From Jungian Psychology we have been introduced to the concepts of shadow parts. These shadow parts are actually hidden parts of our personality, hidden, that is to us, but certainly not to our friends, family and co-workers. Shadow parts are akin to the blind spot in our rear view mirror. Even though the car passing to our left side is nearly upon us, we can not see it. Examples of personal blind spots or shadow parts may be having the self concept that we are a loving kind mother, wife and friend and then losing control and lashing out at those closest to us. Then later on, acting as if nothing has happened. It’s like the car we don’t see in the rear view mirror until they are suddenly in front of us and we continue on our journey, as if we had seen them all the time.

Example

Another example is believing that we are fair, kind and accepting and then listening to the voices of our inner judge who stands back and mentally criticizes or finds fault with others, nearly continuously throughout our day. Outwardly, perhaps we act normally, giving them compliments about how nice they look, how accomplished they are or what a great friend they have come to be. The running, shadow dialogue in our head is quite to the contrary. “What an ugly dress, he/she is an idiot and will never get anywhere, or I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.” These inner dialogues indicate that our shadow parts have actually formed an alliance within us called a complex by Jung, without our conscious awareness or agreement.

How does Heart-Centered-Hypnotherapy interface with and enhance these Jungian concepts to make them more therapeutically available to our clients? First, with hypnotherapy we can actually slow down long enough to drop into the subconscious mind to be able to hear the unconscious dialogues that play in our heads like a radio left on. These internal dramas, akin to a soap opera, take on a life of their own, uncensored and uninterrupted. When we, client and therapist, enter into the dialogue through hypnotherapy, we become aware that this radio program has been playing for a long time. Through the wisdom of the subconscious mind, we can regress to the origin of this dialogue and discover the age of the child part that is hiding in the shadows, i.e., the blind spot of our rear view mirror.

Healing Unresolved Infantile Conflicts

Second, with hypnotherapy we can resolve the infantile unresolved conflicts that gave birth to the immature parts of us that felt unsafe and had to hide in the shadows/recesses of our consciousness. As children if we grew up in families where we were criticized instead of encouraged and loved only if we performed to an impossible standard, we had to develop some defenses in order to survive and not become completely hopeless.

It was a strong survival instinct that created our internal shadow parts that knew they could not be seen or we could have been punished to the point, in some families, where the abuse would have been even more devastating.

Conscious Vs Unconscious Mind

Without the tools of hypnotherapy, we are limited to using only 10% of our mind which is the conscious mind. Like the blind spot in our rear view mirror, the limited conscious mind can think, analyze and talk about the concepts of our deeply hidden shadow parts.

With Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy we have complete access to use the full 100% of the mind. Having increasing access to the subconscious mind allows us to drop down into our memory banks in order to expand our full awareness of when and how these young shadow parts and complexes were created. These complexes can be untangled so that the intertwining issues that were suffocating our human development can be resolved.

Through hypnotherapy, the client as well as the therapist, is gifted with the ability to hear these shadows, determine what they truly need for safety, and encourage them to emerge from their hiding places to be seen, loved and transformed!