May 22, 2026

Most often when we talk about doing "shadow work," we usually focus on pains, wounds, and fears that we've tucked away (in our shadow). We don't see them until we do this kind of inner work but they affect our lives in harmful ways. Carl Jung opened up a new window by recognizing a "golden shadow" that also operates in the deepest, repressed part of our psyche. 

A quick overview is that we have wonderful gifts that we don't put forward into the world. Sometimes our hesitation is the result of family dynamics, bad messaging, or even church-influenced taboos about staying in our place, yielding authority in our lives to leaders. Deep down we know we harbor many gifts, but we fear letting them step out of our shadow.

In this episode, LDF host Dan Wotherspoon is joined by a brilliant therapist, Valerie Hamaker, and a certified life couch who has been working with clients for nine-plus years, Jana Spangler. Each of them adds much wisdom to the subject of the golden shadow, especially the dynamics of how it manifests or doesn't in our lives. We are all of us magnificent, light-filled, talented, whole beings. Why do we hesitate to own and project those parts of ourselves?

Their conversation is brilliant. You must listen in!