How to Stop Shame Spirals :: Dr. Curt Thompson [Summer of Mentorship Wk 6]

Our kids begin to feel and respond to shame as early as 15 to 18 months of age. Those early moments can begin a lifelong struggle with feeling unworthy, inadequate and unlovable. Shame also disintegrates us (separating our thinking brain from our feeling brain) and isolates us from others. 

My guest is Dr. Curt Thompson, a psychiatrist and expert on the effects of shame and how to find freedom from the lifelong negative messages that come after us and our family.

“One of the things that we notice about shame is that because we are immobilized and we are hiding, shame does not actually ever allow us to move toward God. This is why we have to have someone come and find us. This is why when our children are experiencing shame, we have to go and find them. This is why it's important for us as parents to have others who are coming to find us.”

YES! Moms don’t let moms sit in shame. We can choose to seek out others when they are stuck in the shame cycle. Who are your 2 or 3 moms that will help you tell your story more truly? 

Dr. Thompson walks us through some practical ways to build in memories and physical reminders to work against shame in the future for both ourselves and others. And throughout our conversation he points back to how God doesn’t leave us to deal with shame alone.

“The beautiful thing is Jesus isn’t worried about our kids. He's not worried about your mothering. He's delighted. He knows how hard this work is and he knows that we will do it imperfectly. Even when we have our worst moments in which we foist to shame upon our kids or when our kids experience shame against everything that we're doing to try to combat it, God is saying: ‘I'm not worried. I never run out of options.’”

Summer of Mentorship Discussion questions PDF 

Connect with Dr. Thompson: 

• Website:  https://curtthompsonmd.com 
• Facebook: https://curtthompsonmd.com/ 
• Instagram: @curt_thompson_md 

Links Mentioned:  

• BOOK: The Soul of Shame 
• BOOK: Anatomy of the Soul
• BOOK: The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community
• BOOK: The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope 

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Group Discussion Questions:

• Have you studied shame before? Were you familiar with what it does to our bodies?
• What was the last thing you felt shame about? How did it isolate you or disrupt a creative process?
• Talk through how a friend or spouse could help you walk out of a shame cycle (whether minor or major).
• Who are 2 or 3 women that could help you feel loved or speak truth back to you that “Jesus isn’t surprised”? 
• Discuss meeting your children in their shame and how we can rely on God in those moments.