March 18, 2015

Why Shame? As an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), I struggled with the healing process. I was frustrated that there wasn't something like a 'What to Expect when You're Expecting' for flashbacks. I felt shame about my past, and I felt shame around my processing of it. Somehow I survived. I emerged with a strong belief that it shouldn't have to be so hard. So I created what I call a holistic healing path for CSA survivors - the Ten Keys.

I wanted it to be freely available for those most in need of it - so I put it on a website. And, a part of me believed no one would actually read this thing I wrote :) But I slowly started to hear from people that they were reading it, and found it to be a helpful resource. One of those people happened to be a therapist named Brenda Bomgardner. Brenda's company is called Creating Your Beyond, which was one of the sponsors of the very first WINGS conference in Denver. WINGS is an organization in the Denver area that offers support groups for CSA survivors.

I felt honored when Brenda asked if I would do a guest blog post for her site, explaining my motivation for creating Ten Keys. Here is my story in that blog post.

In the process of creating the Ten Keys, I honed in on shame as a key part of the injury of abuse, and also a key obstacle to healing. But nothing I could find was effective in shifting my shame. So, once again, I set out to create something that would be helpful.

That turned into The Little Book of Shame.

Note: this post originally appeared at https://www.theshamelady.com/blog-1/2015/3/18/why-shame