COURSE 2 OF 12 · FALL SEASON
Harmonizing Internal
Splits and Healing Toxic
Shame
Using attachment theory and expressive arts interventions to support emotional integration and relational agency.
When a partner disappoints them, do some clients suddenly see the whole relationship, or themselves, as all bad? This course gives you experiential tools to help clients recognize internal splitting, tell healthy shame from toxic shame, and hold more emotional nuance without collapsing into self-blame.
3.0 CE Contact Hours
(NYS) LCAT + LMHC
Self-Study
About this course
This continuing education course explores internal splitting and toxic shame through an attachment-informed and expressive arts lens. Participants will examine how black- and-white thinking, idealization, devaluation, emotional crowding, and early relational confusion can contribute to shame-based beliefs, relational dysregulation, self- abandonment, and difficulty tolerating emotional nuance.
Through clinical teaching, case examples, reflective inquiry, guided visualization, values exploration, mandala-based art-making, belief reframing, and EFT tapping, participants will learn practical ways to help clients identify polarized inner parts, distinguish healthy shame from toxic shame, recognize shame binds, and expand emotional range, self-compassion, and relational agency.
How this course follows the SEED Framework
Across three lectures and an experiential art activities, this course moves through every step of the SEED Framework, so you experience the process yourself before you guide clients through it.
S – Soulful Inquiry
Begins by asking what clients idealize and what they devalue, through a values assessment that surfaces the traits and emotions they label “good” or “bad.” The Tree of Wholeness visualization then invites a “light” part and a “shadow” part into the same autumn forest: What does each part want me to know, protect, or express?
E – Exploration
Explores how splitting forms through mixed messages and direct observation, and how toxic shame keeps black-and-white thinking in place. Clients learn to separate healthy shame, which points toward repair, from toxic shame and the simple and complex shame binds that turn a feeling into a verdict about the self.
E – Expression
The Good/Bad Mandala weaves “good” and “bad” colors and shapes into one patterned whole. Clients then write from the image with the dominant hand and let it answer with the non-dominant hand: I am… I feel… I want… I need…
D – Deep Receiving
Clients identify a shame-rooted belief, honor how it once kept them safe, and rewrite it into a compassionate reframe, then install it with a scripted EFT tapping practice. Anger is information about what I value and need.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
OBJECTIVE 1
Identify three ways internal splitting may present in clients through shame-based relational
narratives.
OBJECTIVE 2
Describe the difference between healthy shame, toxic shame, simple shame binds, and complex shame binds as they relate to attachment wounds, emotional regulation, and identity formation.
OBJECTIVE 3
Apply two expressive arts or experiential interventions to support clients in expanding
emotional range, integrating polarized parts, and developing more secure relational responses.
This is for you...
This is for practitioners who…
✓ Work with clients navigating attachment wounds, relational anxiety, emotional reactivity, shame-based beliefs, or self- abandonment.
✓ Want to help clients understand how black-and-white
thinking, idealization, devaluation, and emotional confusion can shape relationship patterns.
✓ Use or want to integrate attachment theory, expressive arts, somatic awareness, guided visualization, and belief reframing.
✓ Support clients around toxic shame, perfectionism, people-pleasing, emotional suppression, projection, defensiveness, withdrawal, or rigid relational narratives.
✓ Want practical experiential tools for helping clients move from polarized thinking into emotional nuance, self-compassion, relational agency, and inner integration.
This will help your clients…
✓ Recognize how internal splitting can show up as all-good/all-bad thinking, self-blame, partner-blame, idealization, devaluation, emotional shutdown, or rigid relational assumptions.
✓ Understand how early attachment experiences, mixed
messages, and shame-based family dynamics can shape
emotional beliefs and relational reactions.
✓ Identify the difference between healthy shame and toxic shame, including simple and complex shame binds.
✓ Explore polarized inner parts, “good” and “bad” emotions, and shame-based identity beliefs through guided visualization, reflective inquiry, art-making, and EFT tapping.
✓ Build a wider emotional range, clearer self understanding, more compassionate inner dialogue, stronger boundaries, and more secure relational choices.
Tools to use in practice
A self-assessment, based on the lesson topics
Guided visualization and expressive arts exercise
A story-based scripted EFT Tapping Practice
Downloadable guidebook and lesson summaries
TESTIMONIALS
What practitioners are saying...
"Invigorates my practice."
"As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over a decade of experience, finding continuing education that not only meets my licensure requirements but also invigorates my practice is rare. The courses offered by Briana’s continuing education school have been so helpful. Her psycho-spiritual approach deeply resonates with my work, and I've been able to integrate the concepts into therapy with profound results."
- Lena M. LMHC
"A rich tapestry of insight."
"As an art therapist, I'm always seeking ways to deepen my skill set and offer more to my clients. The workshops and seminars at Briana's school are exceptional; each course is a rich tapestry of insight, practical skill-building, and transformative knowledge."
-Michelle C. LCAT
"Fills a gap in the field."
"Holding licenses in both clinical social work and art therapy, I find Briana's continuing education offerings to be unparalleled in their depth and relevance. Her unique blend of traditional psychotherapy with spiritual and creative modalities fills a gap in our field."
- Patricia M. LCSW, LCAT
ENROLLMENT
Choose Your Plan
SINGLE COURSE
$97
Harmonizing Internal Splits and Healing Toxic Shame
3 Contact Hours for LCATs and LMHCs in New York State
Self-Study
NO REFUNDS
BEST VALUE
THE FALL SEASON
$194
Courses 1, 2 & 3 · buy two, get one free
9 Contact Hours for LCATs and LMHCs in New York State
Self-Study
NO REFUNDS
About your instructor
My name is Briana MacWilliam, and I’m a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC), educator, and the founder of Soul-Centered Security®.
I didn’t come to this work because my own relationships were easy. Divorce, grief, and heartbreak brought me face to face with the same attachment patterns I was helping my clients understand. What helped was building a deeper relationship with my body, emotions, creativity, and spirituality.
Over the last 20 years, I’ve served more than 6,000 clients and students across inpatient psychiatry, community mental health, higher education, and private practice. My work weaves together attachment theory, creative arts therapy, embodied practice, and spiritual growth.
I also have additional training in trauma-informed somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), hypnotherapy, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. And I am the author of Secure in the Spark: A Spiritual Path to Heal Attachment Wounds, available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
My courses for practitioners share the tools and creative processes that supported my own growth, and the healing of the people I’ve had the privilege of serving.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to take the 12-part courses in order? No. Each course stands alone and is designed to be entered at any point. That said, we recommend starting with Course 1 if you're new.
How will I receive my certificate? After completing your course work, there will be a learning evaluation, instructor evaluation, and webform to complete. After submitting your webform, your certificate will automatically be emailed to you.
How long will I have access to the course? Your purchase includes lifetime access, including to any updates we might make in the future. If a course is retired in the future, we will email you the digital files to download to your own device.
Which boards approve these courses? Briana MacWilliam, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists (#CAT-0014) and licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0224). The ATCB has also accepted our courses in the past, because of our state approval, however, we recommend contacting the ATCB directly if you have a concern.
What if I have further questions? You can contact us at [email protected].
Start where your clients are stuck.
PROVIDER INFORMATION
Briana MacWilliam, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists; #CAT-0014, and is also an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors; #MHC-0224.
PLEASE NOTE:
While some subject areas overlap in education, a course that includes art therapy directives does not qualify a counselor to practice art therapy, and similarly an art therapist is not qualified to practice as a counselor, without proper licensing.
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