“Shame has me cowering. I'm straight jacketed alone in my isolation. If I've done something for which I feel shame, I will not come to find you. The very notion of me, imagining you, seeing me, see you? It's too nauseating. It's too painful for me. And you're saying, ‘Curt, let's, let's get coffee again.’ I'm like, no, I can't. And it's going to be hard for me to look at you. And I am going to have to take the risk of allowing myself to be seen by you in the very moment that shame is in the room in order for me to have a physical and embodied experience of watching it be disregarded in your eyes. Only now can I really see myself. Because I see you seeing me.”

Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist, speaker, and the author of The Soul of Shame. IVP is invested in advocating for mental health through the publications of books like On Getting Out of Bed by Alan Noble, and The Soul of Shame by Curt Thompson. IVP provides Christian resources for both individuals and professionals. Find all of IVP’s mental health resources at ivpress.com/mentalhealth.

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