This can include trauma or parts of your personality that you subconsciously consider undesirable. It is the energy, or “masks”, we use consciously and subconsciously to repress these parts of ourselves which often leads to self-sabotaging behaviour, addictions, parts of our personality we dislike, depression, anxiety and over thinking.

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Shadow work invites you to explore the sides of yourself that you might normally struggle to understand or accept – aspects that you fear may emotionally overwhelm you or cause harm to yourself or others. We all have sides of ourselves which cause shame and confusion and they can be the source of much pain and difficulty. Paradoxically the more we try to ignore or hide these sides of ourselves the greater their capacity to disrupt our lives – they can cause relationship rupture, hold us back from going for our goals, sap our energy and stop us from expressing all of who we are. In a Shadow work session, you can explore and get to know these sides of yourself and release the emotion which is held there. As you gain conscious control over these aspects of yourself you can discover the hidden value they hold and feel more comfortable and at home in yourself.

 

Shadow work is a personal-growth practice based in identifying and accepting your shadow self. Your shadow self is comprised of all of the traits you have that you tend to conceal from the personality you project into the world.

Your shadow self is often formed from adverse childhood experiences, where you may have felt unloveable or rejected. You may not be able to place what formed your shadow right away, but introspection & shadow work prompts can help with this.

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Shadow traits are typically ones that are seen as negative— things like envy, judgement, and stubbornness. These traits can manifest in really ugly ways, even without you acknowledging you have them.

But with shadow work, the goal is not to further repress these traits but to acknowledge them, forgive yourself for their manifestations, and experience true growth. In doing so, you’ll build a more compassionate relationship with yourself and others.

 

Why Should I do Shadow Work?

Even though it can be scary to confront the shadow parts of ourselves, it’s much worse to further suppress these parts of ourselves.

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In doing so, you’ll allow your toxic traits to grow and manifest is ways you may not even notice. Your shadow self can take hold of your life, causing irritability, sadness, and even depression and anxiety.

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Simply put— your relationship with yourself and others will suffer if you fail to examine your shadow.

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Shadow work allows you to take back control by understanding yourself more holistically. You’ll develop a more compassionate relationship with yourself that will allow you to reach levels of personal growth once inhibited by your shadow.

 

People come to this work for many reasons, and I have worked with a wide variety of clients over the years. Amongst other things, people come to work with relationship difficulties, anger issues, grief, anxiety, addictions, stress, fears and phobias, depression, eating disorders, problems at work, authority issues, raising children, managing illness, or as part of their journey to recovery from childhood trauma such as sexual, physical or emotional abuse, abandonment or neglect, educational trauma, bullying at school, boarding school trauma and trauma from growing up affected by violent political conflict, racism or homophobia. I welcome LGBTQ+ and BME people to my practice.

 

Is Shadow Work Spiritual?

Shadow work actually has it’s roots in psychology rather than spirituality. Shadow work was first coined and studied by Carl Jung. Jung says that until you can examine your unconscious shadow side, you can release the control it has over your life.

 

“To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light. Once one has experienced a few times what it is like to stand judgingly between the opposites, one begins to understand what is meant by the self. Anyone who perceives his shadow and his light simultaneously sees himself from two sides and thus gets in the middle.”

CARL JUNG

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That said, shadow work can certainly be complimentary to spirituality. Think of the concept of your higher self, for instance. If you are a spiritual person, you may rely on your higher self to help you acknowledge and forgive your shadows. In fact, shadow work is essential to becoming your higher self.