“Sharing our Shadows: Healing, Confidence, and Gratitude” by Jenna Broderick

In February of 2022, we released our first Open Call: How might we recreate public health as art, letters, stories, and poetry? The following is an art submission we received from this open call.

“Hope for recovery is created through connection, transparency, attachment, and destigmatization of the shadow. It is found in counseling rooms, healing circles, and various support groups. It is genuinely something we need to work into greater parts of our society. A 2016 study published by the NIMH shared crucial information regarding self-stigma. It was found that educational and cognitive-behavioral approaches view self-stigma as a societal problem that eventually and unintentionally breeds more public stigma, prejudice, and discrimination (Corrigan, 2016). It is well worth considering how our counseling education and resulting practices negatively impact those we are trying to help through unintended public stigma, prejudice, discrimination, countertransference, and conscious or unconscious issues. References Corrigan, P. W. (2016). Lessons learned from unintended consequences about erasing the stigma of mental illness. World Psychiatry, 15(1), 67-73.”

Jenna Broderick

Sharing our Shadows: Healing, Confidence, and Gratitude

“What I appreciate about most healing groups is the opportunity for people to see their growth and potentially be held up to the light by others that have gone through similar situations. It allows people to take out their shadows and know that they don’t need to be ruled by them, ashamed of them, or held captive by guilt by their shadows anymore because other wounded healing people and wounded healers share their shadows. I love how Schoen (2010) highlights the positive aspect of coming together as a group to turn shadow work into collective wounded healer work. They state, “so even the horror and terribleness of the archetypal shadow/archetypal evil has a potentially positive aspect. . . by turning to great positive, powerful reservoirs of Archytypyal Spiritual Goodness and Light. . . [group memebers are no longer] isolated, alientiated, lonely individual[s] caught in useless, meaningless suffering but [are] specially chosen, co-wounded healer[s] in unision [with others]” (Schoen, 2010, p. 121). The emphasis on connection, embracing one whole self, believing in change, and that previous choices don’t ruin us, or the future is what I love so very much in this message. I hope I have conveyed these messages and feelings in my three collage offerings of Sharing our Shadows: Healing, Confidence, and Gratitude. References Schoen, D. (2010). The war of the gods in addiction: CG Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous, and archetypal evil. Chiron Publications.”

Jenna Broderick