Shadow Workshop

Stop being your own worst enemy!

During this powerful workshop you will discover valuable tools to create a heightened sense of emotional balance and perspective within yourself, your life and the world around you,

You will learn how to make peace with your pain.

  • Improve Relationships
  • Reconcile your ‘dark side’!
  • Find your authentic self and uncover your hidden strengths.
  • End Self-sabotage and relationship sabotage!
  • Assess and discover your true self-worth.
  • Face your fears and discover your inner courage.
  • Resolve the conflict between who you are and who you are meant to be.
  • Awaken your unclaimed power hidden in your shadow self.
  • Discover your hidden treasures and make the most of your uniqueness

The compassion and understanding that you find for yourself will light the spark of confidence and courage to live and be your authentic self. In fact, most importantly, you can discover just WHO that authentic self is!

What is it about?

Most of us struggle with self-defeating behaviour and aspects of ourselves we don’t like, and don’t know how to change.  We have been conditioned to hide parts of ourselves that are deemed to be shameful, unacceptable or weak.  These are the parts of ourselves which we call the ‘dark’ side, or ‘shadow’. Yet it is in our shadow self that our unclaimed power lies hidden!

Darkness is only dark because of an absence of light!

When we shed light on our deepest fears, we set ourselves free. Our deepest fear is that we are really unlovable. We are afraid that no matter how hard we try, we will never be quite good enough; or quite acceptable enough. We are afraid that people will find out who we really are – see our vulnerability, our weaknesses or our dark thoughts. We learn to hide these parts of ourselves – and they become a veritable box of frogs which we spend our lives trying to keep under the lid!

Unfortunately our ‘frogs’ are not content to stay hidden. They begin to control our lives and make unconscious choices for us. They begin to escape and we act in ways we are ashamed of.

They manifest in ways that disempower us and cause us shame. Perhaps in the food we can’t stop eating; how much money we waste; the addiction we succumb to time and time again; the angry outbursts; withdrawing or sulking; attention-seeking, or any other behaviour we’d prefer not to have!  Left in the darkness, you can be sure those frogs will get out one way or another.
The incredible thing is that by shining a conscious light on these dreadful monsters within us, we find instead the knights in shining armour we were harbouring all along.

Sound incredible? It makes perfect sense, really. Come along and find out how you can transform some of your worst fears into your greatest gifts!

Most people are afraid that shining a light on the darkness inside will cause shame, guilt or even worse – cause all the frogs to come out at once! We become so scared of what we will find inside that we bury our heads and refuse to face ourselves. The result of this is that we become more dis-eased, more dysfunctional while our relationships and lives suffer the consequences.

Shining a light on our inner selves actually does exactly the opposite. We find compassion, courage and freedom. We discover that what is inside the box has the power to change our lives positively and see the world in a new light. We become authentic. We no longer hide. We turn our self–loathing into self-worth.

I have taken the best of deep inner process work that I have developed over the years and blended it with exercises from Debbie Ford’s internationally renowned ‘Shadow Process’ work as well as the best on offer from other teachers I greatly admire such as Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Byron Katie, and, of course, my most recommended author,  Eckhart Tolle.

This is a profound workshop – Shadow Work is essential if you are struggling with self-esteem and accepting yourself, but also if you are finding difficulty with relationships and other areas of your life!

Debbie Ford calls it a ‘Consciousness Cleanse’, and that is what it is!

You may have heard of ‘Projection’ and ‘Mirroring’ or that ‘the world only mirrors back who you are’, or that ‘when you ‘judge others, you are only judging yourself’ – it is all true, and this workshop will explain why and how to recognise yourself in the mirror; accept yourself and let your ‘frogs’ out the box to become princes. (Don’t worry, you will understand exactly what that means on the workshop!)

Shadow and how it is formed

One of the first lessons we learn as we come into this world is that we have to fit in with others to survive. Our parents ‘socialised’ us and made sure we were ‘good enough’ for public consumption.

We don’t just want to belong, or be loved. We NEED to belong and be loved for our very survival in society and to become integrated whole beings. We need approval and love from those who take care of us because we wholly depend on them.

Unfortunately this love and acceptance is not unconditional. We learn that when we behave a certain way, we are acceptable, but when we don’t conform we are not. Very often we don’t even know what we have done to cause the disapproval, the shouting, the punishment or the withdrawal of these essential carers in our lives. We don’t know why some kids at school liked us and others didn’t. We don’t know what made us popular or unpopular. We are only sure that if anybody knew what was really inside, they wouldn’t want to know us. We hide behind a mask we create and hope nobody ever sees through the cracks.

 I promise you….

