The Little Book of Shame: What shame really means, and how to shift from low self-esteem to empowering self-acceptance (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780692408858)

Kristina Cizmar is affectionately known as "The Shame Lady." She considers her life to be a study in shame. Like one in four women and one in six men in the United States, Kristina is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. It has been her own healing journey that brought her to this work. In 2014, Kristina launched TenKeys.org, which presents a holistic approach to healing from childhood sexual abuse. The Ten Keys are a framework for healing that arose from Kristina's extensive research, personal experience, and interactions with other survivors. While working on the Ten Keys approach to healing, she realized that shame is one of the deepest parts of this childhood wound, and also one of the most challenging aspects of healing. There is the shame of the initial abuse, and another hit of shame around the healing process. Over the years, she has tried various ways of working with shame, self-esteem, personal value, and self-acceptance. During this period, she served as managing editor at Sounds True for six years, which gave her access to many resources, and yet nothing seemed to create permanent transformation. When she realized why, she knew she had something to share. Kristina offers interactive workshops as well as a keynote presentation on "Shifting Shame." Kristina resides in Boulder, Colorado, where she also works at the University of Colorado Boulder. She has called Oregon, Ohio, Florida, Rhode Island, and New York home.