What’s our Inner Child/Adolescent Shadow?

Everyone has a shadow. Widely considered the “dark side of our personality”, Dr Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, psychologist and founder of analytical psychology, claimed its seeds are planted early in childhood.

Our shadow becomes heightened, or exaggerated, during the teen years. Modern research shows that adolescence is the time when most people will develop mental health problems as their negative emotions, such as feelings of inadquacy, powerlessness, isolation or despair, hit a peak. So too, can our positive feelings.

Adolescent Shadow work

If we unconsciously favour just our positive emotions, and ignore, disown, or suppress the negative, this can form what is called in Jungian psychology, a complex in our shadow…. and it’s  consequences can be lifelong.

To break the cycle, we must learn how to recognise, embrace and then integrate our shadow into our daily lives in order to feel whole or complete. If we don’t, we are destined to continue replaying old unconscious patterns, potentially for the rest of our life.

Healing our inner “wounded adolescent”, regardless of age, is never easy. But it is necessary, in Jungian terms, if we wish to individuate.  If, for example, a person was betrayed by friends as a teen, and they suppress the pain instead of working through it, later in adulthood they may engage in protective behaviours to stop themselves from again feeling betrayed by their loved ones. The adolescent pain of betrayal is still in their shadow, and the protective behaviours is their unconscious response. Until they learn how to heal their inner wounded adolescent, they are likely to sabotage every future relationship for fear of similiar pain.

This SIT Shadow workshop will help you to recognise complexes in your own shadow, and develop ways of healing your own inner child or adolescent shadow within.

Reading and Writing as SIT

Throughout the SIT Solution program, participants are encouraged to keep a journal. This is because reading and writing modalities (in the form of letter writing, drawing, doodling and journaling) are recurring themes. As part of the journal-keeping exercise, program participants can experience first-hand the modalities promoted during Story Image Therapy (SIT) that can help all individuals to become more aware of their own shadow.

During the program, Dr Toula’s Jungian mythic fantasy novel/audiobook features heavily as bibliotherapy. Participants are encouraged to ask questions such as:

• What is my initial reaction to reading Shadows of Sylvaheim? i.e., what do I think the story is about?
• Do I think the author managed to reframe and illuminate mental health messages in the novel? If so, which messages and how? If not, why not?
• How do the social-emotional messages, ancient philosophy, psychology and mythology promoted in the Sylvaheim novel relate to my own life?
• What other messages do I think the author is trying to convey? Why do I think the author selected these messages?
• What literary devices has the author used in Shadows of Sylvaheim e.g., the Hero’s Journey format, three-act structure, archetypal characters etc? Why do I think the author used these devices? How can these devices help me in my own story writing?
• What else have I observed in relation to the novel e.g., books that have a similar literary style, or YA fiction/fantasy fiction authors that have also written for a specific purpose?

If you are interested in our SIT Training or require more information please fill in the form below and we will be in contact with you as soon as possible.