FREEING THE SHADOW SELF: a practitioner masterclass

A word from Chris Waters…

“I would rather be whole than perfect.”
That, for me, really gets to the heart of shadow work.
And this is why I see this as a masterclass, and a definite must if you work with people… and compulsory if you want to be a recommended practitioner of this school.
It’s also probably my favourite class out of all the classes I teach, because we don’t just learn about other people. We discover more about ourselves too.
And honestly, it’s fun.
It’s also serious.
There are moments of laughter, recognition and surprise, but there are also moments where we come face-to-face with parts of ourselves we may have been avoiding for a very long time.
Because we spend so much of our lives trying to be the person we think we should be.
Good. Kind. Loving. Strong. Successful. Easy-going. Whatever our version of “good” looks like.
And then there are all these other parts of us.
The angry part.
The jealous part.
The selfish part.
The needy part.
The part that wants attention.
The part that wants to say, I’ve had enough.
The part that doesn’t want to be nice anymore.
And somewhere along the way, we’ve decided those parts aren’t acceptable.
So we push them down.
We hide them.
Sometimes so well that we genuinely don’t believe they’re part of us anymore.
That’s the shadow.
Carl Jung described the shadow as the parts of ourselves that we’ve pushed outside of our conscious identity because they don’t fit with the person we believe ourselves to be.
And what I find really interesting is that the shadow isn’t only the dark stuff.
We hide beautiful parts of ourselves too.
Our confidence. Our power. Our creativity. Our sexuality. Our ambition. Our sensitivity. Our ability to take up space.
Maybe you were told you were too loud.
Too emotional.
Too much.
Too sensitive.
Too bossy.
So you learned to become less of that.
But those parts didn’t disappear.
They went into the shadow too.
And then life has this wonderful way of bringing people along who show us exactly what we’ve buried.
Usually by irritating us more than we’d like to admit.
That’s where projection comes in.
There can be something really interesting in the people we have a huge reaction to. The people we judge. The people we can’t stand. And sometimes even the people we’re completely fascinated by.
Because occasionally, what we’re reacting to in them is something we haven’t been able to recognise or accept in ourselves.
Now, that doesn’t mean every person who frustrates you is your shadow.
Sometimes someone is simply behaving badly.
But when there’s a real emotional charge there … when something gets right under your skin… I think it’s worth getting curious, rather than furious!
What is it about this person that affects me so much?
What are they allowing themselves to be that I don’t allow myself to be?
And where might some version of this exist in me?
That’s where shadow work begins.
Not by judging it.
Not by trying to get rid of it.
And definitely not by pretending we’re somehow above it.
But by being willing to look at it.
Because integration doesn’t mean acting out every part of our shadow.
Owning your anger doesn’t mean becoming aggressive.
Owning your selfishness doesn’t mean suddenly not caring about anyone else.
It means being able to say:
Yes. That exists in me too.
And strangely, the more we can do that, the less those parts have to run the show from underneath everything.
For me, that’s what becoming whole is about.
It’s not becoming this perfectly healed, perfectly evolved version of ourselves where nothing messy ever comes up again.
It’s being able to hold all of ourselves.
The light and the dark.
The beautiful bits and the uncomfortable bits.
The person we’re proud to be and the parts we’d rather nobody knew about.
And maybe the question underneath all of this is simply:
What part of myself am I still trying not to be?
Because perhaps the work isn’t about becoming someone better.
Perhaps it’s about becoming more fully who we already are.
And that’s why I love teaching this masterclass so much.
It’s a chance to learn, reflect, laugh, get uncomfortable, become curious and discover more of ourselves.
It’s fun, but it’s also serious.
And if you work with people, I genuinely believe this is a must. The more willing we are to understand and work with our own shadow, the more present, authentic and compassionate we can be with the people we support.
Join me for the Shadow Work Masterclass, 6–9 November.
If you work with people, or you simply want to understand yourself on a much deeper level, this is one I really wouldn’t miss.
Come curious. Come open. Come ready to laugh, learn and perhaps meet a few parts of yourself you didn’t realise were still there.
Carl jung saya ‘shadow work is holy work’. I totally agree….
6–9 November — come and do the work with me.