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Moving Shame: using embodied practices to facilitate constructive shame engagement among interprofessional healthcare students

Gemma Lucas,Trevor M Sytsma,Jordan Burnett,Heather Batchelder,W. Bynum

Published 2026 in Medical Humanities

ABSTRACT

Shame is a pervasive yet often unspoken feature of health professions education, associated with burnout, emotional withdrawal, diminished empathy and threats to professional well-being. Experienced as a deeply affective and somatic phenomenon, shame can be difficult to access or address through conventional, cognitively oriented pedagogies. This study examines Moving Shame, an interprofessional workshop series that uses trauma-informed, embodied practices to support learners in recognising and engaging with shame in more constructive ways. 13 students from five health professions programmes participated in a three-part series integrating trauma-sensitive yoga, body mapping, movement-based reflection, creative resources such as graphic medicine and podcasts, and facilitated group dialogue. Workshops were led by an educator with specialist training in trauma-informed embodied facilitation. Participants completed anonymous surveys before the series, immediately after completion and 6 months later. Quantitative measures assessed shame frequency, anxiety and depressive symptoms, with changes over time analysed using non-parametric tests. Qualitative free-text responses were analysed thematically to explore participants’ experiences and perceived impacts. Participants demonstrated statistically significant and sustained reductions in reported shame frequency, anxiety and depressive symptoms at follow-up. Qualitative findings suggested shifts in how shame was recognised, shared and navigated, including increased bodily awareness, relational openness and a sense of collective permission to acknowledge vulnerability within educational spaces. These findings suggest that trauma-informed, embodied pedagogies may offer a meaningful approach to engaging shame in health professions education. Rather than functioning as a discrete intervention, impacts appeared to emerge through the relational and ethical conditions created by embodied practices and skilled facilitation. The study highlights implications for professional well-being, cultures of care and workforce sustainability, while raising questions about transferability, facilitation expertise and the ethics of working with vulnerability in educational contexts.

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