What is Shadow Work?

Shadow work is being able to realize that there are parts of ourselves that we hate, that we don't like, that we want to suppress from others. Shadow work is being able to get to a point in life where these parts are integrated within us, where we begin to accept these parts as our own.

Shadow work can happen through journaling. It can happen through embodiment. It can happen through understanding what are the parts that we don't like. And the best way to start identifying our shadows is by looking at someone else and seeing the parts of them that we hate, that we judge, that we question, that we make comments about. That's usually a sign that those are the parts of us that we also have judgments about, that we hate, that we make comments about.

Once we have that understanding, we can begin to work through journaling, introspection, embodiment, and get to a point where we begin to integrate some of those aspects of ourselves that we may have long shunned. Shadow work usually is something that we develop in childhood once we start to realize that there are parts of ourselves that are not safe to be out in the world through our family system, through our education system, through our cultural system.

So we begin to suppress them. It's an act of survival. So we begin to suppress them. But as we become older, and we become more able and resourced, we need to do a job of claiming these parts back because they are our parts ultimately. Shadow work comes from Carl Jung.

Healing is found in facing what hurts.

Facing the hurt, reconciling with it, and then separating from it.

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