation will examine shame as a protective response rooted in attachment injury, outline the core components of SCT, and explore how contained shame, uncontained shame, shame containment strategies, and re-containment strategies may present in therapeutic work.

The workshop will then apply SCT to LGBTQ+ clinical contexts, with attention to heteronormativity, internalized stigma, concealment, pathologisation, microaggressions, and transgender shame. Participants will be invited to think critically about how shame may be mistaken for other presenting problems, how clinicians’ own assumptions may contribute to misattunement or pathologisation, and how therapy can respond in ways that are affirming, shame-sensitive, and clinically useful.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the core concepts of Shame Containment Theory, including attachment injuries, shame as protection, contained shame, uncontained shame, shame containment strategies, and re-containment strategies.
2. Apply Shame Containment Theory to therapeutic work with LGBTQ+ clients by identifying ways that heteronormativity, internalized stigma, concealment, microaggressions, and pathologising clinical responses may shape shame presentations and treatment needs.

Activity Schedule:

10 minutes: 

• Welcome, framing, and self-care
  • Introduction to the workshop, self-care guidance, and brief framing of why shame matters in LGBTQ+ clinical work.

25 minutes: 

• Foregrounding shame in LGBTQ+ lives
  • Introduction to shame as a relational and global experience, followed by consideration of why LGBTQ+ clients may be especially vulnerable to shame through attachment injuries, minority stress, concealment, and daily microaggressions.

30 minutes: 

• LGBTQ+ clinical examples of shame
  • Exploration of contained shame in LGBTQ+ contexts, including “nameless estrangement,” transgender shame, asexuality and grey sexuality, gay and lesbian experiences, and the risks of pathologising sexuality in therapy.

5 minutes: Brief reflection

25 minutes: 

• Introduction to Shame Containment Theory
  • Overview of SCT as a framework for understanding shame, including its origin, purpose, six components, and core principles.

15 minutes: 

• Applying SCT to shame presentations
  • Teaching on attachment injuries, shame as protection, contained shame, uncontained shame, shame containment strategies, and re-containment strategies, with links back to LGBTQ+ clinical presentations.

5 minutes: 

• Practice implications
  • Working with shame safely in therapy, recognising shame somatically and relationally, using permission, and avoiding premature removal of shame containment strategies.

5 minutes:  Closing reflection

Speaker Bio:

Lisa Etherson is a psychosexual therapist, speaker, and PhD researcher specialising in shame and attachment. She is the developer of Shame Containment Theory (SCT), an original framework that understands shame as a protective response rooted in attachment injury and relational experience rather than simply as pathology.

Her doctoral research explores the relationship between shame and compulsive sexual behaviour in men, with SCT serving as the central theoretical and clinical framework. Alongside her academic work, Lisa delivers training for therapists and other practitioners, helping them recognise shame more accurately and work with it more safely and effectively in clinical practice.

Class originally recorded: 6/13/2026.

Social workers completing this course receive 2 cultural competence continuing education credits.