Year 1

Entry Requirements For Year 1

The application process for the training involves an initial informal discussion with one of the trainers, completion of the entry requirements below, the completion of an application form and a formal interview with the trainers.

The entry requirements before applying are all of the following:

• Engagement in your personal healing journey.
• At least 15 hours experience of individual shadow work OR attendance on a Group Shadow Work Intensive
• At least one five hour session with Marianne (as part of the above 15 hours).
• Ability to engage in a range of deep emotional processes.
• Demonstrated ability to hold good boundaries.
• Emotional maturity commensurate with the potential to become a Healing The Shadow practitioner.

Please note:  The work is embodied and can be psychologically challenging, both as a client and as a facilitator. We select people on the basis of their capacity to hold this deep work for others and also to hold themselves through the emotional journey over the two years. We also only accept people that we believe have the capacity to become competent and confident practitioners within the two years time frame. Completion of the entry requirements does NOT guarantee you a place. A place will only be offered following a successful interview. We cannot offer everyone who applies a place on our training course.

Course Hours For Year 1

All of the following

• 180 hours (ten weekends) of group training.
• 40 hours (5 days) of supervised peer practice sessions.
• 2 x 90 minute tutorials with a trainer.
• 50 hours (minimum) of reading and private or group study.
• Full attendance is required. (If, under exceptional circumstances, a training weekend or practice day cannot be attended, replacement sessions can be arranged with a trainer at additional cost.)

Assessment For Year 1

All of the following

• 20 hours of observed practice sessions with peers, including practitioner reflections.
• 2 hour videoed facilitation session and the completion of a self assessment process.
• Delivery of two 15 minute talks on theoretical aspects of the course.
• There are no final examinations in Year 1.

Year 1 Syllabus

Weekend 1 (Experiential): Working With Parts

• Representing parts of the client.
• Representing external people who inhabit the client’s inner world.
• Exploring and regressing parts.
• Experiential practice for trainees: getting out and exploring two parts of the self.

Weekend 2 (Theory and Personal process work): Theory of the Shadow

• The concept of the shadow.
• Projection, transference and counter-transference.
• Trainees’ personal emotional process work.

Weekend 3 (Experiential): Wants and Self-care: The Heart Centred Leader Archetype

• Experiential study of the Heart Centred Leader (Sovereign) archetype.
• Bringing self-care into your inner world – theory and practice.
• Experiential practice for trainees: bringing acceptance and care to parts of the self which are hard to accept.

Weekend 4 (Theory and Personal process work): Heart Centred Leader Archetype

• The concept of unconditional positive regard from the facilitator for the client.
• The concept of ‘healing in the relationship’.
• Working with parental projections, transference and countertransference.
• The God Complex and the Abdicating Leader.
• Trainees’ personal emotional process work.

Weekend 5 (Experiential): Defending and Growing – The Action Taker Archetype

• Experiential study of the Action Taker (Warrior) archetype.
• The theory and practice of setting personal boundaries.
• The purpose of anger.
• The expression of anger by the client in a safe setting using bat work.
• The use of a client’s anger for setting boundaries and speaking their truth.
• Practical safety in anger work.
• Accessing Shadow energy in order to reclaim personal power.
• Talking to the Safety Officer to explore risk of expressing anger/being powerful.
• Bringing support to help the Action Taker find power.
• Experiential practice for trainees: working with anger to set a boundary.

Weekend 6 (Experiential): Feeling and Connection – The Feeling Body Archetype

• Experiential study of the Feeling Body (Lover) archetype.
• The theory of the body’s ability to hold unintegrated emotions.
• The concept of the Inner Child.
• Working with metaphor.
• Grief work: speaking the unspoken words of goodbye.
• Experiential practice for trainees: working with metaphors within the body.

Weekend 7 (Theory and personal process work): Client Connections and Boundaries – Action Taker and Feeling Body Archetypes

• Practical considerations of working with clients: boundaries, confidentiality, safety, charging, fees, missed appointments.
• The therapeutic nature of boundaries in the client/practitioner relationship.
• Working with and within the transferential relationship.
• Unconscious connection with client’s emotional states.
• Attachment theory.
• Trauma theory.
• Developmental theory and the development of boundaries in infants and children.
• Practice in holding a two hour session.

Weekend 8 (Experiential): Seeing and Thinking – The Transformer Archetype

• Experiential study of the Transformer (Magician) archetype.
• Working with risks: the concept of the Safety Officer.
• Working with shame, guilt and the inner critic.
• The concept of Persecutor energy.
• Transformation of shame, guilt and fear through releasing and transforming Persecutor energy
• Experiential practice for trainees: working with shaming voices.

Weekend 9 (Theory and personal process work): Dispassionate Observation – The Transformer Archetype

• Use of dispassionate observation and non-judgemental acceptance of what is present in the work.
• Working with negative judgements of clients.
• Exploring shaming of self as practitioner.
• Introduction to Transactional Analysis.
• Drama triangle in practitioner/client dynamics.
• Critical Parent/Child interactions in practitioner/client dynamics.
• Practice in holding a two hour session.

Weekend 10 (Experiential): Review Weekend

Theory presentations by trainees.

Experiential practice for trainees: practice in holding a full 2.5 hour videoed session.

Self assessment by trainees.