Meeting the Shadow: Psychospiritual Healing & Shadow Work for the Season of Descent

As the days grow darker and we approach Samhain, we enter a liminal season — a time when veils thin, endings are honored, and the unseen makes itself known. Just as the natural world turns inward, we are invited to do the same: to face what has been hidden, to welcome what we have exiled. This is the heart of shadow work.

What Is Shadow Work?

In Jungian psychology, the shadow is the unconscious part of ourselves that holds the traits, emotions, and memories we’ve pushed away. Sometimes these are qualities we were taught were “unacceptable”. These are qualities like anger, desire, shame or grief. Other times, they are hidden gifts like creativity, power, sensuality, or joy.

Shadow work therapy is the process of bringing these unconscious parts into awareness, not to get rid of them, but to reclaim them. As Carl Jung wrote:

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

When we practice shadow work, we begin to recognize that our shadow is not our enemy. It is our teacher, our guide, and a path to greater integration and wholeness. This parallels other school of thought around self actualization, including that of Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of needs. In the world of psychology we don’t have just one way of seeing this, and once you are doing the work you come to realize that much of what therapy is about is this self-actualization process, a time and space for transformation where we work to reclaim the parts of ourselves that the world or others have told us are not good enough or worthy of belonging in our cultures or societies. This can be centred around our productivity , our talents, our appearance, or abilities to meet any criteria that define success in our macro- environments. Shadow work allows us to step into authenticity with love and compassion for the whole self.

The Feminine Path of Shadow Work

Shadow work is especially connected to feminine energy. But what exactly is “feminine energy”? It’s not what you have been taught to think. Feminine energy is not all about love and compassion and nurturing, although those are aspects of it. Feminine energy is also the archetypal wisdom of cycles, descent, and rebirth. Samhain itself is rooted in this feminine knowing… that death is not an ending but a threshold, and that entering the darkness can be an act of profound transformation. And this is something that ancient civilizations like the Egyptians knew and revered for centuries, even still today.

The feminine shadow often holds grief, rage, and intuition. These are energies that have historically been suppressed or shamed. So to honor the feminine shadow is to reclaim these powerful aspects as sacred.

My Shadow Work Journey

For much of my life, I tried to live in a way that kept certain parts of me hidden. I learned early on that being “good,” self-reliant, or pleasing others was safer than being messy, angry, or vulnerable. When I expressed those feelings I felt unlovable, selfish or as if I was causing more stress for others which was not a good thing. I was a child who loved to be outside, amongst the elements and connecting with plants and flowers. I would follow my grandparents and parents around everywhere, learning and observing all of the things and soaking up all of the information it offered me. When I grew into my teen years I found myself entering a cycle of detachment from those childhood experiences, stepping into the world of expectation, appearances and being told which direction I was expected to move in. So for years I navigated eating disorders, climbing the educational and corporate ladders, accumulating all of the things our modern world deems as talismans of success. Meanwhile, below the surface I was not happy with it all and felt like something was missing. Little did I know it was me that was missing.

Eventually, the shadow always has a way of making itself known. For me, it surfaced in cycles of burnout, in grief that felt too heavy to carry, and in repeating patterns within my family and relationships. The very parts I had tried to exile…anger, grief, shame, longing, soon became the very places my healing began. At the age of 35 I had what can only be called an emotional breakdown. I was a stay-at-home mother who felt like there was more to life than just raising my children, and I felt so much guilt for feeling that way as I was in such a privileged position. A few years earlier my paternal grandmother has passed away, and it awoke a desire in me to reconnect with my roots and begin exploring natural, holistic healing methods and energy work just as she had practiced for so many years. When I found myself sobbing on the couch with my husband telling me I needed to get back to my hobbies and stop doing everything for every one else, I realized I no longer knew what I enjoyed or knew who I was. It was time to rediscover me, especially if I wanted to be a role model to my three daughters. I was raging, resentful, angry at the expectations that I had been trying so hard to live up to. I was sad and fearful that I had lost who I was and wasn’t sure I could find her again. I had been playing small for so many years, putting my innate talents (outside of caregiving, which apparently, I am hardwired for) on the shelf and tucking them away in the crevices of the darkness for safe keeping and protection. Because I wasn’t sure the world would accept me if I allowed them to see my witchy ways or the feel the fire that I had been keeping bottled up for so long. It was then that I knew I needed to step into who I am, take back my sense of power and sovereignty, and stop fearing what others think. Not an easy process to say the least… at times it can feel like baptizing a cat as they say. But this, this feeling of no longer being able to hide and the desire to just be myself began my shadow work.

