thoughts about depth psychology
"Soul-making is not the same as personal development or self-improvement; it is the creative engagement with the images that life brings to us, and the realization that these images are a response to the soul’s need for expression."
— James Hillman, The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling
Depth Psychotherapist Carl Jung described the shadow as the hidden, often unconscious aspects of ourselves—both the disowned “negative” traits we reject and the golden qualities we struggle to embrace. In the The Red Book, Jung wrote, "I must learn that the dregs of my thought, my dreams, are the speech of my soul." In poet Robert Bly’s book A Little Book on the Human Shadow: A Poetic Journey into the Dark Side of the Human Personality, Shadow Work, and the Importance of Confronting Our Hidden Self he encapsulates the shifting, shadowy parts of The Shadow in the image of “the long bag we drag behind us” that contains all the discarded parts of ourself. While we often think of the shadow as our repressed fears, rage, or shame, Jung and Bly also spoke of the golden shadow—the brilliance, creativity, or power we project onto others but struggle to own for ourselves.
In therapy, the shadow shows up in many ways: in recurring dreams, somatic symptoms, and spontaneous images that arise in active imagination, images in conversation. Working with it is not about doing away with but integration—learning to reclaim what has been disowned and find wholeness. After all, “doing away with” is how it got shoved into that bag to begin with!
Our shadow – personal and collective– is there whether we have to tools and support to notice and work with it or not! When we feel like we are too much—too loud, too sensitive, too angry—or not enough—not smart enough, successful enough, or lovable enough—we are often confronting shadow material. The parts of ourselves that we learned were unacceptable or unworthy get pushed into the unconscious, only to resurface in our relationships, work, and inner dialogue. We also encounter the shadow in our emotional responses to others. When we feel intense anger or irritation toward someone, it can sometimes be because they embody a trait we reject in ourselves. Conversely, when we put someone on a pedestal, seeing them as especially brilliant, talented, or powerful, we may be projecting our golden shadow—qualities we possess but struggle to recognize.
When we look at our attachment patterns, we can experience our shadow as it shows up with our unconscious regard towards our own and other’s dependency needs. Parents often experience this in hyperdrive when we suddenly find ourselves annoyed, overwhelmed, or reacting to our children in ways we do not intentionally care to react towards our children.
On a collective level, shadow dynamics play out in political and cultural. The outrage we feel toward certain groups or ideologies can sometimes be a projection of our own disowned fears, desires, or unresolved wounds. Recognizing this doesn’t mean we ignore real injustices, but it allows us to engage with these issues with more self-awareness. Fairytales, movies, social trends can all tell us something about our individual and collective shadow.
Dreams provide a direct pathway to the shadow, bringing forward hidden emotions, split-off parts of the psyche, or figures who challenge our self-image– they can even challenge our “false selves” that we have built up to be acceptable in social milieu. Through dream work we can engage with material that is otherwise unknown or too difficult to know directly in waking consciousness. Even if one can only recall fleeting images or fragments of dreams, potent encounters with shadow material are wrapped within these fragments. Something as simple as a dream color, a feeling, or a mysterious figure is enough to begin the work. Many client report they do not remember their dreams, continue reading for other imaginal and experiential ways to engage with shadow.
The body is another gateway to shadow work. Unexplained tension, chronic pain, or visceral reactions can point to deeper layers of the psyche at work. By listening to these sensations rather than pushing them away, we may find that they hold emotions or memories we have long avoided. Somatic awareness practices allow us to bring curiosity to these experiences, gently inviting what has been hidden into conscious awareness. The long bag we drag behind us may be our embodied experience– showing up as fatigue, pain, fears of taking up space, fears of dancing… even holding the breath! Therapy that invites gentle somatic awareness and interventions can support our opening of this door and having an experience of embodied soul.
Jungian active imagination involves dialoguing with unconscious material through creating images, writing, movement, sandplay. If this sounds a bit wild, it is actually a process we engage in daily, often unconsciously—it’s that “inner roommate” or inner dialogue that constantly runs in the background. Active imagination aims to engage this process with expansion and intention.
Instead of hearing just that one tired voice constantly putting us down or telling us everything is too risky, we develop a practice of listening to more parts of ourselves. By inviting shadow figures to emerge—whether from dreams, meditation, or spontaneous imagery—we shift from passive avoidance to active relationship. This process can be transformative: what once appeared threatening may reveal itself as a source of strength, insight, or creative energy.
Jung emphasized the power of active imagination, taking our dreams seriously, and engaging in creative dialogue. In a 1957 interview with Aniela Jaffé, he reflected: "The years... when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this."
Active imagination can bring up a lot and is often began in a supportive therapeutic relationship with a therapist familiar with the process who can provide support, some guidance, and also be along for the ride.
