Ongoing and Enough: Reimagining Supervision Through a Shame-Sensitive, Neuroaffirming Lens
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Authors
Wasteneys, Freya
Issue Date
2025-05
Type
Capstone
Language
en
Keywords
ADHD , counselling training , neurodivergence , shame , supervision
Alternative Title
Abstract
Shame is a pervasive but often overlooked component of the lived experience of ADHD, shaped by chronic invalidation, masking, and pressure to meet normative expectations around behaviour, productivity, and self-regulation. This capstone explores how shame-based coping strategies emerge and persist in individuals with ADHD and how therapy and supervision can either reinforce or interrupt these patterns. Through a literature review grounded in Shame Resilience Theory, neuroaffirming practice, and relational-cultural and feminist frameworks, this project examines the emotional and systemic roots of ADHD-related shame. Particular attention is given to supervisory dynamics—how masking, over-functioning, and emotional suppression often continue in the training and supervisory process, mirroring the conditions that created shame in the first place. Drawing on clinical reflection, supervision research, and narrative-informed models, this project offers a framework for shame-sensitive, neuroaffirming supervision. Six guiding principles are proposed to support supervisors in fostering relational safety, identity integration, and emotional sustainability. Implications for graduate training programs and supervisory culture are discussed, with a call to reimagine supervision as a site of transformation rather than performance. This project contributes to a growing body of work advocating for counselling approaches that are not only neurodivergent-affirming but also shame-literate, reflexively engaged, and emotionally sustainable for both clients and clinicians.
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Citation
Publisher
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
openAccess
openAccess