Five Books · Four Decades of Practice

Books by David Bedrick

Name: Talking Back to Dr. Phil: Alternatives to Mainstream Psychology
Author: David Bedrick

Grounded, practice-based work on shame, trauma, the body, and social change — written across four decades of counseling, teaching, and listening closely.

About the Author

David Bedrick, J.D., Dipl. PW, is a counselor, educator, attorney, and writer, and the founder of the UnShaming Way — a depth-psychology approach built on one conviction: your symptoms, struggles, and survival strategies carry intelligence, not pathology. Healing, in his framework, begins not with fixing what is “wrong” but with witnessing — the quality of seeing that determines whether life’s injuries become lasting trauma or transform into meaning and medicine.

He is the author of five books, including The Unshaming Way (North Atlantic Books), endorsed by Gabor Maté, MD, and You Can’t Judge a Body by Its Cover (forthcoming reissue, North Atlantic Books). His first book has been translated into nine languages. He trained at the Process Work Institute, where he later served on faculty, taught psychology at the university level for eight years, and founded the Institute for Shame-Based Studies, where he has trained hundreds of clinicians and taught thousands of individuals. His 10-month certification program has certified more than 150 practitioners of the UnShaming Way. His writing has appeared in Psychology Today, and his essays on trauma, shame, and witnessing reach hundreds of thousands of readers.

Before psychology, he practiced law. Before law, he survived a violent home — a father who used his belt, a mother who denied it. That, he says, is his deepest credential: he knows both harms from the inside.

“You’re not broken. You never were.”

The Flagship Book

The Unshaming Way

A Compassionate Guide to Dismantling Shame — Heal from trauma, unlearn self-blame, and reclaim your story

North Atlantic Books, 2024

“In this astute work, David Bedrick provides a deep investigation of shame, the most debilitating of our mind states, and offers a workable, practice-based, and accessible path to divesting ourselves from it.”

— Gabor Maté, MD, New York Times best-selling author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Shame affects us all — often in ways we might not expect. David helps us understand how shame shows up and offers a stigma-free model for loosening its hold on our lives.

Shame is more than feeling guilty, sad, or responsible. It develops when we experience a hurt but can't access the tools or freedom to express how we feel — or are denied the ability to ask for the care we need. It shows up when we aren't witnessed: whatever happened to you, these parts of you that you think are unlovable or wrong — you're not broken. I see you.

Bedrick helps readers bring shame out of the shadows and listen to its wisdom without minimizing trauma or pathologizing experience. He offers practical tools and exercises to dismantle the narratives that hold us back from living whole, free, and in alignment with our most authentic selves.

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More from David

New to my work? Start with The Unshaming Way.

The Unshaming Way Workbook

Exercises and Reflection Questions to Heal from Trauma, Unlearn Self-Blame, and Reclaim Your Story

A hands-on companion to The Unshaming Way — a step-by-step guide to the core practice. Through prompts, reflections, and exercises, the workbook makes David's method more practical and accessible.

Walking through the three keys to healing shame — seeing, feeling, and believing — you'll learn to unburden yourself of complex and childhood trauma, trust yourself, and free yourself from the compulsive idea that you need to be "fixed." As one reader wrote: "Nothing has helped me more in all my years to be able to love and appreciate myself more fully."

“For anyone who's read The Unshaming Way and wondered 'how do I actually practice this?' — here's the answer.”

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You Can't Judge a Body by Its Cover

17 Women's Stories of Hunger, Body Shame, and Redemption

Seventeen women open the door to their souls: stories of shame and self-love, victimization and empowerment, being small and being big, fear and hope. In illuminating therapeutic interviews, you'll witness women discovering the secret behind their resistance to diet programs, the beauty of their bodies and hungers, and the insights that move them to reclaim authenticity, power, and grace.

Get ready to be moved. Get ready to see it differently. Get ready to meet the quiet truths held within your body's rebellion against a culture that fetishizes thinness and shames authenticity.

“Bedrick celebrates ‘the deep wisdom held in… hearts, minds, and bodies’ of women in this powerful collection of profiles… This emotional, illuminating discussion will appeal to fans of Brené Brown.”

— Publishers Weekly

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Revisioning Activism

Bringing Depth, Dialogue, and Diversity to Individual and Social Change

Many forms of activism live in the margins of more conventional strategies. These essays broaden our vision of activism to include how the social and political world shapes the inner lives of people, how dialogue across diverse viewpoints can move hearts and minds, and how psychology can play a role as an agent of social change.

Bedrick deconstructs racism by looking at divergent views of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He deconstructs sexism by critiquing the diet industry and the ways women feel about their bodies. He brings the same psychological eye to societal problems (gun control, addiction), national figures (Robin Williams, Lance Armstrong), and popular psychology's failure to create sustainable change.

Whether read in a classroom, with a friend, or alone, Revisioning Activism provokes critical thinking, feeling, and dialogue. It's a call to see ourselves as individuals intimately woven into a web of relationships and social issues.

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Talking Back to Dr. Phil

Alternatives to Mainstream Psychology

David introduces a fresh approach to understanding disturbing feelings and behaviors. Using examples from the television show Dr. Phil, he illustrates mainstream psychology's tendency to shame people into thinking something is wrong with them — and carefully unpacks many standard protocols and "fixes."

Drawing on topics including dieting, sex, anger, addictions, and domestic violence, Bedrick offers a love-based psychology rooted in the belief that there is meaning in our struggles, which can come into view when they are compassionately reframed.

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Books by David Bedrick

About the Author

The Unshaming Way

More from David

The Unshaming Way Workbook

You Can't Judge a Body by Its Cover

Revisioning Activism

Talking Back to Dr. Phil

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