What automatically gets excluded in our work with others? Because we are human, we resist seeing and experiencing things that make us uncomfortable or challenge our sense of essential worth and security. Empathy often has invisible limits. Our trust that our empathic capacities can bridge the distance between ourselves and those we care for is necessary to do the work — and potentially destructive.
In this workshop, we will explore the ethical practice of exploring social position in our work with others. Jung’s notion of shadow — that there are significant parts of ourselves that we reject or are unable to see — is also collective. The work of healing ourselves and others requires a practice of listening for what we least want to hear, noticing what we make marginal and what has been made marginal by social forces, and allowing those realities to emerge in the consulting room and transform the work.