In this live Instagram/Facebook workshop, therapist and Christian author Shakeeta Torres introduces her book Unashamed, a faith‑informed workbook that offers strategies for overcoming various forms of shame. She outlines nine categories of shame—body, cultural, trauma, parental, religious, past‑mistake, mental‑health, career, and academic—explaining how each can trap believers in self‑condemnation. Torres distinguishes shame from guilt, shares personal testimonies and biblical references (notably Isaiah 54:4 and the story of David), and describes a cyclical model of shame triggers, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. She promotes practical tools from her workbook, announces the launch of a Faith and Mental Wellness Directory for Christian‑aligned providers, and previews an upcoming certified Christian life‑coach program. Throughout, she blends clinical insight with scriptural encouragement, urging listeners to reject self‑shame, embrace God’s unconditional love, and pursue healing through both therapy and faith.
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Hello everyone, welcome, welcome, welcome. I will give Instagram a few moments to share with everyone that I am live. Hello, hello, welcome, welcome, welcome. I will also post the replay on Facebook, so welcome back, um, to those who will watch the replay on Facebook. Um, also I'll post it on TikTok too as well. I probably won't put it on YouTube this time, but probably just Facebook and Instagram. So hello everyone, good afternoon, happy hump day, happy hump day, happy hump day. Okay, and so I had a little bit of time, um, in between my client sessions to, um, just get up here, you, um, you all, just encourage you all, share some tips with you all about mental health, um, and also, um, share some updates with you all as well. So hello, thank you for the hand wave, I really appreciate it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Um, and so, um, for really quickly, um, I wanted to share with you, you guys, um, the book that I wrote earlier this year called Unashamed. Okay, and it was truly, um, a God-given assignment for me to do. All right, um, so March of this year, I had a, um, I hosted and put together a summit called Becoming Unashamed, and we had 12 speakers speaking about different topics about mental health, about anxiety, um, about boundaries about parenting, um, about pornography, and so many different things that we can struggle with, especially in the body of Christ, okay? And so from that, the Lord had gave me the specific detailed vision to write a book/workbook called Unashamed. And here it is right here, okay? And so today what I want to do is to share with you all, um, a few, um, types of different, um, of shame that we can experience. Um, this morning I did a workshop, um, and it was amazing. I'm doing this workshop now for a few weeks, and I want to just really share with you all, um, some of the things that we went over. Um, it's just been, it's just been amazing. And so here are 9 different types of shame that you can experience, okay? This is not all of them, and I'll try my best to go through them, you know, pretty quickly so you guys can get, um, the meat of today's topic. And so one thing you can experience is body shame, right? We are on social media, we see so many people, it's easy to compare ourselves to other people. So you can experience body shame. All right, then you can experience cultural shame, um, depending on, you know, where you were raised, your family dynamics, their belief systems, and all that good stuff. You can, um, feel shame for not wanting to follow the traditions of your culture. Okay, you can experience trauma shame. I've seen people who have experienced trauma, specifically sexual abuse or physical abuse, and if they say anything, they can, you know, be put to shame or feel shame for sharing their story. And you may hear things like, well, where were you at? What were you doing? You know, you have all these different feelings that can come up related to trauma and shame. You can have parental shame. So parental shame is whenever, um, you may feel some type of shame from how you parent your children, okay? I've seen over the years with people who are parenting their children, or say things like, I don't want to parent my kids the way my mom parented me, the way my dad parented me, and so forth and so forth. So they try their best to not repeat the pattern, but sometimes they do unintentionally because they don't have the skill set or the tools to help them to debunk the thing they— that, you know, they used to happen to them, or break the cycle. There you go. You can have religious shame where you can be, you know, feel shame within your, your church or your ministry for certain things that you may not agree with, um, the status quo, right? How things should be done, tradition, right? Um, you can feel shame from your past mistake. This is a really, really big one, okay? And so, um, you could have made a mistake whether it was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, I don't whatever it was, right? And the shame can like literally be holding you hostage, and you're not able to move forward in life because you don't feel worthy. You don't feel like, you