An Ecological Approach to Understanding the Pervasive and Hidden Shame in Complex Trauma

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2020

Publication Title

Journal of Mental Health Counseling

Volume

42

Issue

2

First page number:

155

Last page number:

169

Abstract

Shame has been argued to be a core issue in complex trauma; however, few efforts have been put forth to systematically examine the conceptual and empirical evidence to support this claim. This review, using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory, presents a preliminary map of findings that highlight the pervasive and hidden shame in the ecological subsystems of complex trauma survivors. A psycho-social-cultural perspective was utilized to highlight the manifestation and disguising of shame in various contexts. Our review accentuates the centrality of shame in complex trauma and offers several ways in which mental health counselors can explicitly and systemically address shame in their work with complex trauma survivors. Implications for counselor training and future research are also discussed.

Keywords

Ecological theory; Trauma; Counseling

Disciplines

Counseling | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Language

English

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