I will need to continuously respond to her feelings so she no longer has to be alone with shame, anxiety, anger, guilt, or other forms of distress and she gains the ability to connect in a meaningful way with another person and develop relationships characterized by trust. The study also demonstrated that “childhood sexual abuse was related to interpersonal conflict indirectly through the emotion of shame” (Kim, Talbot, & Cicchetti, 2009, p. 362). Shame has been described as “a highly aversive and debilitating affective experience associated with a profound negative self-evaluation” (Kim, Talbot, & Cicchetti, 2009, p..