ABSTRACT
As we come to know our shadow better so we become less fearful of what it contains. As we become less fearful of our shadow’s potential to do harm in our work so we become less suspicious of our responses to clients. As we become less suspicious of our responses so we become more willing to utilise those responses in our therapeutic work (Wosket (1999). As we become more willing to use our responses the distinction between ourselves as a counsellor and ourselves as a person diminishes. This process is reflected by Skovolt and Rønnestad as they describe how ‘the individual gradually sheds elements of the professional role that are incompatible with one’s own personality and cognitive schema’ (1995:109). This is, and needs to be, a gradual process, taking place over many years. It will sometimes accelerate when we take a risk with a particular client and see how it pays off. Equally there will sometimes be setbacks when we say or do something that we later realise was inappropriate and undermining of our work with that client.
