You and me and shame

Abstract

This research project investigated the effects of bringing an as-yet-untold story of shame to a narrative therapy counselling conversation. The researcher, who became the client, invited a narrative practitioner to join her in three conversations, a counselling conversation and two interpersonal process recall conversations. The data generated from these conversations as well as the personal research diary kept by the researcher are woven together as research findings, presenting a layered, journeyed account of the movement experienced by the researcher. This study noticed the challenges of recognising and speaking stories of shame. Attention is given to noticing vulnerability and the difficulty of speaking stories of shame and also to the role of witnessing in the relationship between the counsellor and the client meeting within a context of shame. This autoethnographic account offers itself as practitioner researcher. Knowledges produced in this research highlight the importance of considering first the role of shame in the life of a problem and second how it is to be positioned as a client in a counselling relationship.