The Allender Center
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06/09/2026
Contempt often feels justified. It can feel like self-protection. But it also has a way of distancing us from others, ourselves, and even God.
What would it look like to recognize contempt when it appears and respond differently?
📆 Join Rachael Clinton Chen this Saturday, June 13, for The Art of Story Engagement: Stories of Contemp. In this a live online event, you'll explore how contempt shapes our stories and witness how a real story is engaged with wisdom and care.
🔗 theallendercenter.org/events
05/29/2026
What happens when shame takes root in a story? And how does contempt become one of the ways we learn to survive it?
Today on the Allender Center Podcast, Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen explore the complicated relationship between shame and contempt, and why understanding these dynamics matters so deeply for healing and human connection.
You’ll hear reflections on:
✨ why contempt often forms in response to pain and powerlessness
✨ what trauma responses like fight, flight, freeze, and fawn look like in moments of shame
✨ how to remain grounded in dignity and belovedness when faced with contempt
This conversation invites us into deeper curiosity, compassion, and discernment, especially in a cultural moment increasingly marked by outrage, dehumanization, and contempt.
🎧 You can listen to this episode anywhere you get your podcasts, or find it on our website, along with transcripts and additional resources.
theallendercenter.org/podcast
If you’d like to explore these themes more deeply, we invite you to join Rachael Clinton Chen for the upcoming live training, The Art of Story Engagement, on June 13. Together, you’ll explore more deeply how contempt shapes our stories — and how learning to recognize these dynamics in ourselves and others can open the door to greater wisdom, healing, and care. You can learn more at theallendercenter.org/events
https://theallendercenter.org/2026/05/trauma-shame-and-contempt/
Trauma, Shame, and Contempt - The Allender Center What happens when shame takes root in a story? And how does contempt become one of the ways we learn to survive it?
To engage trauma care is to believe that stories of harm are not the end of the story.
At the Allender Center, we pursue this work because we hold hope for redemption, healing, and restoration, even in the places marked by deep suffering.
The Effective Trauma Care Online Course invites you to grow in your capacity to thoughtfully and holistically engage the impact of trauma expressed through beliefs, behaviors, symptoms, and patterns of relationship.
Grounded in Dr. Dan Allender’s Narrative Focused Trauma Care® model, this course also creates space for you to reflect on your own story and the intersection between your work and your well-being.
Today is the final day of our online course sale for this spring, so we invite you to enroll today!
Every self-paced course and webinar recording includes lifetime access.
You can save 25% on Effective Trauma Care Online Course, along with all signature online courses and webinar recordings, with code SPRING25.
🔗 online.theallendercenter.org
Spiritual abuse can leave deep confusion, grief, fear, and shame in its wake.
Healing often begins by finding language for what happened—and discovering you are not alone.
The Spiritual Abuse & Healing Online Course offers compassionate guidance for those seeking understanding, clarity, and restoration after harmful spiritual experiences.
Use code SPRING25 to save 25% on this and all signature online courses & webinar recordings during our Spring Sale, now through Tuesday, May 26.
🔗 online.theallendercenter.org
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1130 Rainier Avenue South
Seattle, WA
98144
