What is Deep Process Psychotherapy?

Deep process psychotherapy is an embodied form of psychotherapy rooted in shadow work.

This form of therapy goes beyond traditional talk therapy by engaging with emotional and bodily sensations, memories, and internal imagery. The goal is to access more profound layers of the psyche, process unresolved emotions, and integrate these insights into daily life for lasting change.

Deep Process Psychotherapy was first developed by Marianne Hill and Rod Boothroyd from the Healing the Shadow Organisation. Marianne describes the approach in her book Healing The Shadow – Deep Process Psychotherapy: An Invitation into the Transformational World of Shadow Work.

Practitioners trained in Deep Process Psychotherapy are able to facilitate powerful, safe and effective personal transformation while holding the client with sensitivity, humanity and compassion.

Core Principles of Deep Process Psychotherapy

Deep Process Psychotherapy is based on parts work.

As we were growing up, we all found that there were parts of ourselves that we had to repress or deny, whether due to parenting, peers, or pressures from the wider culture. This is a normal part of human development. Later in life, however, it can leave us cut off from parts of ourselves and, therefore, less able to show up as fully integrated, whole people.

In a Deep Process Psychotherapy session, we'll help you to engage with and express all of the different parts of yourself.

We find that when our clients speak from those parts rather than speaking about them, they obtain much greater awareness and deeper insight into the experiences of these parts.

Deep Process Psychotherapists are skilled at observing your body language and gently guiding you to explore further, helping you to access the memories and emotions stored within.

At each stage of the session, you decide which part you wish to explore next. This may involve stepping into familiar and comfortable parts or parts you might be ashamed of or uneasy sharing. You might embody parts on the edge of your conscious awareness, parts you may not have recognised or known before.

In our experience, it's remarkable how quickly and deeply clients embody these different aspects of themselves, even those typically thought to reside deep in the unconscious.

By intentionally stepping into these parts in an embodied way, you'll gain access to hidden or repressed thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviours, and language. This process will give you profound insight into how your various internal parts influence and direct your life. This can be a profoundly liberating experience.

We know that our clients need to feel safe for this work to be effective. In our sessions together, you will be securely held by a highly skilled therapist. The therapist must create a psychologically safe environment and be comfortable with the parts the client is inhabiting. Clients can intuitively sense whether they have "permission" from their therapist to express certain aspects of themselves. If the therapist feels uncomfortable, the client will sense this and hold back from fully inhabiting those parts.

This level of acceptance requires our practitioners to have engaged in deep personal development. This allows them to be familiar with similar parts of themselves and, therefore, not unsettled by what arises in their clients.

We work in partnership with our clients.

Each session is uniquely tailored to your wants and needs, allowing you to explore the issues you bring at your own pace. Building a trusting and open relationship between client and practitioner is essential to this work.

While the practitioner has expertise in psychological theory and practical techniques that you may not be familiar with, the emphasis is on recognising that you are the expert on your own experience.

At the start of each session, the practitioner will ask you what you wish to achieve, and we will discuss this together to ensure a clear understanding of your goals. Your agenda will guide the session rather than the practitioner’s.

We will discuss theories and techniques with you to support you in making informed decisions about how to proceed at each stage of the process.

We are profoundly accepting of all parts of our clients.

We believe that every part is inherently ‘good’ and acts in our best interests. Therefore, we welcome all aspects of our clients into the therapeutic space—even those that might appear difficult, dangerous, or undesirable.

This requires an attitude of deep acceptance toward everything our client brings and a warm and welcoming response to all parts that emerge during the process.

While this may seem straightforward, it demands a unique form of support and specialised skills from the therapist. Crucially, our therapists must have embraced these aspects within themselves, recognising their value and goodness, to accept and welcome these parts in others without judgment. This approach allows for non-shaming dialogue and facilitates profound personal transformation.

We place a strong emphasis on our own personal development as practitioners throughout our training and beyond, focusing on the exploration and healing of our own shadows. This allows us to welcome whatever our clients present.

