Healing the Shadow Practitioner Training

A two year professional training in shadow work leading to qualification as a Healing The Shadow practitioner

The next two year professional training starts in January 2027

This unique two year shadow work based training offers the opportunity to develop a new career facilitating shadow work.

The training is intensive. We take people who we see as having the personal qualities to reach practitioner standard within the two years. No formal therapeutic qualifications are required for entry; we prioritise personal maturity, self knowledge and experience above qualifications.

We also accept qualified counsellors, psychotherapists and coaches who are looking to deepen and enliven their therapeutic work by adding this powerful modality to an existing practice.

Healing The Shadow is an organisation devoted to facilitating deep process shadow work and supporting clients in exploring and healing their shadows. Our work is a form of embodied psychotherapy rooted in depth psychology and archetypal theory. Our practitioners work with individual clients in sessions between 2 and 5 hours in length. These in depth sessions allow people to get to know and understand their shadow sides, hold and heal their wounded inner child, explore their fears and limitations, and move beyond the emotional issues of their past to grow into all they can be.

We are a fully established training school offering a two year professional training in shadow work leading to qualification as a Healing The Shadow practitioner. This training will equip you with the skills needed to become a confident and competent Healing The Shadow practitioner and to facilitate this deep emotional process work for individuals. Our qualified practitioners facilitate powerful, safe and effective processes while holding the client with humanity and compassion.

The training is highly experiential and focuses not only on teaching powerful and effective techniques, but also on each individual trainee’s personal development, including the exploration and healing of their shadows. With an intake of only six trainees each year, supported by two trainers, the work is intensive and each student receives personalised attention.

Here’s how one of our Healing The Shadow practitioners describes his experience of the training:

“There were no powerpoint presentations, no desks, no classroom with a teacher at the front; there was a circle, there were cushions and blankets, there was space and sometimes silence, and there was intimacy, and sharing and deep exploration and deep learning. Six trainees, dropping in with each other for two years, exceptionally well held with an authentic, strong, nurturing energy emanating from Marianne and her team, an energy that only ever wanted the best for each of us. Their profound awareness of the delicate depth of this work and their ability to pass this on to us with increasing levels of subtlety has been frequently awe inspiring. This work and the way it has been shared by the trainers has landed fully in my heart. They provided a wonderfully warm and predictable holding, and in that holding was a safety for me to settle, to explore, to open and to turn towards what I have always been capable of.”  Alasdair Kirk

On completion of the two year training a third year of training is also available, which gives the additional skills required to facilitate deep emotional process work in a group or workshop setting. We also offer further one year trainings in couples’ work and in supervision.

The Founders, Marianne Hill and Rod Boothroyd, are well known experts in the field of shadow work. They both have busy practices working with individual clients and for many years they ran their hugely popular group workshops and healing journeys together.

Marianne has many years of experience in training psychotherapists and counsellors to work more deeply with their clients’ shadow sides. She is author of Healing The Shadow – Deep process Psychotherapy: An Invitation Into The Transformational World Of Shadow Work.

Rod Boothroyd is author of Warrior, Magician, Lover, King: A Guide To The Male Archetypes For The 21st Century. This book brings to the world Rod’s vast knowledge of human archetypes gained from many years of facilitating transformational process work for men.

Rod is now retired from full time teaching. However, he remains very involved in the training as an elder and mentor.

Marianne continues to lead the training alongside her co trainers Dan Hartley and Sue Rayner.

Based on their combined experience Marianne and Rod developed this comprehensive training which provides you with all the tools and techniques you need to set up as a fully qualified and confident practitioner:

1) Training in the shadow work tools used for working with and resolving emotional wounds held in the shadow.

2) Training in holding and healing the wounded Inner Child.

3) Training in holding clients therapeutically, both inside and outside the client session. We explore how your own shadows and the client’s shadows may play out in these interactions, and how such interactions can be used as healing opportunities.

4) A complete training in The Five Fields Framework for Authentic Communication, a way of speaking which explores conflict and allows you to express your thoughts, feelings and emotions clearly and cleanly. This framework can be used to improve relationships in every aspect of your life and work.

5) An in-depth exploration of your own shadows. The biggest asset you bring to your clients is yourself. The better you know your own shadows, and the more work you do to heal them, the better you will be able to support your clients.

6) Techniques for working with the four aspects of the personality: The Feeling Body, The Action Taker, The Heart-Centred Leader, and The Transformer. These have their roots in the concept of the four fundamental human archetypes, traditionally known as Lover, Warrior, Sovereign, and Magician.

7) An in depth understanding of the theory of the shadow, the archetypes and emotional wounds, and an understanding of attachment theory, transactional analysis, developmental theory, relationship dynamics, systemic theory, trauma theory, projection, transference and countertransference and how these play out in clients’ lives and in the therapeutic space.

The starting point is a two year course for those who would like to work with individuals in a one to one setting. There is an additional year’s training available for those who would like to go on and facilitate group workshops. We also offer postgraduate courses in relationship work and supervision.

The two year training consists of:

●  Ten fully experiential shadow work training weekends in each year of the course, with a small group of only six participants to ensure individual attention.

●  Two personal tutorials each year.

●  Structured, facilitated small group practice sessions between training weekends.

●  50 hours of supported work with clients.

●  Opportunities to do your own shadow work and to explore and heal your own shadow material.

●  10 hours of videoed sessions with clients with detailed feedback.

●  Teaching in the theory and practice of working with the shadow.

●  A teaching of the essential counselling skills and psychotherapeutic theory necessary to equip you with the tools and understanding you need to build a comprehensive and professional approach to seeing clients.

●  Advice and guidance on setting up a Healing The Shadow practice.

Mentoring and supervision are available on completion of training to fully support newly qualified practitioner in setting up and running their practice in a confident, sustainable, fulfilling and enjoyable way.

The nature of this course makes it particularly suitable for individuals who are devoted to continuing their own personal development journey as well as wishing to become a fully qualified and insured practitioner.

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