Attachment Theory and Shadow Work

CE Credit: 3 Hours
Format: Self-Study Article + Case Reflections + Experiential Exercises

Course Description

This 3-hour CEU course is designed to introduce and deepen the clinician’s understanding of attachment theory while teaching how Jungian analytical psychology and shadow work can enhance therapeutic outcomes. This training emphasizes clinical application—not ethical analysis—and focuses on how to identify attachment patterns, introduce shadow concepts, and integrate symbolic work with relational healing.

Participants will learn how attachment styles manifest in adult relationships, including the therapeutic dyad, and how shadow content can be compassionately explored using Jungian tools such as active imagination, symbol amplification, and complex theory.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Describe the four core adult attachment styles and their clinical presentations.
Define the Jungian shadow and its relevance to unconscious relational dynamics.
Recognize the interplay between early attachment wounds and shadow projection.
Apply Jungian tools (e.g., symbols, dreams, amplification) to support clients in integrating repressed material.
Facilitate secure relating through reflective interventions rooted in both attachment theory and depth psychology.

Section I: Foundations of Attachment Theory

Bowlby’s Research and Model

John Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst, developed attachment theory in the mid-20th century through his study of child development and early separation trauma. Drawing from ethology, developmental psychology, and evolutionary theory, Bowlby observed that children are biologically programmed to seek proximity to caregivers for survival. When those caregivers are consistently responsive, children form a secure base that supports exploration and emotional regulation.

Bowlby’s seminal research included:

Observing children separated from parents in hospitals and orphanages
Collaborating with Mary Ainsworth, whose Strange Situation studies later helped define attachment styles
Proposing that disruptions in early bonds could lead to long-term emotional and relational challenges

Key concepts of Bowlby’s model include:

Internal Working Models: Children develop unconscious templates for relationships based on early caregiving. These models shape how we perceive others and ourselves.
Secure Base: A dependable caregiver fosters confidence, exploration, and resilience.
Proximity-Seeking Behaviors: Infants instinctively seek closeness when threatened or distressed, a pattern that continues in adult attachment behaviors.

Bowlby’s work laid the foundation for understanding how attachment wounds show up across the lifespan, including in therapy. It also complements Jungian analysis, as early relational experiences often fuel the complexes and shadow material that surface in adulthood.

How Attachment Theory and Jungian Analysis Complement Each Other

Though attachment theory and Jungian psychology originate from different traditions—developmental science and depth psychology—they intersect in meaningful ways within therapeutic practice.

Attachment theory explains how early relationships shape a client’s ability to regulate emotion, seek closeness, and form relational patterns. It provides a developmental roadmap of how security or insecurity forms.
Jungian analysis explores the unconscious legacy of these early patterns, especially how unmet needs, repressed emotions, and traumatic imprints form complexes and appear symbolically in dreams, fantasies, or projection.

Together, these models offer a comprehensive view:

Attachment theory maps how wounds form; Jungian psychology explores where those wounds live in the psyche and how they emerge through shadow content.
Attachment work builds relational safety and regulation; Jungian work invites symbolic integration and deeper self-awareness.
Secure therapeutic attachment allows for safe descent into shadow—meaning the client can explore shame, rage, grief, and unmet longing without becoming dysregulated or overwhelmed.

This integration enables therapists to meet clients where they are—grounding them in a secure relationship while also honoring the mystery, depth, and symbolic meaning of their inner world.

Clinical Presentation

Attachment Style	Traits in Relationships	Therapy Dynamics
Secure	Trusting, emotionally open	Responds well to relational repair
Anxious-Preoccupied	Craves closeness, fear of rejection	May seek constant reassurance
Dismissive-Avoidant	Self-reliant, emotionally distant	May resist vulnerability or depth work
Fearful-Avoidant	Push-pull behavior, trauma history	May idealize therapist then withdraw

Reflection Prompt

Describe a client (or yourself) that fits one of these styles. How does this pattern influence relational repair?

Section II: Jungian Analysis and the Shadow

What is Jungian Analysis?

Jungian analysis is a form of depth psychotherapy founded by Carl Gustav Jung. It aims to bring unconscious material into conscious awareness through a collaborative exploration of dreams, symbols, complexes, and archetypal patterns. Unlike symptom-focused therapies, Jungian analysis works with the whole personality, including the psyche’s spiritual and mythopoetic dimensions.

At its core, Jungian analysis emphasizes individuation—the lifelong process of becoming one’s true self by integrating unconscious aspects of the personality. This integration includes working with the shadow, inner child, anima/animus, and other archetypal figures that influence emotional and relational life.

Jungian analysts often use techniques like dream interpretation, active imagination, sandplay, and the exploration of synchronicities to access the deeper layers of a client’s psyche. The therapeutic relationship itself serves as a vessel for transformation, with the analyst acting as a guide rather than an authority.

