The Shadow Self or the Shadow as C. Jung called it, is the marginalized self, the self of the background that determines our existence, our daily life much more than we suspect. Condemned in the shadows as inadmissible during our upbringing and consists of all those feelings, thoughts, fantasies and behaviors that are more or less considered 'inappropriate' or 'bad' for the 'good' role that each of us structures in society where we live. But it is in this Shadow Self that the greatest store of our creativity, inspiration, energy and completion is hidden. Part of our being, too, as long as he lives in darkness, we live half a life, incomplete, even if we have 'spiritual' or 'higher' aspirations. It often frightens most people because it is instinctive, uneducated and not so "familiar", yet genuine. He visits us in our dreams as a figure of darkness or as an "inferior" creature, sometimes as an assistant and sometimes as a competitor, sometimes as a bright guide and sometimes as a slimy shadow, demanding our attention. The more we insist on ignoring him, the more he will knock on the door of our consciousness, either in the form of some symptoms, or in the absence of energy, or in existential, anxious questions that require solution.
In the realm of the Shadow Self there are also many of our talents and abilities that have been overlooked or marginalized because they were not accepted by us and our social environment, skills and abilities full of wealth and energy. Part of our inner Gold is in this space that in the noise of everyday life we have forgotten or ignored. In the deepest part of the Shadow we may discover our Authentic Self that we forgot through the use of our numerous masks.
Shadow does not necessarily mean "bad" but rather one who is in obscurity and does not make his presence visible. At the same time it is true that part of any of our "evil" is in the Shadow because we grew up wearing the mask of the "good boy". Ignorance of our "evil" and the avoidance of coming in contact with it makes us instruments of its power, while if we are aware of all our aspects then we only live less mechanically and have a choice for "conscious goodness" and not " kindness ”that we are taught by children who are nothing but a lukewarm mechanics, a mask of social contract that sooner or later falls. Someone who decides to walk the Self-Cognitive path has an obligation to face his wholeness, to include both his Light and his Darkness, otherwise he is lost!
Workshop facilitator
Demys Kyriakou
Psychiatrist-Drama Therapist (RDTh.-U.K.)
Demys Kyriakou is a Psychiatrist, Dramatherapist (R.DTh.-UK), Supervisor, Homeopath and author. Founder and director of the former dramatherapy training programme in Northern Greece and Cyprus. Facilitator of regular working groups and dramatherapy supervision for the last 30 years. Inspirer of the concept "Spageiric Dramatherapy" and the corresponding therapeutic model. He is also a publishing consultant for the magazine "AVATON" in which he writes on a regular basis. Author of three books, a poetry collection entitled "The Purple Compass" (published by Gavriilidis), a spiritual diary entitled "Testimony" (published by Archetype) and another poetry collection entitled "Albedo - Haikou Alchemies" (published by Haikou) ). He has contributed to a number of collective works, both Greek and British, on Alchemy, Nature of the Soul, Human Typology, etc. Creator of the first website for Drama Therapy in Greece and Cyprus (www.dramatherapy.gr)www.dramatherapy.grand on facebook "Spagyric Dramatherapy". His main research interests include bridging, through Dramatherapy, Spiritual Traditions and Practices and psychotherapeutic theory and practice. He lives and works in Thessaloniki.
