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Coaching approaches

Shadow integration coaching

Shadow integration coaching uses Carl Jung's idea of the shadow, the traits and feelings a person disowns and sometimes projects onto others, as the focus of coaching. Connie Zweig and others wrote about the shadow for general readers, and a 2021 case study describes Jungian coaching that works with the shadow archetype. Research on the coaching approach itself is very thin. It is graded P: practitioner tradition, not outcome research.

What it is

In Jung's sense, the shadow is the set of traits, impulses and feelings a person does not accept in themselves. A coaching conversation built on this idea helps you notice where you react strongly to someone else, where you see in others something you are not willing to see in yourself, and what that disowned material might have to offer.

The aim is to relate to these parts rather than remove them. This is the sense in which the word integration is used. The page describes the approach at the level its sources support; it does not reproduce a method or a script.

Where it comes from

The idea comes from Carl Jung's analytical psychology, in which the shadow is the unlived or disowned side of the personality. Connie Zweig and Jeremiah Abrams edited Meeting the Shadow (1991), which brought the concept to general readers.

Jungian coaching has been written up in its own right. Avi Goren-Bar's 2021 chapter in An Introduction to Jungian Coaching presents a case study of Jungian coaching that works with the shadow archetype during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The principles underneath

Projection shows up in reactions

Strong reactions to other people can point to qualities a person has not accepted in themselves. Newman, Duff and Baumeister's 1997 study, titled 'A new look at defensive projection', examines how suppressed thoughts relate to biased perception of other people.

Disowned material is worked with, not suppressed

The approach treats what a person disowns as material to work with rather than something to push down. This is the approach's own premise, not a finding of research.

Integration rather than removal

The aim is to bring disowned parts into awareness and relate to them, not to eliminate them.

How a session runs

  1. Start with a recent moment when someone's behaviour strongly bothered you, and describe it in plain detail.
  2. Notice what the reaction felt like in your body, and what it said about the other person.
  3. Ask which quality in that reaction you would rather not admit to having. Answer honestly, even if the answer is uncomfortable.
  4. Explore what that quality has done for you, where it was useful and where it cost you, without deciding in advance that it is good or bad.
  5. Look for a small, safe way the disowned quality could show up in your week, and notice what that is like.
  6. Bring the pattern to the next session, starting with what you noticed.

When it tends to fit

  • You keep reacting far more strongly to one person than the situation seems to call for.
  • You notice yourself criticising in others a trait you insist you do not have.
  • A part of you that you have kept hidden keeps coming out at the wrong moments.

What the research shows

Evidence: Practitioner tradition — little or no outcome research

No outcome study of shadow integration coaching turned up in the searches for this page, so no trial or meta-analysis of the approach itself is reported here. Its theory rests on Jung's analytical psychology. The nearest research is adjacent. Newman and colleagues' 1997 study, titled 'A new look at defensive projection: Thought suppression, accessibility, and biased person perception', examines how thought suppression relates to biased perception of others. Goren-Bar's 2021 chapter is a case study of one coaching case, which describes the work but does not test it.

Where the evidence is thin: The shadow is a theoretical construct, and the sources reviewed for this page did not test it directly. The projection research is about how suppression and perception work, not about Jungian coaching outcomes.

Sources

  1. Zweig, C., & Abrams, J. (Eds.). (1991). Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature. Jeremy P. Tarcher.
  2. Goren-Bar, A. (2021). When the Shadow archetype met Lady Corona, a comprehensive case study about Jungian Coaching in Covid-19 pandemic era. In An Introduction to Jungian Coaching (pp. 167–179). Routledge.
  3. Newman, L. S., Duff, K. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (1997). A new look at defensive projection: Thought suppression, accessibility, and biased person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(5), 980–1001.

Where it stops

Reactions that cause harm or distress, or that carry trauma, belong with a qualified professional. Exploring disowned parts can open painful material.

This is not a method for diagnosing or labelling anyone. Attributing a trait to someone else's shadow can become another way of blaming them.

If the work deepens low mood, or leaves you preoccupied with your worst qualities, a clinician can help you decide what to do next.

Practices for this approach

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