This method is particularly effective for clients struggling with identity confusion, spiritual disconnection, and chronic relational wounds rooted in early development. When integrated with attachment theory, Jungian analysis can help clients explore the symbolic and emotional residue of early attachment injuries in a way that fosters profound healing and personal growth.

Jung’s Discovery of the Shadow

Carl Jung developed the concept of the shadow through his early work on the unconscious, especially as he diverged from Freud’s ideas. While Freud focused on repressed sexuality and aggression, Jung became increasingly fascinated with the broader unconscious and the role of symbols, archetypes, and myth in shaping inner life.

The idea of the shadow emerged from Jung’s observations that people often projected undesirable traits onto others—blaming, idealizing, or rejecting those around them as a way of avoiding inner conflict. Through self-analysis and dream work, Jung noticed the repeated appearance of morally ambiguous or frightening figures in dreams and myths. These figures, he realized, were not random—they were mirrors of the psyche, reflecting traits the conscious mind refused to accept.

Jung formally introduced the concept of the shadow as part of his model of the psyche, which includes the ego, personal unconscious, and collective unconscious. The shadow resides in the personal unconscious and contains all the parts of ourselves we’ve learned to reject—either because of cultural norms, family values, or early attachment experiences. While often associated with negative traits (e.g., envy, rage, cowardice), the shadow also contains golden qualities: creativity, eroticism, power, and play.

Jung believed that embracing the shadow—rather than denying it—was crucial for individuation, or the journey toward psychological wholeness.

What is Shadow Work?

Shadow work is the process of bringing unconscious, repressed, or disowned aspects of the self into conscious awareness. In Jungian terms, the shadow represents parts of the personality that the ego refuses to identify with—traits that were judged, denied, or shamed in early development. These parts may include anger, neediness, jealousy, sexuality, ambition, or even sensitivity.

Rather than trying to eliminate the shadow, the goal is to integrate it—recognizing it as a source of vitality, truth, and wholeness. Shadow work empowers clients to become more authentic and emotionally resilient by reclaiming what was previously split off.

Why It Matters in Therapy

Clients with attachment wounds often suppress traits they believe will make them unlovable. For example:

A child who learned that anger led to rejection may suppress assertiveness.
A client with avoidant attachment may disown their need for closeness.
Anxious clients may feel shame around boundaries or independence.

Shadow work helps clients:

Reduce self-sabotage
Recognize projections in relationships
Increase emotional range and depth
Reclaim disowned strengths

Tools from Jungian Analysis

Active Imagination: A Jungian technique where clients engage in conscious dialogue with figures, emotions, or symbols that emerge from dreams, fantasies, or daydreams. Jung developed this method after experimenting with letting his unconscious speak directly through images and figures. Clients might visualize and speak with an internal figure (e.g., an inner critic, a wounded child, a monster) to explore what that part represents. This is especially useful for clients who are disconnected from their emotions or carry unintegrated attachment trauma.

Active Imagination – Carl Jung’s Most Powerful Technique – A clear introduction to how active imagination dialogues with unconscious figures.

Symbol Amplification: In dream analysis, amplification is the process of exploring multiple cultural, mythological, and personal meanings of a symbol. For example, a snake may be interpreted as fear, transformation, or life force depending on the context. Rather than giving one interpretation, the therapist helps the client explore layers of meaning that resonate with their inner world. This approach honors the symbolic richness of the psyche and allows clients to find personal associations connected to repressed or shadow material.

Live Demonstration of Parts Work & Active Imagination – Watch a live client session where a therapist guides the client through active imagination.

Complex Theory: Jung’s complex theory posits that emotionally charged themes—called complexes—form around early relational experiences. These are like knots in the psyche that trigger intense reactions when activated. For instance, someone with an abandonment complex may overreact to a partner canceling plans. Complexes can distort perception and fuel shadow projections. In therapy, recognizing these patterns helps both therapist and client slow down reactivity and begin making unconscious material conscious.

Unlock the Power of Symbols – Murray Stein – Jungian analyst walks viewers through symbol amplification using common dream symbols.

Reflection Prompts:

After watching a video, reflect: Which part of the client’s psyche is being contacted? What resistance arises? How might this technique support clients with insecure attachment?

Section III: Attachment Meets the Unconscious

Clinical Integration

Clients with insecure attachment often carry unresolved shadow material from early relationships
Dismissive clients may disown dependency needs
Anxious clients may disown their own aggression or independence

Case Example

Vignette: Dismissive-Avoidant Attachment and the Shadow
Client: Darren, 41, presents with work stress and conflict avoidance in romantic relationships. He insists he’s “fine on his own,” rarely expresses emotion, and dismisses therapy as “talking about feelings that don’t change anything.” However, Darren begins reporting vivid dreams involving helpless children and dark stairwells. He shrugs them off, but they recur weekly.

