Healing the Shame that Binds You

John Bradshaw is one of the 100 most influential writers on emotional health in the twentieth century, as selected by his fellow mental health professionals. HIs insights on childhood and family relationships, and particularly on the long-term effects of issues like abuse, addiction, co-dependency, trauma, and emotional instability, have revolutionized our perception of emotional healing and interpersonal dynamics. HIs work--including four New York Times bestselling books and five major PBS specials--has helped millions of people heal. 

Healing the Shame that Binds You is John Bradshaw's most enduring work. IN it, he shows how unhealthy toxic shame, often learned young and maintained into adulthood, is the core component in our compulsions, co-dependencies, addictions, and drive to superachieve. While positive shame empowers us and sustains the fabric of our social system, inappropriate or misdirected shame results in the breakdown of our self-esteem, the destruction of the family system, and an inability to move forward with our lives. 

In an honest and emotionally revealing style based largely on his personal experiences with addiction and his decades as a counselor, John Bradshaw moves from the source and manifestation of toxic shame to the practical tools--affirmations, visualizations, inner voice and feeling work, guided meditations, and other healing techniques--that will release the shame that binds us to our past.

This expanded and updated edition includes follow-up on past studies, cutting edge information, answers to the questions that have come up time and again since this book was first published, and new chapters not he intersection between spirituality and emotional healing.