know, um, you can, you know, you can move past, um, the mistake. Maybe the other person is still holding you hostage from your past mistakes, right? But I'm here to tell you, you guys, that God does not operate in self-condemnation, okay? That he's not in that. That is definitely from the enemy. And so the Lord, you know, wants you guys to be unashamed unashamed of your past experiences, unashamed of the things that you've been through, unashamed of your past mistakes, right? Of course, you know, if you did something wrong, ask God for forgiveness, right? Try to, you know, try to move forward. But if you can't, this book will help you to become unashamed, okay? Um, so here's 3 more. I won't go into great detail about it, but there's mental health shame, there's career shame, and there's academic shame.. So if you can think of any other shames, if you want to put it in the comments below, if you want to. If not, that's okay. I understand that this is a very, uh, a topic that's very, um, uh, touchy for people. And so, um, this book now is on Amazon. Um, if you go to Amazon and you put in Shakeeta Torres, this book will come up. Um, and then also you'll be able to see like a, um, my story. So in the first part of this book, I share my story about trauma and shame, right? So Amazon Show the whole— my whole story up there, okay? Just click on that link, it'll show it to you, all right, before you actually purchase it. And so, so far I had people to purchase this book and I've received so much feedback from it, testimonies about it, and I'm like, Lord, I gotta keep sharing because your girl be busy, okay? In a good way. And so I gotta keep There we go. So that you guys can know about this invaluable resource, okay? Uh, so again, it's called Unashamed. It's in 3 parts where I share, um, shame, the different types of shame, but also it has strategy. It has strategy in here to help you debunk and break down your thought patterns and where it came from. And so today, you know, during this workshop, you know I shared with them how it's like a— it's a cycle, right? You can be triggered by a situation that happened to you when you were younger, or happened to you now, or something, you know, that you've done. It can trigger you, and you begin to have these racing thoughts, these emotions, these behaviors. It can cause you to shrink back. Like, shame in itself, you guys, it's like it has so many different things attached to it. You you can end up self-sabotaging, as I said before. You can end up people-pleasing, you know, trying to, you know, make others happy and accept you. I'm one of the women who was a part of the workshop today, uh, was saying how she and her husband had some marital conflict. And, you know, she, you know, told him, you know, what she did wrong. And he's having a really hard time, which is normal, but he's holding her hostage. So she feel all this shame and condemnation even though she's apologized for it, she explained why she did what she did, and it's like he's still holding her hostage, right? And so it's also, you know, with shame, you have to work through some unforgiveness and also forgiveness of other people. And also, there's a difference between guilt and shame, all right? Guilt is you feeling guilty for something you have done, and then shame is whenever you, um, feel negative, um, have a negative judgment about yourself based on your own actions or based off of what somebody else is saying about you, okay? So it's about how you see yourself. And you know, God sees you as fearfully and wonderfully made. He still does, even in all— even in all that, okay? So I want to share with you a quick scripture that I always reference to. And in my book, and also at the very end, I talk about the word of God and share specific stories. Um, thank you so much, thank you so much. Yes. I share specific stories in here from scripture that Holy Spirit gave me like a deeper level of revelation on about how, you know, he, you know, about shame. There's people in the Bible, you guys, that dealt with shame. Uh, one person was David, y'all. David was a man after God's own heart. And as you know, what David do? David went and he slept with Bathsheba, another man's wife, right? And he had her husband, Yuzara, killed, okay? And so God forgave him for that, y'all, and he still remained the king, okay? And so like, we, we're gonna make mistakes, okay? We're gonna experience things. We're gonna, you know, have different things that come up against us, y'all. But here's the thing, I just noticed with all my heart and my fi— every fiber of my being, God does not want you to stay there because it keeps you away from him. It keeps you away from your purpose and it affects your mental health. And what I've learned over the years in counseling with people is that shame also can hinder your healing journey, right? You can be doing all this work, to, to get better in therapy, you know, seeing someone to help you to get better. But if you still got like shame operating and shame is like consuming you, it's going to be hard for you to move forward and heal from some of these things. So I encourage you, if you know someone who's dealing with this, to go get this book, y'all. It will bless your life, okay? It will. It's