By Cherionna Menzam Sills, PhD, ISMETARSMT/E,RCST
Adapted from a chapter in her forthcoming book, Fluid and Cosmos: Embodying Our Original Embryological Potential
Shadow leaks into our lives, unconsciously affecting our perceptions, thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, relationships, bodies and personalities. Pre-and perinatal experience, rarely acknowledged or reflected during childhood, generally retreats into the unconscious, seldom coming into words and conscious thoughts. It is almost by definition shadow material.
Much of pre- and perinatal therapy orients to early traumas. While important to acknowledge, understand, and liberate from shadow, my mission in this field is to also highlight the amazing potential of little embryos in the womb developing from one tiny cell into complex individuals. How much of that potential to become also hides in shadow? How can we access and embody our original embryological potential? How can we shine the light on both the suffering and the health it may obscure?
Shadow, a term from Carl Jung, refers to unconscious qualities repressed or rejected within ourselves. Shadow aspects develop early in life in response to an inherently ambiguous world (Fairbairn, 1994). Life includes what we perceive as good as well as bad. Little ones need to perceive their relationship with mom as consistently good and safe. Even the best of mothers, however, are human. They are not always happy and do not always perfectly meet the child’s needs and expectations. Pregnant women experience stress, loss, and life, passed on to the prenate biochemically and energetically. The field of mother inevitably includes both nourishing and toxic elements. To tolerate such ambiguity, little ones develop a split self system, some aspects organizing around feelings of goodness and others around feelings of badness.
Shadowy Potential
What shadow aspects do you hold in darkness? How do you continue to embody your early experience? A toxic womb experience may be expressed through allergies or other sensitivities. Or the individual affected may become an environmental activist. A difficult birth may be reflected in finding new beginnings similarly difficult. Consider, however, the inherent power it took to push your way through the birth canal, if you did that. What health and intelligence guided your prenatal development, perhaps surviving intense umbilical toxicity? What strengths do you not see yourself a shaving? Or do others see in you? The shadow we don’t see in ourselves is often obvious to others. Can you consider embracing and receiving the magnificent being emerging at your birth If you missed being welcomed then, it is not too late to welcome yourself now. If this is difficult, I recommend finding a therapist you can resonate and feel safe with to begin exploring this.
Investigating what is unconscious and unspoken about your early history may revive your life.
UPCOMING WORKSHOP WITH CHERIONNA:
Echoes of the Womb:
Our Pre and Perinatal Origins and Biodynamics
PART OF OUR ‘WORKING WITH LITTLE ONES’ SERIES
APRIL 29 – MAY 3, 2020 • NEW YORK CITY
In this special seminar, we will explore how our clients’ and our own very early experience in the womb may enter into session work, and how we can meet these energies to facilitate health in ourselves and in our clients.