Introduction To The Shadow
The Shadow | What’s in our Shadow? | Why Explore Our Shadow? | Exploring The Shadow
Marianne Hill
Shadow Work Practitioner and Trainer
Marianne Hill is founder and director of Healing The Shadow an organisation that runs a two year practitioner training in shadow work. Marianne works with individual clients and facilitates group workshops, as well as running the two year Practitioner Training.
Marianne also works with couples and family members and is passionate about creating authentic, vibrant and healing relationships. She has developed the powerful Five Fields Framework which supports people to communicate fully, respectfully and authentically in a way that deepens relationships and connection and finds ways forward that are growthful and healing for both parties. From this evolved the Restoring Connection Process, which is used with couples and within communities and organisations.
All the articles on this site have been written by Marianne over the last ten years, and cover a wide variety of topics relating to the shadow, archetypal psychology and authentic communication. Please scroll through the list of posts on the right hand side of the page to find a topic that interests you.
For more information about Marianne’s work or to book a session or workshop please visit healingtheshadow.co.uk
For information about the Two Year Practitioner Training please visit htsorganisation.co.uk
A Film About Shadow Work
In this film Marianne explains shadow work using live footage of a shadow work session along with comments from clients describing their experiences of the work.
We follow a client through their five hour shadow work session – we watch as they discuss what they want from the session, decide which parts of themselves they wish to explore during the day, and choose which direction they want the work to go in.
Shadow work is difficult to describe, as each session is unique. The session is guided by what the client wants, and so it is different every time – because it goes in the direction that is right for that particular client. This film shows one way a session can look.
A Short Film About Our Shadow Work Training
In this short film shadow work trainees talk about their experience of the practitioner training course. The film gives a good flavour of what the two years involve, and what it might be like to train with us.
Practitioner Training in Shadow Work
A Two Year Practitioner Training in Shadow Work
Leading to a Qualification as a Healing The Shadow practitioner
Click here to watch a short film about the training.
This training will be of interest to anyone wishing to pursue a path of facilitating deep emotional process work:
- You will learn how to facilitate deep process shadow work.
- You will learn a comprehensive range of skills and techniques to hold a wide spectrum of different types of trauma and wounding.
- You will learn to build authentic, healing relationships with your clients.
- You will learn a clear theoretical framework, central to which is the concept of the shadow, and an understanding of the four archetypes: The Heart Centred Leader, The Transformer, The Feeling Body and The Action Taker.
- You will gain all the expertise necessary for setting up in practice as a Healing The Shadow practitioner.
The next two year training starts in 2025. (The exact dates will be announced later this year.)
Read more about our therapeutic approach here
For full information about practitioner trainings please see the Trainings Website
Click here to view a detailed syllabus of the two year training
Click here for all the practical information about our two year training
Click here to find out more information about our trainers
Shadow Work Journal
I am delighted to announce that our NEW Shadow Work Journals are now printed and available to buy! We have had amazing feedback about the power and effectiveness of using these journals. They are simple to use yet incredibly potent, with the ability to totally transform how you are thinking and feeling about an issue in your life. 
These journals are designed to support you in exploring the archetypes and allowing your shadow sides to speak. The journal pictured to the left is based on the four archetypes using their new names: The Heart Centred Leader , The Action Taker , The Transformer , The Feeling Body. The journal below is based on the four archetypes using their traditional names: The Sovereign, The Warrior, The Magician and The Lover. These journals allow space for you to explore a particular issue by encouraging each of these four core parts of you to speak.
Each journal comes with a book mark that contains guiding questions to help you to get in touch with each of the archetypes in turn and to ensure that this part of you has been fully expressed. The journals contain all the information you need to get started: an explanation of the shadow and the principles of shadow work, a description of the archetypes and really helpful introduction to how to use your journal and get the most out of it. There is space for twenty different issues to be explored in each journal.
The journals are wire bound, printed on recycled paper, A4 sized and cost £15 each. If you would like to order one please email me on mariannehillshadowwork@
Comments from a happy journal user: On first seeing Marianne’s Archetypes Journal I was struck by how straightforward it is. The journal is structured in a way that makes it easy to engage with. Having done some Healing The Shadow sessions with Marianne I was excited to read the introduction; the example provided in the journal made it an easy process to follow. When I embarked on my first entry, I was feeling quite down; whenever I write something down in a book that looks really beautiful I put pressure on myself to write the right thing- but with this journal I felt I was granted permission not to be perfect! I found myself dealing with my ‘Feeling Body’ first (lots of tears and grief came up). I then turned to the ‘The Transformer’ who was fearful of making a mistake. Next, there was the ‘The Action Taker’ who was definitely very angry. I had no idea that I was thinking and feeling some of these things. I couldn’t face writing from my Heart Centred Leader on that day but the next day I sat down and read through what I’d written and with the prompts from the bookmark my HCL was able to stand in her power and write from that place. What she wrote was very inspirational- I had no idea that she could be so supportive and helpful.