very short, it's straight to the point. Look at there. My husband read a book and he proofread it for me. He said, babe, that book helped me. Okay, because he's also dealt with cultural shame because he is Puerto Rican and he's, uh, Indian and a little bit of everything. Okay, and so with that, you know, he felt, you know, he doesn't really— what's the word— mesh with— you know, I'm gonna say mesh, but he doesn't really— he gets shamed for not speaking Spanish all the time. Prime example. Okay, um, he understands it, he does speak it, but not fluently, right? And so he always felt attacked and shamed from people in his own culture for not doing so, right? And that's not fair. It's his choice, okay? It's his choice. So that's only an example of shame when it comes to cultural shame. Yes, the name of the book is called Unashamed, um, U-N. So you can see here, it's called cursive. You might can't see it because it's, um, you know, it's opposite from what Instagram is showing. But if you go to, um, Amazon and you, um, click, um, put my name, Shakeeta Torres, The book will pop up, and then if you click on the, um, on the little icon to see a little snippet of the book, it will, it will display to you my testimony. Okay, I'm not ashamed of my testimony at all whatsoever. Um, you're so welcome. And so I talk about, um, some of my trauma and things that I've dealt with, um, when it comes to shame and how I had to overcome that, right? And realize, okay, first of all, I was a little girl, was that my fault, right? Why am I feeling shame for what somebody else did to me, right? But then on the flip side of that, you also have, you know, shame from dealing with past mistakes, y'all. And again, there is no self-condemnation in Christ Jesus, okay? Forgive yourself, right? Forgiveness is a big part of being able to heal and move forward because God desires the very best for you. He really does. So let me read this scripture real quick, um, for you guys. If you have any questions, just let me know. Okay, I got a little bit of time left for my next session. Uh, so here's Isaiah 54:4. It says that God doesn't remember your past shame. He chooses to let it go, and he wants you to do the same. Holding on to shame creates fear of punishment, but you can release your fears to God and trust him to take care of you because he loves you and he forgives you. How powerful is that? How powerful is that? And so I was sharing today, um, you know, with the attendees Hey, listen, right, get strategy, all right? This book is strategy but also full of the word of God. And when you put those two things together, the word of God and strategy, my God, it's powerful. Like, I, y'all, I've been counseling people for, for quite some time now, for many, many, many years now. And what I've noticed is that, you know, when I counsel believers, it's different. It hit different. It just does, because the word of God is, is powerful. And so when I'm working with believers who are fine with, you know, talking about the scripture and bringing in God And I'm always praying for everybody, whether you, whether you save or not. I'm gonna pray for you, God. I don't care, pray for you anyway in my private time, okay? And so what I realized is that, you know, when you invite God into that space, into the area that we try to hide, like Adam and Eve did, right? Try to hide from God what they had did wrong, okay? When you invite God into that, he heals you. He begin to do a work in your heart and a work in your mind and how you see yourself and see the situation. Okay, and so this is why, you know, I'm— oh, I'm so big on the word of God, y'all. But also I'm a therapist, so I have so many, so many tools, y'all. So much strategy. Okay, and so this book is full of that, right? There's no way I can go over this whole entire book. This would be like days of workshops because it's so good, y'all. It's so good, so detailed and so good. Okay, um, so if you get a chance, go to Amazon, get the book. It'll bless you. Make sure you go back and leave me a review if you're— if you want to. Because once again, I understand everybody's not ready to share their struggles, okay? So that's why it's in a book form, it's on Amazon. So if you buy it, I have no idea who you are, okay? Um, so thank you so much for, uh, tuning in. Um, really quickly to what, you know, I have to say in reference, um, to shame. Um, so I also want to make another announcement. Um, my Faith and Mental Wellness Directory is officially live, y'all. It's officially live. So where I'm at with that now is, you know, we're reaching out to different providers who, you know, would like to join the directory, such as Christian therapists, Christian life coaches, um, pastoral counselor— counselors. If you are a certified mental health counselor, that you can join as well. If you are associate professional therapist, you can join. But it's for believers because over the years I've been asked so many times, hey Shakeeta Torres, like where can I find, you know, a faith-based, um, provider who is truly led by Holy Spirit and not dibbling and dabbling in like New Age stuff, right? People still care about that, y'all. Not everybody wants to dibble and dabble in that stuff. And so, um, I have this directory that