  • The aim is NOT to find terrible things about yourself that you can beat yourself up about some more.
  • The aim is NOT to just be okay with anything and have no standards or morals. The aim is to see the truth for what it is, honour your humanity and stop judging yourself or others.
  • The aim IS to choose who and what you want to be, without hidden agendas or denied parts of your humanity pretending to be something else.

What will you get out of participating in this workshop?

  • During this powerful workshop you will discover valuable tools to create a heightened sense of emotional balance and perspective within yourself, your life and the world around you.
  • You will find out more about yourself than you ever thought possible – if you are willing!
  • You will uncover parts of yourself that you have hidden or denied and find an integrated wholeness to empower you.
  • You will uncover and release blocks and fears that have stopped you from succeeding in   life and relationships.
  • You will to move, as far as you are willing, from unconscious self-sabotaging behaviour through self-awareness to being free to be your authentic self.
  • This workshop is dedicated to setting you on the path to emotional freedom.
  • You will learn how to make peace with your pain.
  • You may even learn to get out of your own way!

What will we do on the workshop? Do I have to work in a group?

Much of the work is done through powerful visualisation and self- exercises that you can keep as private as you want to.

There are some exercises where you will work with a partner, or a small group. Rest assured that you will always be considered and your personal comfort will be maintained. The group exercises are generally based on issues that we all commonly share.

We understand that many people are uncomfortable sharing deep emotional stuff in a group of people they don’t know. You will never be put under any pressure to do so.

If you would like to stop your self-sabotaging behaviour…attend this two day workshop and begin your journey to owning your own magnificence!

Testimonials

“I found the workshop really useful as I started to think in a different way about myself.  After the first session, I had an immediate change in terms of feeling less sensitive to comments and I felt that I didnt take things as personally as before the course. “

“When I first read the course outline I remember saying to Gayle that I thought it was too much before the busy Christmas period and my Grandmother was really poorly so I wouldn’t have the time  Well, I’m so glad I changed my mind and made time, as it was the best thing to do  for ME and I’ve had the best Christmas feeling really good about myself.

The course helped me (not only) to feel better about myself but also to love and accept my friends, family and work colleagues.  It showed me that those things I criticise in other’s, are the very things I am capable of being myself.  We are all human and admittedly we all have areas to work on, but I feel so much better about the world around me.
My Granny passed away on the second day of the course but, despite this, I was able to find the strength to come along, visualise and participate – knowing that I was doing something really valuable for myself.”

Lyndsay – Windsor

“I attended Gayle’s workshop as I had reached a point in my life where I needed help to deal with personal issues which I felt were holding me back from fulfilling my potential as a therapist.  The workshop helped me to learn more about why we may behave in the way we do and gave me tools which I can use on a daily basis to help me understand myself better.  It has helped me to stop beating myself up when I’m not “perfect” and has given me a greater awareness of how to behave in a more positive and constructive way towards myself and to acknowledge that the “shadows” are something that need to be brought into the light and set free.

The total effect of doing the workshop was not instantaneous for me but as the days and weeks have passed, its positive effect on my life has become more noticeable.  I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who feels “stuck” in some way in their life that they attend Gayle’s workshop as it is definitely something which will help people who are ready to change.”

Christine Lowson, Bowen Therapist, Teddington www.christinelowson.com

“I enjoyed the workshop and now understand certain things I say and do better, especially when being critical about others or when giving advice. It was interesting to find out that we are actually talking to ourselves at that point and are expressing how we feel about ourselves. “

(Sven, London)

“Just to let you know how much I enjoyed attending the ‘Exploring your Shadow Side’ workshop. It’s helped me see that it’s just all part of a big picture.”
“I have always believed that it’s my job to understand everyone else’s shadow side but that I have to control and subdue my own. I believe now that it’s not about controlling but integrating.
Your enthusiasm and knowledge really came to the fore and you managed to make sure it was intensive (in a good way), really focussed as well as being fun and enjoyable.  I personally found it to be very helpful and illuminating.  Its certainly helped me to see things from a different perspective for which I’m very grateful and I’m glad I made the decision to go along. I have already recommended your website and the course to several friends!”

Janis – Cobham

(The workshop) gave me further understanding of my darker sides and helped to realise that we are all very similar and have our fears to face and that I am not alone in this.
The visualisations were enlightening and healing.

Maria  – Surrey

“The workshop made me think about things that connected up and made more sense in a good way – I wouldn’t have been able to do that on my own
I would recommend it to friends who may be searching and questioning”

Pamela, Greenwich

Two Day Workshop –

one day per week over two weeks, or a weekend. (No dates set at the moment, but please do enquire)

Mini Shadow Course:

Two weekly workshops of three hours each as part of the level 2 of the Personal Mastery Course

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.