A sense of calm came over me with a feeling of goodwill toward myself. It was such a great process and really helpful- it was like doing a Healing The Shadow session in the Green Room with Marianne. Thank you Marianne for bringing your Archetypes Journey into being. Julie Grey
The Enfoldment Principle
An article by Marianne Hill – Shadow Work Practitioner and Trainer
Over the time I have spent working with clients, groups and, more recently, running practitioner trainings, I have found an overriding ethic or principle has emerged, which guides me through the many different interpersonal interactions I have each day. I call this ‘The Enfoldment Principle’.
While the ideas behind this principle are not in any way new, unique or revelatory, my experience of living this principle has been transformational, both professionally and personally. In this article I will try to encapsulate in words the essence of this idea.
Unconditional Positive regard
As Healing The Shadow practitioners we aim, in the same way as nearly all other therapists, to provide a place of unconditional positive regard for our clients. We connect deeply with our clients and provide acceptance, care, even love. At the same time we understand that, in order to provide such a space we, ourselves, as practitioners, need to feel both safe and content.
So when holding space for our clients our aims are threefold: first, to provide a space where we connect deeply with the client and accept and welcome every part of them into the room; second, at the same time to hold our boundaries (for example, about the end time of a session); and third, to also state clearly what we want (for example, when and how we require payment to be made). Each of these three aspects is essential for the client to experience a deep and authentic level of holding.
The Enfoldment Principle
So what is the Enfoldment Principle? Very simply put, The Enfoldment Principle expresses the idea that it is not enough for this deep threefold holding to be extended only to the client – it is also necessary for the practitioner themselves to be receiving this level of holding.
If this isn’t happening in a significant way in the practitioner’s life, the holding that the client receives may appear on the surface to be warm and accepting, but may actually be experienced on an energetic level by the client as fragile and unsupported. There is a lack of integrity in the therapeutic relationship, which may feel like the energy of “do as I say, not as I do”.
New Archetypes Journals!
After several years of exploring this concept we now have our first batch of professionally printed journals on order and they will be arriving in about ten days time! These journals are designed to support you in exploring the archetypes and allowing your shadow sides to speak. The journals are based on the four archetypes, The Sovereign , The Warrior , The Magician , The Lover and allow space for you to explore a particular issue by encouraging each of these four parts of you to speak. Each journal comes with a book mark that contains guiding questions to help you to get in touch with each of the archetypes in turn and to ensure that this part of you has been fully heard. The journals are wire bound, A4 sized and cost £15 each. If you would like to order one please email me on mariannehillshadowwork@
Healing The Shadow – Our Therapeutic Approach
In Healing The Shadow we have a unique approach to personal growth and healing which looks and feels very different to traditional forms of psychotherapy, counselling or coaching. It is probably best described as a form of embodied psychotherapy and deep process work, rooted in depth psychology and archetypal theory.
With more and more people interested in training with Healing The Shadow we thought it a good idea to try to describe, as best we can, the differences between what a client experiences in a Healing The Shadow session, compared with the experience of receiving traditional ‘talking’ therapies. This piece that Rod and I have written explains the key differences, and gives you some idea of what our Healing The Shadow training involves and what a Healing The Shadow session might look like. Please follow this link to read about our therapeutic approach: Our Therapeutic Approach
For more information about Healing The Shadow, or to book a session or workshop please visit healingtheshadow.co.uk
For information about the Two Year Practitioner Training please visit htsorganisation.co.uk
Videos With Marianne Hill Introducing Shadow Work
A series of videos with Marianne Hill, Founder and Director of Healing The Shadow. In these videos Marianne explains what our shadows are, where they come from, how we can work with them and what to expect in a shadow work session. She also describes the four archetypes worked with in Healing The Shadow (The Heart Centred Leader, The Action Taker, The Feeling Body and The Transformer) and how these archetypes can inform and guide the shadow work process.
Shadow Work Podcast
If you’d like to find out more about shadow work this episode of the Big Yearning podcast gives a great introduction. Marianne is interviewed on the programme and talks about the concept of the shadow and the process of shadow work.
The Big Yearning Podcast – Episode 27 (edited) – The Shadow – Interview With Marianne Hill
For more information about Healing The Shadow, or to book a session or workshop please visit healingtheshadow.co.uk
For information about the Two Year Practitioner Training please visit htsorganisation.co.uk