God himself has given me the vision for. So if you go to www.faithandmentalwellnessdirectory.faith, you will be able to, um, view that. But again, right now we're working on getting people to join so you guys can find them easily, okay? Easily. Um, also, um, on Monday— I'm so excited— next week, if you're interested in becoming a certified Christian life coach, you guys, I'm opening up my program, um, July 10th. But on Monday, um, I am having, um, a live webinar to answer your questions, to tell you more about the program, tell you how it works. Y'all, I'm so excited because I love pouring into other people. I love pulling out the best in other people as well. I'm really good at that, at pulling and helping you see your purpose, helping you see what God's calling you to do right now. Okay, um, and so, um, that starts July 10th, but the workshop is June 26th. So you can go to Eventbrite and again, and again, put in my name, Shakeeta Torres, and you should be able to see, um, the workshop. It will be recorded. Um, and so if you sign up for it and you can't make it, I'll send out the replay to those who aren't able to make it live. Okay, and so again, thank you guys so much for tuning in. Thank you, I'm Tessa, for going over to get the book. And I think someone else said that he wanted to get the book too. Um, Amy, Amy, Amy, Amy. Okay, Amy, yes, please, you guys. Like, I want you guys to be free. I want you guys to truly be, um, who God's calling you to be and to see that you're fearfully and, um, wonderfully made, okay? And it does take time to try to debunk, um, those thoughts. And I do— this just came to my mind too. So I was talking to one of my clients, um, last week, and, um, she's like been, you know, binge— binging on my podcast, watching all my content, you know, on YouTube and whatnot. And, um, Shakeeta, she was like, at what point did you know, like, understand your worth and your value? I'm like, dang, that's a good— that's a good question, girl. That's a good question. Um, I said it was a journey. It was a journey. First I had to go through my own healing journey and my own process, you guys. And so like, no one just wakes up and they're like arrived into being this confident person, right? It's a process. And also you still have to continue to like work on that because the enemy is always trying to make you feel like you're less than and that you're not worthy, right? And so I said, I mean, God wooed me, to be honest. I was like, he would tell me things like, you're fearfully and wonderfully made, um, I love you, I have purpose for you, um, things like, you know, no matter what you do for me, my love never changes for you. Because I, I know that during that season, God knew that I, I battled with understanding and knowing my value. And so it was like every chance God got, it's like I would think it in my head but not say it out loud, but then God would like combat that with like words of affirmation for me, right? This is why I love God so much, y'all, because like many people don't really realize like how much God really loves us. Like, he really loves us, y'all. And like when I really got a revelation of God's love and I really accepted the fact that I'm a daughter of God, no matter what I do, no matter what's going on in the world, like, cuz I'm an entrepreneur and I'm very ambitious And even in that, you know, when God giving me assignments and different things to do, I went through a season where I was trying to get all this stuff done. Okay, God, I want to please you. It's like people pleasing. I was people pleasing God, okay? And the Lord began to minister to me one morning while I was getting in the shower, and he said, no matter what you do for me, my love's not gonna change. Whether you don't— whether you finish the assignment I've given you or not doesn't dictate my love for you. And I was like, oh my God, I was like crying in the shower. I'm like, God is gonna please you. And so God is not into doing all these things to make— to cause him to love you. He already loves you. You don't have to earn his love, because God loving you and you operating in your purpose is not the same. It's not, okay? It's not the same. And so, you know, now, you know, I'm a more mature believer and I know better, right? And I know God has purpose for me. I want my purpose. Okay, but my purpose does not dictate how God sees me and how he feel about me, and it's the same thing for you. Okay, so I don't know, that just came to my mind to share that with you all, or that God loves you, um, and that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. And so, um, that's all I have in reference to, um, the shame part, and I want to encourage you all, um just to keep going, just to keep going. This— I did a reel yesterday, um, about, um, you know, my journey into getting back in the gym and fitness and all that good stuff. Because, um, I had a shoulder injury about 3 years ago. It was really bad, took me almost 2 years to heal. So long story short, um, I could not, um, like do a lot of weights and stuff. And one of my— and I felt bad. My God, you mean to tell me that I'm not gonna be able to do weights anymore? So I shared, you know, how God healed my body, you know, how I was using my anointing oil like