13_Creative courage: Breaking through the shame barrier

Create Space

They say the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. That’s where this episode came from. Shame is something I have dealt with forever and it’s been a major hindrance to my creativity in the past. As I’ve been learning from others over the years to work through my own feelings of shame, this episode was born.

This is the first of a two-part episode series that I’ve been working on writing for several months now. I questioned myself a lot, rewrote parts of it, and sat on the idea for quite a while… unsure if and when it would actually be released.

Well, now is the time to share it with the world! This is an episode called Creative courage: breaking through the shame barrier. We are going to get into what shame is, why it’s so harmful (particularly in the creative community) and how we can fight back with empathy and self-compassion.

This episode is rooted in the work of three specific women.

• Brene Brown (specifically her book “I Thought It Was Just Me, But It Isn’t”)
• Kristin Neff – a pioneer in the world of self-compassion work
• Marsha Linehan – Professor Emeritus of the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington and the creator of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy framework (DBT)

I’d like to offer a debt of gratitude to all three of these powerhouse women. They’ve been pushing this field forward for decades and it’s a privilege to include their teachings not only in this podcast but also in my life.

I will also say that my own, one-on-one therapists have been pivotal in increasing my own shame resilience. I have one therapist I’ve worked with for more than a decade off and on and then another one that specializes in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). I mention in the episode that I’m at the tail end of a 6-month, one-on-one DBT course and that has provided a lot of influence in this episode. I won’t list their names here because… somehow it feels weird to publicly list my therapist’s names on the internet?? Ha! Maybe that’s just my shame talking. Anyways, either way, I want to recognize the powerful influence these two women have had on me and on the contents of this episode. If you are local and searching for a great therapist, hit me up and I’ll share info!

Thanks for listening. This is an important episode for me and one for which I am particularly proud.