Shame is the painful sense that we haven’t gotten it right, aren’t getting it right, and never will. It’s a full-body experience, often invisible to the outside world, that compresses the nervous system and whispers that we don’t belong.

Neuroscience shows us that shame lights up the left hemisphere with self-judgment and floods the body with cortisol, like a nervous system in freefall. Meanwhile, the right hemisphere, where we hold the nonverbal and the unknown, becomes overwhelmed by alarmed aloneness. Shame is a state of emergency that robs us of the bandwidth for presence, connection, and creativity.

At its least destructive, shame can serve as a gentle edge—a signal that we’re out of sync with ourselves or others. But when we grow up without resonance or accompaniment, when we’re told we’re wrong or bad, excluded, bullied, or misunderstood (especially for those who are neurodivergent), shame becomes a tidal force that shapes our identity.

Shame tells us our voice doesn’t matter. That no one wants to hear what we have to say. But when we begin to write about shame, it’s like tapping a marble egg—cracking it open to discover the gold within.

Over the course of this six-week writing workshop, we’ll explore the lived experience of shame through the lens of neuroscience, resonance, and creative expression. Together we will begin to loosen the inner contracts and patterns that keep us living in shame.

We live in a world that treats warmth and care as optional. But the truth is, emotional warmth is a profound resilience-builder. In fact, warmth is more powerful than any other “emotional vitamin.”

This class welcomes all forms of creative expression. There will be dedicated writing time during each session, and participants are free to use it however they’re moved to, whether that is through journaling, poetry, prose, or simply reflective rest.

My hope is that you’ll leave this class with more self-compassion, greater freedom from the shaming voices within, and a deeper capacity for creative movement that’s no longer held hostage by shame.