Sanderson has used extensive reading and clinical experience to
develop a resource that will help counsellors, and I suspect their
clients, to work with shame, rather than avoiding it.
From Counselling skills for working with shame – One In Four UK
What does "work with" mean here?
I have checked this thread: The use of "work with" vs. "work at/on"
Phrasally, it means to (A) use X, typically toward completing a task
or project, or (B) rely on X for assistance with or make sure X completes
a task or project.
But here I think shame is not a tool and not something that a therapist relies on for assistance.
Best Answer
This usage is a common form in psychiatric, self-help, and business writing.
Here work with means engage, and is in contrast to avoiding [shame] -- the writer is saying that shame should be consciously engaged, not avoided. In a specialist book for counsellors, "shame" is linguistically almost a material, a type of substance, and usage is just like "Working with wood".
It is very close in usage to work with [a force], in contrast to work against [a force].
There is a third meaning: work with [abstract noun] -- such as "work with pride / speed / anger" -- which has the same construction but an adverbial meaning. The context -- a specialist manual for counsellors -- tells us this isn't what's meant in your case, but it can be ambiguous. "Working with disability" could mean "Having a job if you have a disability" (adverbial meaning) and it can equally mean "Doing Social Work with clients who have disabilities" (as material).