05/21/2026
I get asked about “shadow work” a lot. It’s become a very hot button topic. So let me try to explain what it is and how it is used. I’m not a Jungian analyst. It is a goal of mine to become one someday, and I have begun to incorporate aspects of Jungian Psych into my work as I continue to learn and grow as a healing professional.
Shadow work is something people misunderstand because we tend to confuse the word “shadow” with evil itself.
But psychologically and spiritually, the shadow simply refers to the parts of ourselves that exist outside of conscious awareness. What this looks like: the traits, emotions, impulses, wounds, and survival strategies we suppress, deny, or disown. And I hate to break it to you, everyone has them. We are human. And if you ever notice the things that trigger you the most, you’ve come into direct contact with your own shadow.
Carl Jung described the shadow as the unconscious aspects of the personality that the ego refuses to identify with. In other words: the parts of ourselves we would rather believe are “not me.”
But every culture and spiritual tradition has attempted to describe this phenomenon in different languages.
Christianity often refers to it as the “sinful nature” or the struggle between flesh and spirit.
Buddhist traditions speak about attachment, aversion, ego, and illusion.
In yogic philosophy, the kleshas are the mental and emotional distortions that keep us unconscious and suffering.
Many Indigenous traditions understood that unhealed pain and imbalance in the spirit affect the entire community.
Modern psychology speaks of trauma responses, projection, repression, and unconscious behavioral patterns.
Different languages. Same human reality.
But the shadow is also not only the overt themes we tend to think of like rage, greed, jealousy, manipulation, superiority, shame, or control.
It can also include disowned gifts:
sensitivity, creativity, power, sexuality, grief, intuition, softness, and authenticity..essentially parts of ourselves we learned were unsafe to express.
What remains unconscious does not disappear.
It expresses itself indirectly:
through projection, reactivity, self-sabotage, addiction, chronic conflict, emotional immaturity, nervous system dysregulation, or the need to control others.
This is why shadow work is important.
Not to glorify darkness or to become consumed by it.
But to become conscious enough that our unconscious wounds no longer run our lives.
Many people reject shadow work because it forces them to look at parts of themselves that they reject or deny. So when someone immediately labels shadow work as “evil,” or “dark”, it often says more about their relationship with discomfort, morality, and self-confrontation than it does about shadow work itself.
For some people, the word “shadow” triggers fear because they associate darkness only with danger, sin, or corruption. I hear a lot of people referring to it as “the enemy” or “the devil”..Because it is so much easier to deny the idea that those things exist within themselves. That would ask confrontation of some very uncomfortable things that their outward image(ego) may contradict.
In many cultures, people were taught to split humanity into “good” and “bad” parts rather than understand that human beings contain both conscious and unconscious tendencies.
But denying the shadow does not remove it. What it will do is push it deeper underground.
So psychologically, what we refuse to examine will get projected outward. A person may condemn anger while secretly ruled by it, calling it “being passionate” or going to extremes to be a social justice warrior. Because it is safer to fight for a group cause than to be standing alone in your own anger.(Just take a look at political polarities and folks that make their entire identity about politics or preformative rage on social media.).. Condemn manipulation while unconsciously controlling others and calling it “care”. Condemn ego while acting from superiority. The unconscious does not disappear simply because we moralize against it.
Healing requires honesty. This is what Jung refers to as “individuation”. In Jungian psychology, individuation is the lifelong journey of integrating all the different parts of yourself, the conscious and unconscious, so you stop living only from conditioning, survival patterns, or the roles others assigned to you and start becoming aligned with your soul purpose and true nature of love and compassion.
Real healing is not pretending to be pure or enlightened while the shadows lurk behind the scenes, dictating your reality.
It is developing the capacity to face yourself with enough awareness, humility, and responsibility that your unhealed parts no longer unconsciously harm you or others.
That is shadow work.
