Managing is not the same as healing. Surviving is not the same as being free.
Shame Is a Liar enters the conversation beneath the conversation—the silent wounds underneath performance, anger, numbness, achievement, and “I’m good.”
This is a brother-to-brother invitation to understand what shame has stolen, expose the lie through faith and trauma-informed insight, and reclaim the identity God intended. It shows men that healing is an act of courage.
49KWORDS
15CHAPTERS
4PARTS
1PATH TO FREEDOM
02 THE READER
He is not anti-healing. He is under-invited.
The primary reader has learned to perform strength while privately managing pain, intimacy fears, hidden history, or emotional exile.
01
The Functioning Man
Successful on the outside, exhausted on the inside—and tired of saying, ‘I’m good.’
02
The Faithful Man
He prays, serves, and leads, yet still needs language for trauma and shame.
03
The Wounded Man
He survived fatherlessness, abuse, violence, rejection, incarceration, or secrecy.
ALSO FOR: wives, mothers, therapists, pastors, mentors, reentry leaders, colleges, and every person who loves a man carrying an unnamed wound.
03 WHY NOW
A CULTURAL & SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY
Men are carrying wounds without language.
Shame thrives in silence. This book gives men a vocabulary for what they survived and a pathway out of emotional exile.
“The need is not simply more content for men. It is language men can trust—from a voice that understands faith, trauma, performance, father wounds, secrecy, and survival.”
~80%of U.S. suicide deaths in 2024 were male
4×male suicide rate compared with women
14.3MU.S. adults had serious suicidal thoughts in 2024
Sources: CDC and NIMH, national data cited in the book proposal.
04 THE PROMISE
Shame is not the truth about you. It is the lie that taught you to hide.
01
Name
Identify the shame script and the story that trained it.
02
Confront
Expose the lie through Scripture, compassion, trauma-informed language, and honest reflection.
03
Rewrite
Replace survival patterns with truth, community, embodied practice, and wholeness.
04
Walk Free
Move from performance to presence, secrecy to safety, and survival to freedom.
05 THE WORK THROUGH THE YEARS
FROM SURVIVAL TO SERVICE
This book was not built behind a desk. It was lived.
Long before Shame Is a Liar had a title, its message was taking shape—in the life of a boy learning how to survive, a young leader discovering his voice, and years spent building rooms where men could finally tell the truth.
THE BEGINNINGBefore the platform, there was a boy searching for language.
01
Wounds became a calling.
The work began with lived experience: fatherlessness, trauma, secrecy, faith, and the long journey toward identity. What once produced silence became the seed of a mission—to make sure other men would not have to heal alone.
02
Creating rooms safe enough for truth.
Healing often begins around ordinary tables. Through circles, workshops, prayer, reflection, and honest conversation, men receive what shame tried to deny them: language, witness, brotherhood, and permission to feel.
VULNERABILITY WITHOUT JUDGMENTHEALING IN PRACTICETHE CONVERSATION BENEATH THE CONVERSATION
MEN HEALING IN COMMUNITY
No performance. No pretending. Just truth.
WHAT HEALING CAN LOOK LIKE
Enter the circle. Engage the work. Leave connected.
Transformation is rarely a single moment. It unfolds when men are welcomed into safe community, invited into honest participation, and reminded through human connection that they do not have to carry their stories alone.
01 · ENTERA circle built for honesty.02 · ENGAGEPractical tools make healing tangible.03 · CONNECTSeen. Supported. No longer alone.
03
Brotherhood became the method.
The work grew from individual conversations into a community of men committed to showing up for one another. Laughter, testimony, accountability, and shared humanity became part of the healing.
04
FROM THE CIRCLE TO THE STAGE
The private truth became a public voice.
From intimate healing spaces to national platforms, Robert has carried one consistent message: men are not weak for having wounds, and they are not beyond freedom. Shame Is a Liar is the next expression of that work.
Thousands of men. Countless conversations. One enduring truth.
“When a man finds the courage to tell the truth, shame loses its favorite hiding place.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A voice formed in the fire.
Robert H. Marshall Jr. is a faith leader, trauma advocate, author, international speaker, and founder of The Survivors Circle. He writes not from theory, but from lived experience—and from decades of serving men navigating abuse, father wounds, incarceration, violence, grief, secrecy, and emotional suppression.
3,700+ men served25+ YEARS faith & ministry leadershipINTERNATIONAL speaker & advocate
“Healing is the journey. Wholeness is the destination.”
Robert brings a rare ability to speak across faith, clinical, educational, advocacy, and community spaces without losing the humanity at the center of the conversation.
GLOBAL
United StatesUnited KingdomIndiaCaribbean IslandsCosta RicaDominican RepublicPuerto RicoPanamaHondurasZambia
HIGHER LEARNING & PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Shaping conversations where knowledge becomes practice.
Robert’s teaching, training, and thought leadership have reached students, educators, practitioners, faith leaders, and public-safety professionals across a wide range of institutions.
Harvard UniversityNorth Park UniversityUniversity of Illinois ChicagoUniversity of the District of ColumbiaCoppin State UniversityMoody Bible InstituteConcordia UniversityKentucky State UniversitySouth Suburban CollegeComputer Systems InstituteUniversity of WashingtonVirginia TechLouisiana Police Training Academy
01
NATIONAL ADVOCACY
RAINN Speakers Bureau
Contributing lived experience and survivor-centered leadership to the national conversation on sexual violence and healing.
02
FEATURED PRESENTER
Children’s National Hospital
Presenter of “Echoes: Hearing the Cries of Abused Boys,” advancing trauma-informed understanding of male survivors.
03
ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL REACH
Higher Learning Institutions
Helping shape conversations about trauma, identity, faith, leadership, and the lived experiences of men across universities and professional training environments.
04
COMMUNITY IMPACT
The Survivors Circle
More than 3,700 men served through healing circles, advocacy, workshops, training, and community partnerships.
Selected speaking, advocacy, media, and community acknowledgements.
THE SOUNDTRACK TO FREEDOM
REST
New music. Real healing. True freedom.
Written by Robert H. Marshall Jr., “Rest” is the musical companion to Shame Is a Liar—a declaration that peace is possible even when answers are missing and the heart has been broken.
RELEASINGAUGUST 2026
APPLE MUSIC · SPOTIFY · AMAZON MUSIC · YOUTUBE · TIDAL
A PERSONAL INVITATION
Will you help this message reach the men who need it?
I am prayerfully seeking respected voices to contribute an endorsement, foreword, or brief testimony. Your voice can help a man recognize that he is not alone, that what happened to him does not define him, and that freedom is still possible.
01ENDORSEMENTA concise statement supporting the book and its message.
02FOREWORDA deeper contribution framing why this conversation matters.
03TESTIMONYA personal reflection on shame, healing, faith, or freedom.