My journey with shadow work has been one of descent. Its been a process of moving into the underworld of myself with the help of therapy, ritual, ancestral connection, and practices that integrate science with spirit. Calling in the wisdom of my lineage, of civilizations who came before us, of intention and alignment to facilitate manifestation. Of reconnecting with nature, her power, and seeking harmony and balance with it. Of taking the best of what science has to offer but integrating spirit into everything I do, because without both we are incomplete. Recognizing that science existed long before the scientific method and the industrial revolution, and was alive and well within the healers, philosophers and wisdom keepers in the times long before us. This work hasn’t been about erasing the shadow but learning to sit with it, listen to it, and welcome it home. Through shadow work, I’ve reclaimed boundaries, softness, creativity, and the ability to be with life as it is… both light and dark. It’s an ongoing process, but one that continually brings me closer to authenticity and wholeness.

This is why I feel called to offer this work to others.

I do it because our shadows are not here to destroy us.

They are here to guide us back to ourselves.

How Shadow Work Looks in Therapy

In a psychotherapy context, shadow work is grounded, safe, and relational. It may include:

• Exploring projections: noticing when strong emotional reactions toward others mirror hidden aspects of the self.

• Inner dialogue:  using journaling, creative arts, or voice to connect with shadow parts.

• Somatic awareness: tuning into where the body carries suppressed emotions or trauma.

• Dreamwork:  interpreting symbols and images from the unconscious.

• Ancestral awareness:  exploring intergenerational wounds and collective shadow patterns.

This work isn’t about “fixing” the shadow but creating space to integrate it with compassion. In therapy, the shadow becomes less frightening and more of a guide toward authenticity.

Shadow Work and the Collective

We live in a time where the collective shadow is surfacing in ways that look like polarization, fear, grief, and injustice. The collective shadow refers to the unconscious, denied, or repressed aspects of a group, culture, or society. Just as individuals project their shadow onto others, communities can project fear, hatred, or disowned qualities onto “outsiders.” This often shows up as systemic oppression, polarization, or cycles of violence. It is the darkness we hold together… the grief, rage, and fear our culture would rather ignore. It emerges in global crises, injustices, and the patterns we repeat as a society. Facing the collective shadow invites us into shared accountability and healing, reminding us that personal work ripples outward into collective transformation. Shadow work reminds us that avoiding these realities only deepens the wound. Healing requires us to look, together, and to create positive change.

But here is the kicker…When we do our personal shadow work, we lessen the grip of the collective shadow. By meeting our own anger, grief, and shame, we stop unconsciously projecting them into the world. Personal healing ripples outward into cultural and collective healing.

Your shadow is not something to fear. It is a doorway to your deepest healing.

Bringing Shadow Work Into Your Healing Journey

If you are drawn to begin your own shadow work journey, psychotherapy provides a supportive and structured space to do so. In sessions at The Age of Alchemy, shadow work may unfold through:

• Exploring hidden patterns shaping anxiety, depression, or relationship struggles.

• Honoring grief and rage without judgment.

• Integrating disowned parts of self into wholeness.

• Weaving psychology and spirituality into a healing path that feels authentic to you.

This is supported through a spiritually integrative framework that combines modalities such as IFS, Humanistic, Psychodynamic, Relational Cultural and Solution Focused Therapy.

Shadow work therapy is not about becoming perfect. It’s about becoming whole and reclaiming the fullness of who you are, light and dark.

BONUS: Step into the Shadows with me this Samhain

Shadow work can also be supported through ritual. I am a wise woman at heart, which often attracts additional names such as Healer, Witch, Alchemist or even sometimes Weirdo. Call me what you will, however I have as part of my mission and core values a desire to support women remember who they are in a world that has kept them playing small for WAY too long. With this comes a desire to connect to the divine feminine and gather in community so we can nourish one another in mind, body and soul. Top honour this, at an upcoming Samhain event for Feast & Feminine, attendees will receive a Shadow Work Ritual Box. This a carefully curated kit including a handcrafted candle, intentional herbs and botanicals, a crystal, and a spell jar ritual.

This ritual box creates a sacred container for exploring shadow at home, especially in alignment with Samhain’s energy of descent. Instead of bypassing difficult feelings, ritual gives us space to honor them, offering light and intention to what has been in the dark.

During the event on November 1^st, we will start the journey into exploring Shadow Work in ways that are fun and community centered, giving you a glimpse into how you can begin your journey towards authenticity personally and collectively. If this resonates with you, reach out to me by email at hello@ageofalchemy.ca or purchase your tickets at https://www.feastandfeminine.com/events.