We are a culture in search of a body. We live in our opinions, our theories, our fixes, and our protocols. Essentially, we live in a shamed universe, a universe absent of the most essential information - our actual somatic experience.
What can our bodies tell us?
What we are feeling and how to feel it
What we want to say and how we want to say it
What we are really hungry for - what we want/desire
What our physical and emotional symptoms are telling us
How big and powerful we really are
Where we need to fight and where we need to let go
How to deal with internalized oppression and inner criticism
What it's like to feel beautiful and sexy
Why we resist, get stuck, or sabotage our efforts
How to embody our own authority instead of following the views of others
The aim of this program is to radically change your relationship with your body from one of objectifying, shaming, criticizing and altering, to one of learning its language, hearing its messages, dancing with its beauty, fulfilling its deep hungers, and embodying the power locked in its resistance to voices that malign, condescend or assume authority.
This program was created so that you can learn to walk your own path - a path of soul and heart.
This program was created for in order for you to walk that path with a constant teacher, guide, and an ally - your body.
This program was created to help you break shame's grip by accessing your authentic experience.
What Past Students Are Saying…
“David, this experience has shifting bedrock level things inside of me in ways I can sense are only just opening. It’s beautiful! I feel like I’m birthing a new me. And, I’ve shared ideas and exercises with my mom who was abused as a child and she’s finding healing she’s never felt. Thank you for these gifts!”
— Shanna
“I cherish the unshaming space David is able to create. It is clear that he lives what he teaches. A class with David is akin to an inoculation against the ‘shaming witness.’ Once inoculated, denial breaks down and everywhere one looks one sees the ugly violence of shame being perpetuated against the most tender and vulnerable and misunderstood parts of ourselves.”
— Tessa
In this self-guided program, you will received:
An introductory video where David discusses shame, the body’s wisdom, how to access it, along with introducing the format for the program.
17 Recorded Classes: Each video will have teachings, stories, inner-work exercises, readings, and journal promptings for you to tell your own story.
Recordings of Ask Me Anything Classes: In these sessions students from the live run of the program brought their questions, feelings, and difficulties from any of the course materials. David will modelled skills and techniques.
A digital copy of the book, "You Can't Judge a Body by Its Cover".
A digital Guidebook that expands on the book and course, and accompanies each of the videos for easy access to exercises and journal prompts to help you integrate the teachings.
Class Topics:
CLASS ONE: Resistance to Weight-Loss Programs
CLASS TWO: Coming Home to Your Feelings
CLASS THREE: Conditioned to Shrink
CLASS FOUR: The Impulse to "Fix" or Making Things "OK”
CLASS FIVE: The Power of What You Won't Let Go Of
CLASS SIX: Co-dependence - Freeing Ourselves from Other's Addictions
CLASS SEVEN: Inner Criticism and Internalized Oppression
CLASS EIGHT: The Need for Safety
CLASS NINE: Parental Abuse and Shame
CLASS TEN: Depression and the Abandoned Self
CLASS ELEVEN: Racism, Hiding Ourselves and Coming Out
CLASS TWELVE: Breaking Out of Smallness
CLASS THIRTEEN: What You Really Live For
CLASS FOURTEEN: Fighting Back
CLASS FIFTEEN: Developing Your Inner Authority
CLASS SIXTEEN: Your Authentic Self
CLASS SEVENTEEN: Feeling Sexy, Beautiful: Celebrating the Body
Did you know?
What Past Students Are Saying…
“If you’re ready to make friends with yourself, redefine your idea of beauty, and listen to the parts of you impatiently waiting for you to notice them and their wisdom launch you forward, this course is for you.”
— Crystal Andrus Morisette, author of The Emotional Edge, CEO of Simply Woman Accredited Training Institute
“David Bedrick’s understanding of sexism, female socialization, and internalized oppression on the emotional and physical health and wellness of women is palpable on every page and woven through every story [of his book, You Can’t Judge a Body by Its Cover].”
— Jan Dworkin, PhD, author of Make Love Better
In this program, you will:
Investment:
PAY IN FULL - $750
6 MONTH PAYMENT PLAN - 6 X $125
David Bedrick, JD, Dipl. PW, is a teacher, counselor, and attorney. He was on the faculty for the University of Phoenix and the Process Work Institute in the U.S. and Poland and is the founder of the Santa Fe Institute for Shame-based Studies where he offers facilitation training to deepen the skills and awareness of healers as well as workshops for individuals to further their own personal development. David’s embodied way of teaching is far more than informational, students are often brought to tears and face to face with their beauty, power, life path and soul.
David’s passion for studying shame arose from his childhood, growing up with a father who used fists and belts to express his rage and a mother who coped by denying and gaslighting his experience. Over thirty years of research, teaching and working with individuals awakened his heart and mind to how the dominant healing paradigm pathologizes people - seeing our sufferings and ills as something to fix and cure, instead of messages to be understood and invitations to deepen our relationships with ourselves and the world around us. In this way, David understands our difficulties to be “dreams” - invitations to insight, soul, and the divine unfolding of our lives.
David writes for Psychology Today and is the author of three books: Talking Back to Dr. Phil: Alternatives to Mainstream Psychology and Revisioning Activism: Bringing Depth, Dialogue, and Diversity to Individual and Social Change. His new book is You Can’t Judge a Body by Its Cover: 17 Women’s Stories of Hunger, Body Shame and Redemption.
His upcoming book, The Unshaming Way, will be published by North Atlantic books in 2024.