Therapist’s Approach: Using Jungian amplification, the therapist helps Darren explore the symbolic meaning of the children (his unmet dependency needs) and the dark stairwell (a descent into vulnerable emotional territory). Initially resistant, Darren eventually shares that his father ridiculed emotional displays and that he learned early to perform strength to earn approval.

Shadow Dynamics: Darren’s shadow contains vulnerability, fear, and the desire for connection. He projects weakness onto others and distances from intimacy to preserve a false self-image of independence. Through inner child dialogues and active imagination, Darren begins to reframe neediness as a human trait rather than a flaw. His dismissiveness softens into reflective curiosity, and he starts attending therapy more consistently.

Reflection Prompt: When working with avoidant clients, what part of yourself feels activated or shut down? How might your own shadow influence your countertransference?

Interventions

Client Behavior	Integrative Intervention
Over-reliance on therapist	Normalize longing, encourage internal nurturing voice
Projection of abandonment	Explore symbolic roots via imagery or guided journaling
Shutdown during conflict	Use somatic cues to explore denied vulnerability

Section IV: Techniques & Exercises for Clinical Use

Clinical Techniques

Shadow Mapping: This is a structured journaling or visual exercise where clients chart specific traits, behaviors, or emotional triggers that cause discomfort or overreaction. These markers often reveal parts of the shadow self. By recognizing the emotions clients judge or fear in others, they begin to identify what has been disowned in themselves, creating space for integration and healing.

Vignette:
Marcus, 34, identifies as anxious-preoccupied in relationships but struggles with anger outbursts, especially when he feels dismissed or excluded. When asked about these episodes, he insists he’s ‘not an angry person’ and blames others for being inconsiderate. Through shadow mapping, the therapist guides Marcus in identifying triggers: being ignored, delayed responses, or feeling replaced. They explore the underlying beliefs—rejection, unworthiness, and fear of abandonment. Marcus visually maps these emotional responses alongside associated self-judgments and childhood experiences.

This process reveals a suppressed anger tied to an internalized belief that his needs make him unlovable. With the therapist’s support, Marcus reclaims anger as a protective signal rather than a flaw. He begins practicing assertive communication, and as shadow material is integrated, he becomes less reactive and more emotionally congruent in his relationships.

Secure Base Visualization: This exercise invites clients to imagine a protective, nurturing figure—real, imagined, or symbolic—who provides unconditional support. This internalized figure helps regulate the nervous system, foster safety in vulnerability, and build self-compassion. For clients with attachment trauma, this can begin to repair disrupted internal working models by giving them a felt sense of secure connection.

Vignette: Jamie, a 29-year-old with fearful-avoidant attachment, often panics when her partner pulls away emotionally. She describes her body as “flooded,” and she has difficulty self-soothing. The therapist introduces secure base visualization to help her regulate emotionally between sessions. Jamie begins by picturing her grandmother’s old rocking chair—a place where she once felt safe. With the therapist’s guidance, she adds in a nurturing figure: a warm, gentle presence who tells her she is safe, seen, and not alone. Over time, Jamie internalizes this imagery and uses it during moments of distress. The practice not only helps her calm her nervous system, but also begins to shift her internal working model—from one of abandonment to one of secure presence.

Inner Child Dialogues: Clients are guided to visualize and speak with younger versions of themselves who hold unmet needs, fears, or shame. This technique can take the form of written dialogues, mirror work, or active imagination. Through these conversations, clients can begin to reparent themselves, grieve losses, and reclaim vital parts of their emotional world.

Vignette: Tara, a 42-year-old client with anxious-preoccupied attachment, often feels emotionally disregarded in romantic relationships. During sessions, she oscillates between self-blame and rage toward others. The therapist introduces inner child dialogues to explore these intense emotions. Tara visualizes herself at age seven, hiding in a closet after an argument between her parents. Through guided conversation, adult Tara asks the child what she needs. The child responds: ‘To be held. To know it’s not my fault.’ This unlocks a wave of grief and tenderness. Over time, Tara incorporates this practice into her journaling, building a sense of self-compassion and beginning to set healthier boundaries in adult relationships.

Final Reflection

Choose one client whose attachment style you’ve struggled to work with. How might you apply shadow-oriented tools to deepen their insight and strengthen relational capacity?

Resource List

Bowlby, J. (1988). A Secure Base
Jung, C.G. (1959). Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self
Knox, J. (2003). Archetype, Attachment, Analysis
Kalsched, D. (2013). Trauma and the Soul
Fordham, M. (1957). The Objective Psyche
YouTube: Academy of Ideas – Jungian Therapy and Shadow Integration

Completion Instructions

To receive CEU credit:

Read all course content
Watch required video
Complete all reflection exercises
Submit post-test and evaluation form