Profound and lasting change from within

MORE ABOUT sHADOW WORK®

A man who is unconscious of himself acts in a blind, instinctive way and is in addition fooled by all the illusions that arise when he sees everything that he is not conscious of in himself coming to meet him from outside as projections upon his neighbour.

Carl Jung : The Philosophical Tree” (1945)

What is Shadow Work?

Shadow Work is based on a unique synthesis of powerful tools and mind-body intelligent processes created and developed by its founders, Cliff Barry and his contemporaries. The approach uses a four-directional “map of the unconscious mind” to explore our inner landscapes that help us to identify and begin to work with our ‘shadows’. Shadow Work also provides a safe and effective way to discover our hidden Gold.

By accepting and embracing our shadow we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our patterns, which leads to personal growth and self-empowerment. Shadow Work therapy encourages us to face and embrace our inner "demons" and transform them into allies, ultimately helping us to live more authentic and fulfilling lives.

This work is founded on a correlation of disciplines such as Gestalt, Voice Dialogue, Accelerated Learning, Metaphor work, Bio-Energetics, Family Systems theory, Addiction Recovery work and other personality systems such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram. Rigorous training and high quality certification is required to become a certified Shadow Work Coach or Facilitator to ensure gold standard delivery and facilitation. High levels of safety and competence are also maintained at all times, allowing you to go diving for pearls!

Group or 1:1 coaching - What does it involve?

You can choose a personal one-to-one session, either online or in person. These 1:1 coaching sessions can last between 2 hrs and a full day. You may like to have a course of shorter sessions working layer by layer, or you might prefer a one day immersion session for a more private and intricate experience.

Alternatively, you can sign up for a group Shadow Work weekend, led by Mark Broderick and myself. Group Events are either taster days or 2.5 day seminars where a small group will be guided in a full shadow work experience. Find out more here.

Shadow work is not for everyone, nor is it an appropriate approach for all circumstances. To make sure it is right for you, we would arrange a short call to talk over your objectives and ensure it is an appropriate pathway.

What Clients Say

I am so grateful for your holding, I deeply appreciate your amazing capacity to see, with the eyes of your heart, what is going on, and I never felt judged. On the contrary, I felt able to open more and more into my fullness. - Anonymous. Plumpton

My session with Hannah was really powerful and I think in ways that may take many more weeks or even months to fully embody. She was able to help me uncover some deep trauma that I was not consciously aware of. She helped me get to root causes and address issues in somatic ways that felt really right for my body. It was empowering to make decisions around how to release - I felt in charge of the session in a way and I felt totally safe and supported by Hannah at all times. - F.W

Thank you Hannah, is was a mind blowingly beautiful and profound day yesterday. I’m still very much landing after the amount that moved. Thank you so much again for your incredible skilled and compassionate space holding and guidance through the process. I’m in awe of the way you facilitated the entire day. I honour you and the work that you do. - A. B.

Read more testimonials here.

Profound and lasting change from within

What Is Shadow Work®?

Shadow Work is a way of transforming parts of your character that you'd like to change. Based on compassion and understanding, it offers an effective way to balance these different parts. Shadow Work® includes a set of facilitated processes which allow you to explore and change almost any behaviour pattern. By providing a profoundly respectful setting, it allows people to learn and evolve slowly, safely, without confrontation or pressure, and with full choice. Shadow Work® offers effective ways of accessing the value in our shadows so that we can use more of our full range of gifts to achieve what we really want in life.

Short History of Shadow Work:

The term ‘shadow’ was first used by psychologist Carl G. Jung to describe parts of our self that are hidden from view. Early in our lives we suppress parts of ourselves because we are told, or decide that, they are not acceptable. These parts might include what are often considered difficult feelings such as fear, anger and sadness. We may also suppress our joy, self-expression, or self-belief. As we mature we may become more aware of the costs of suppressing these energies or shadows and seek to regain their power, as we sense that there may be light in the shadows which would benefit us if we could uncover it. Our professional, personal and relational experiences can all be impacted by the effects of hiding, denying or suppressing what is within us.

Shadow Work® was developed over 30 years ago by Cliff Barry and Mary Ellen Blandford. They integrated and correlated their work with other disciplines such as Gestalt, Voice Dialogue, Accelerated Learning, Metaphor work, Bio-Energetics, Family Systems theory, Addiction Recovery work and other personality systems such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram. They are indebted to the pioneering work of Robert Bly, Robert Moore and Doug Gillette, David Grove, Ron Hering, and Hal and Sidra Stone.

Group Work - How We Build Trust and Connection in a group.

On a Shadow Work® weekend, or whilst working one-to-one, we take time to build a safe 'container', looking at and experiencing aspects of the Archetypes talked about below. There are also opportunities for the attendees to do a piece of individual work, with others participating in their processes.

We believe that much of the power of process work comes from the use of symbols. For some reason, we humans need symbolic, ritual containers in which to process what happens in our lives. We seem to need places where we can act out parts of ourselves without suffering the consequences of our actions. In this way, we can learn about ourselves before we have to be responsible 'for real'. We may need to simply feel our emotions. We may need to 'dump' our hostility towards someone we love, so we can sort through it all and confront them cleanly later. We may need to express our desire to kill in a place where it can do no harm. Like children, we still have a need to play with life, because that's one of the best ways for all of us to learn.

In a symbolic container, we can also find the gold in our shadows, precisely because there are no consequences for our actions. If we were to act out our shadows in real life, we would be so busy dealing with the consequences, and in some cases the shame and guilt as a result of our actions, that we would never get a clear look at the energies inside ourselves. We need symbolic, ritual containers in which we can face ourselves without facing all the rules of the world at the same time.