Events and Thoughts
The Worm in the Apple: Healing Shame
A Six-Month Psychotherapy Group
Offered by Linda Odom, Ph.D.
Mondays from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
April 1, 2019 - October 7, 2019
I recently participated in a panel for the Nashville Psychotherapy Institute in which I discussed The Origins of Betrayal.
You can read the text of my comments here.
Thought:
My current definition of codependency is: Using you as a mirror to see if I am okay.
I believe that codependency grows from the root of shame.
Thought:
I am increasingly convinced that shame is the root cause of most of the behaviors that are destructive to ourselves and others. I believe the single most powerful thing we can do to lessen our suffering and the suffering of our loved ones is to learn how to stop absorbing shame and how to stop giving it away to others.
A Favorite Poem:
For a New Beginning
In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
– John O'Donohue

