Sessions
There are several session lengths available:
2 hour introduction to Healing The Shadow session, via zoom or in person
This session will give you an opportunity to meet me and see what it feels like to work online / what the session room feels like. It will help you have a real sense of whether a full length session would be appropriate for you. We will spend time talking the archetypal framework in which we work, and the practicalities of a session. There will be an opportunity for you to experience getting a part out on the carpet, and plenty of time for questions.
5 hour session, via zoom or in person
Your first Healing The Shadow session can be 5 hours long. This allows you to go deeply in to the issue you wish to work on, and to work at the speed and depth that is appropriate and safe for you, with plenty of breaks. One of the most important aspects of this type of shadow work work is the deep listening I provide: a confidential, empathic space devoted to you and the issues that you are wishing to work on.
If your time is limited, or if you wish to take the work more slowly, you can also split this first shadow work session over two days: 3 hours and 3 hours.
Free 45 min - 1hr follow up zoom meeting
In the weeks after your first session, there is an opportunity for another support/follow up call. You can check in, talk through anything that has come up, and be supported.
Follow up sessions: 2 - 5 hours each
This is a deeply flexible therapy. Some of my clients complete their first 5 hour session and then book in a series of sessions. Others may not come back again until many months later.
A series of sessions will allow you to work in an ongoing and deepening way on specific personal blocks and patterns.
I am always happy to arrange a bespoke package for you, over a time period to suit you best. You are welcome to spread the payments out, to enable you to take advantage of this potentially very deep work over several months.
Other Information
Shadow work can be deep and powerful. My experience and training supports me to hold what you bring to a session safely and strongly. The timing and structure is largely guided by what you want to explore on the day, and by your sense of what is safe and best for you throughout the time you working with me.
However, shadow work is not for everyone. Before your first Healing The Shadow session, you will have completed a detailed Confidential Information Form, as well as having met with me via zoom. If we are going ahead, then in your session I will start by giving you space to speak at length about what you are bringing, and exploring what you want to work on. During this time we will discuss your family history and significant events in your life, so that I can facilitate you more safely later on when we move on to the carpet work. .
Every session is adapted to suit what is best and most appropriate for you on the day.
You may choose to make use of the entirety of the time in a 5 hour session to talk and be deeply listened to. This is sometimes the first time that we have been listened to in this way.
I will also welcome the parts of you that may see risks to doing this type of work. In this form of shadow work, we hold a belief that your sense of what is safe and what is best for you is of fundamental value and should be respected and listened to.
Shadow work sessions are known for providing a shame free space for you to explore parts of yourself.
Working with shadow parts of us
A fundamental premise in Healing The Shadow is that our psyche is made up of many different parts. These parts may be uncomfortable and pushed away by us, or in fact totally hidden from us - in shadow. The concept of the shadow was first termed by Carl Jung - he defined it as ‘that which we are unconscious of’. In shadow work, I work alongside you to uncover and explore these often deeply suppressed and hidden parts. In time, the work that you do in a session can change both how you experience the world around you, and also how you show up in that world. It can give us more authentic and deeper connections with others.
Carpet work
A primary intention in Healing The Shadow is to discover and explore parts of us that we don’t feel comfortable with. You will be invited to step ‘into’ parts of you, and speak ‘from’ rather than ‘about’ them.
We do this by representing parts of you (and relevant people/institutions in your life) on the carpet. This is a large rug on the floor that will represent your inner world for the duration of the shadow work session. We use coloured cloths to precisely place and distinguish different parts of you and the people/institutions who are relevant.
Healing & Transformation
By giving generous amounts of time and interest to different parts of us, we start to bring them out of shadow and into our awareness. We can work together so that you may begin to bring about changes in your inner world. We find that the psyche, or unconscious, does not recognise the difference between the facilitated, symbolic and energetic work we do on the carpet and what happens in our day to day ‘real’ life. This allows for deep exploration, healing and transformation to occur in a ‘safe’ space - where there are no real world consequences.
I always suggest to my clients that they allow some time after a session to rest, reflect and perhaps journal, because the work we do together may be very deep and need to be integrated after our session is complete. We will discuss this, and the need for support once this journey has begun, before we meet - so that I know what/ who you have in place to offer support going forward.
Summary
Much of our life force, power and energy are in shadow, and they show up in the world in ‘shadowy’ ways… these parts of us are usually still trying to keep us safe by using ideas and methods that we developed when we were very young, deeply vulnerable and genuinely powerless. They are not behaviours and beliefs that we as adults might choose if we had more control over them.
Ethics and therapeutic Approach
I am professionally insured and work within a strict code of ethics:
Clicking here will take you to the HTS Code of Ethics
For information on the therapeutic approach used in Healing The Shadow sessions, please click here: Our therapeutic approach
Getting in touch
To discuss shadow work in more depth please click here to contact me. There is no charge for an initial 45 minute call to discuss what you would like to explore, and to find out more about what I am offering. This page shows you how to book a session and this lists my hourly charges.