Shadow Work

“Every part of you that you do not love will become hostile to you.”
-attributed to Carl Jung

This quote says everything you need to know about why to do shadow work. It’s a warning: whatever you deny in yourself, all the things you’ve decided don’t belong to who you want to be or who you want people to see, will fester in your shadow until it grows hostile and sneaks out to sabotage the beautiful things you’re trying to cultivate: relationships, career, health. This is how we end up feeling powerless.

Shadow work means bringing to consciousness all the anger, cruelty, hate, or even exuberance tucked away there. It integrates us into our wholeness and gives us more choice and agency over how our energy is used in the world. Or, put simply: you cannot have your “YES” until you have your “NO.”

For actors, shadow work has added value.

As performers, it’s our job to inhabit and reflect back the full magnitude of the human experience to be seen, felt, and digested by an audience. So much of drama is about human darkness and the tension between light and dark. If I’m only willing to be seen in my coolness, my charm, my likeability, or if I’m trying to control my performances, I’m missing out on the huge opportunity drama presents. Embodying our dark parts can even help the audience do their own shadow work. Think of There Will Be Blood, The Sopranos, Batman, Breaking Bad, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights and so on.

Exploring the shadow gives an actor access to more of their energy and humanity, and it takes the pressure off performance and perfectionism. When you’re willing to be seen in, and embody, the messy, ugly, dirty places hidden in your shadow, the creative momentum has tremendous power.

The key to any shadow work is doing it safely and in a contained way. Therapy and art both offer containers for exploring our dark parts. Good thing I’m both an actor and a therapist!

That’s the aim of the next series of Embodied Character workshops: the safe and joyous exploration of Shadow.