On a therapist as a human note, I have experienced the power of shadow work through sandplay therapy, painting images from my dreams, and engaging in active imagination. As I navigated my own individuation process, I went through a period of intense anxiety, feeling overwhelmed by everything.. In one therapy session, I placed an attractive stone in the center of the sand tray, which allowed me to identify with this stable core. As I worked with the imagery, I felt a shift—this center became an anchor from which I could observe everything around me that was chaotic and overwhelming. From that grounded place, I began to imagine what it might be like to observe the overwhelming as separate from myself. This experiential engagement in therapy allowed me to see how shadow work can lead to reclaiming power and beginning the transformational process. It was not just an intellectual idea but an embodied experience in the sand. It gave me a solid place to stand, turn, and have the choice to open that long bag I had been dragging behind me in a single, accessible and “bite sized” able to be integrated moment. Over time and with more work, I realized that the intense longing I had for others were traits I had pushed away in myself, and might nurture.. As poet Robert Bly wrote, "We spend our life until we're twenty deciding what parts of ourselves to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again." Therapy is the space to practice this coming to see the long bag, and piece by piece, unpacking it.
There are an overwhelming number of choices when considering beginning therapy, and what kind of therapy one wants to enter into. Trends in therapy modalities seem to come and go, and there can be pressure to try the new thing.
So why consider Sandplay? What is Sandyplay?
Imaginal work facilitates healing and wholeness
Sandplay allows the unconscious to tell the story in an embodied, relational, accessible way.
"Sandplay therapy utilizes a small tray of wet or dry sand in which you are invited to create scenes using miniature objects--a nonverbal communication of their internal and external worlds” (Labovitz Boik, and Goodwin 2000). I believe that we all have an intrinsic creative capacity that is essential to our feelings of aliveness. As a result of overwhelming experiences— which can be considered anything that is “too much too soon,” it can also be “too little” if we did not get what we needed or other forms of neglect— we can feel cut off from this capacity. This “cut off” can be experienced as overwhelming anxiety, depression, dependence of substances to cope, and in other ways. Some experience this as hearing voices or having unusual “extreme state” experiences.
Sandplay is a way to safely and in a protected, safe relational space, begin to renew contact with this process. It is well accepted that children will engage in play to heal trauma, and process complex experiences and emotions. As adults it can be more challenging to feel like we are allowed to play, or even know where to begin. The accessibility and simplicity of sandplay reduces barriers to beginning this engagement with imagination. Sandplay can provide a way for us to “express our innermost thoughts and feelings,” even if they allude speech. In Depth Psychology and Jungian therapy, we strive to engage the symbolic process, a way of making sense of what is happening and what it means. Sandplay’s roots run deep in this tradition.
If you are curious about sandplay, reach out today.
Often time the fact that we are able to hold hope, that there is a possibility of getting better bodes well for the likelihood that we will get better. You want to heal. If we think of the ways in our life that are teleological, meaning like an acorn they hold the entire oak tree, holding within us the possibility of change, means we are already changing.
I can recall times while camping and hiking, of lighting fires in the wet or cold, and seeing that first flash of ember forming, that initial spark hitting fine tinder. What a fragile time! The ember will grow into a fire with nurturing, attention, careful timing, and and some magic.
Therapy is a place that can foster this process, which is relational process that unfolds over time. Reach out, let’s talk about how therapy can help.
The word anxiety even strikes a sharp splinter into a part of us. Palms sweat, Pulse quickens, thoughts race. Our stomach may quake and even force one to run bathroom.
Anxiety is a profoundly unraveling experience that strikes us at the core, spiraling through layers of biology and spirit.
Carl Jung wrote of the 2 thousand year old man. Our bodies carry centuries of experience and information. Within us is the consciousness of the ages.
Anxiety is a process rooted in our biology which is essential to embodied life. Who has not experienced anxiety? While anxiety is deeply disruptive and may have us questioning who we are, it can also function as a sort of compass. Anxiety may be calling you back to who you really are, your true self, which may have developed layers of false selves to survive difficult situations.
Therapy can help. We can work to understand the meaning of your anxiety, and hear the ways may be calling you back to yourself.
I need an anchor, and end, but also a place to begin this work. The Ouroboros is this beginning, and this end. The silent Aleph that comes before, and the period that marks the end.
I begin this work with the feelings of excitement, and a kind of exhilaration. Also, I do have a sense for the aim or telos, although I am open to the mystery of that being something different than what I am capable of imagining today.
It is also a symbol of the space I may turn to for self renewal. A creative space that has become more of a way of being, where I return to let go of what is no longer living, the old skin, and come into what is new within myself.
Welcome and thank you for joining me on this journey.
You can find me at Portland Therapy Center. Therapy Den Psychology Today.
