Your Shame Story: Dr. Zoe Shaw on Why We All Have One and What We Can Do About It

About this episode

Dr. Zoe Shaw discusses the universal nature of shame and its impact on behavior, particularly within the Christian community.

“Everyone has a shame story.” That’s from this week’s guest, Dr. Zoe Shaw. And she’s right. Shame isn’t reserved for the dramatic or the scandalous. It’s universal. It goes back to the garden. It hides deep. And it quietly shapes far more of our behavior than we’d like to admit. Dr. Zoe is a licensed psychotherapist, speaker, and author of Stronger in the Difficult Places: Heal Your Relationship with Yourself by Untangling Complex Shame . Her story has been featured on the OWN Network, and her clinical work focuses on helping people untangle complex shame, break cycles of codependency, and build emotionally healthy relationships rooted in truth instead of hiding. In this episode, we unpack what shame really is, how it forms, and why so many Christians confuse shame with holiness. Zoe shares her story of becoming pregnant at 15, being sent away to give birth in secret, and returning home carrying layers of hidden shame that shaped decades of overachievement, people-pleasing, and self-protection. And if you’ve spent any time in recovery, you know this pattern. Shame doesn’t make you better. It makes you hide. It drives…

People in this episode

Host: Jon Seidl

Guest: Dr. Zoe Shaw

Topics covered

• shame
• mental health
• Christianity
• relationships
• psychotherapy

Keywords

• shame
• guilt
• mental health
• Christianity
• relationships
• psychotherapy
• codependency

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Stronger in the Difficult Places: Heal Your Relationship with Yourself by Untangling Complex Shame

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