every single day. This is my oil right here, uh, Little Warriors in a Bottle. I did reels on this, I have teachings on this and all that too on YouTube and Facebook and all that good stuff. Um, but I do sell this now. God told me to start offering to people and I have, and it's like been like so many stories coming in of testimonies from people about how God has did a work, a work for them. Um, but I was using that oil in prayer, going through, you know, rehab and all that good stuff. And then just one day I just woke up and everything was just like complete opposite. Like my whole shoulder was just like healed. Like I still get sore sometimes because I'm still building up strength in that shoulder, um, but I went from only being able to do this, now I can like hold it all the way up now. But anyway, and I was like, Lord, I was like, um, I'm working out, my eating ain't perfect, I said, but, um, you know, my body is not where I want to be, right? Y'all, the Lord yanked me up so fast, and he was like, don't you forget, don't you forget how much progress you have made. Don't you forget, you know, all the work you've been putting in. Don't forget, like, now I have more discipline in the morning. I get up extra early now. I'm able to get more things done. I do have more strength in my body. I have more energy and all of the above, right? And so before I started going to the gym consistently, you know, I used to go years ago all the time. Well, because of my shoulder, I couldn't go like that, my life is like— I see the shift in my life. I'm able to get more stuff done, y'all. And so oftentimes we look for this like huge massive change to, um, to be seen by the naked eye when change starts from the inside out. So me being more disciplined and going to work out and going to the gym, like, it has created like a new level of discipline for me, um, to get stuff done. You know, I'm in my word more. You know, I'm in prayer more, to be honest. You know, I'm able to, you know, spend more time with my children because I'm like trying to get stuff done early so by the time they're out of school or the evening, I can go be with them, y'all. And so just remember that change starts from inside out. And wherever you start, wherever you are on your journey, whether you're healing journey, your entrepreneurial journey, um, journey to figuring out your purpose, whatever you're— whatever it is, it is a journey. It's a journey. And this is why God gave me the series recently, like 2 weeks ago, 'Seasons.' Um, and so I am going to do part 3 of that this week, hopefully tomorrow. I might pre-record it or I might, um, just do a live. I'm not sure yet. I gotta sit down with the Lord and really get, you know, revelation on part 3. But it's been so good so far. It's been blessing me. Like, when I'm like ministering to you all or sharing what I'm sharing, you all It is really like fresh revelation from the Lord, and it also encourages me. Okay, um, and so, um, see, this season, it's been so good. God just reminded me of how far I've come, even in my journey and things that I've been through in my walk with him, um, over the past almost 15 years now. Okay, and so, um, walking with the Lord is a privilege and honor. It would get hard sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, he does. Is it easy? No, not always easy, but it's worth it though. I'd rather— I told my husband the other day, I'd rather be a believer walking for God, being persecuted. I'd rather experience all that than to be on the other side, y'all. Okay, let's be on the other side. All right, so, um, in this season, you guys, seize the season. Whatever season you're in, allow God to teach you all the lessons. Allow God to work anything out of you that's going to hinder you in your next season.. And I had to learn that, right? There's a God's home you could do now. Oh my God, why am I doing all this again? Like, why am I— I feel like Noah over here, you know? He was like, this is for your next season, right? So when I got that full revelation of that, it caused me to want to keep going, to keep working harder, to keep doing what he's calling me to do. Because at one point I was like, I'm tired. Like, God, this is just too much. Like, what, what is going on over here? But then when I got a revelation of my next season. I said, okay, I got it now. I got the vision now. Um, and so I pray that God gives you vision and that God gives you clarity. All right, so listen, you gotta have me keep on talking and talking, talking about it. But, uh, yes, thank you guys so much for joining. If you want to, uh, watch the replay, for those of you who got on towards the end, um, definitely do that. Um, but I will see you guys later on this week. And thank you again for watching. And don't forget, go get my book Unashamed on Amazon. It'll bless you. It's a book/workbook where it gives you strategies and tools about how to become unashamed. All right, unashamed of your mental health, past mistakes, unashamed of trauma, unashamed of your body shame, cultural shame, religious shame, all types of shame. We're going to debunk that through this workbook. Okay. All right. So thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll talk to you guys soon. Bye. Have a great day. Hey!
