02/03/2026
When a client is or becomes stuck in shame or anxiety during a session, that becomes my first priority. Not insight, not reframing, not meaning-making. Because in those moments, they are inside a psychic defense system.
And until that is recognized, everything they believe feels true, but none of it is reliable. Shame and anxiety are not emotions in the ordinary sense. They are protective structures that narrow perception, distort interpretation, and sever contact with direct sensation.
Shame, especially, is a kind of magic killer. It flattens aliveness, dulls sensation, and replaces the felt body with judgment, self-surveillance, and story. When shame is active, the body cannot be felt clearly. And without sensation, there is no ground. Only conclusions. This is why I don't ask clients to think differently when shame is online. I help them notice where they are standing. You cannot reason your way out of a defense system. You have to come back into the body first.
Sensation restores truth. Not conceptual truth, but lived truth. And when sensation returns, shame begins to lose its spell. Not because it was defeated or overridden, but because it was no longer needed.