Deep Process Psychotherapy practitioners are trained to be highly attuned to any risks, defences, or blocks that may emerge when you step into certain parts of yourself. We treat this aspect of the work with great care and never push you to engage with an area they are not ready to explore.

Ensuring that risks are carefully assessed and safety is prioritised is central to our approach. One of the key principles of our work is respecting and collaborating with the parts that resist, block, or defend. Crucially, these parts are not viewed as obstacles but as allies in your journey, acting in your best interests.

We welcome these parts and support you to engage with them when they arise. This method prevents the work from becoming ‘stuck’. Working with ‘stuckness’ often leads to some of the most profound and transformative outcomes.

We work with the inner child.

Deep Process Psychotherapy places particular emphasis on working with the inner child. Often, it is our wounded Inner Child, neglected and deprived of attention, that interferes with the goals we set for ourselves in therapy.

If and when appropriate, we will dedicate time to working with your inner child deeply, inviting you to step into this vulnerable part of yourself in a way that makes your inner child feel safe and welcome.

Through this process, the child part of you can receive the love, care, and understanding it may have been missing, allowing it to be integrated into your life with compassion rather than being criticised or shamed for its 'childish' or 'immature' behaviour.

One of the most rewarding aspects of our practice is the gentleness, sensitivity, and joy that come from working with the inner child in its various forms.

How Deep Process Psychotherapy Works

Initial Exploration:
The therapist and client begin by establishing a safe and supportive environment where the client feels comfortable exploring their emotions and experiences. During this phase, the therapist listens carefully, identifying patterns of behaviour, emotional triggers, and the client’s relationship to their past experiences.
Accessing the Deeper Layers:
Once the groundwork has been laid, the therapist begins to guide the client into deeper layers of their psyche. This is done through various techniques, such as exploring the many parts of the psyche, working with archetypes and accessing emotional and bodily experiences. The goal is to help the client access memories, feelings, or experiences they may have buried or repressed.
Processing Emotions:
Emotions play a significant role in Deep Process Therapy. Once the client accesses unconscious material, they are encouraged to feel and express the emotions tied to these memories or experiences. This process can be challenging, as it may involve confronting painful or uncomfortable emotions. However, by fully processing these emotions, clients can release the emotional energy trapped in their subconscious, leading to healing and personal transformation.
Gaining Insight:
As clients work through their emotional material, they gain insights into their current behaviours, relationships, and thought patterns. They may recognise how past traumas or unresolved feelings have shaped their present circumstances. These insights help individuals reframe their experiences and develop new, healthier ways of relating to themselves and others.
Integration and Application:
The final step involves integrating the newfound understanding into daily life. The therapist supports the client in applying these insights practically—whether it’s improving relationships, setting boundaries, or changing unhealthy habits. The integration process is essential for ensuring that the changes made during therapy lead to lasting transformation.

Who Can Benefit from Deep Process Psychotherapy?

Deep process psychotherapy is especially beneficial for individuals who feel stuck in recurring emotional patterns or who have unresolved trauma. It can be effective for those dealing with:

Anxiety and Depression: Unresolved unconscious material can contribute to long-standing feelings of anxiety or depression. Deep process therapy can help identify and resolve the root causes of these feelings.
Trauma: Individuals who have experienced trauma, whether in childhood or adulthood, often have unprocessed emotions stored in their subconscious. This therapy can be instrumental in working through traumatic memories and achieving emotional healing.
Relationship Issues: Patterns of conflict or dysfunction in relationships often stem from unresolved emotional wounds. Deep process therapy helps clients understand how their past experiences affect their current relationships and offers tools for creating healthier connections.
Self-Sabotage: For those who struggle with self-sabotaging behaviours—whether it’s procrastination, avoidance, or fear of success—deep process therapy can uncover the underlying reasons for these patterns and help clients break free from them.
Personal Growth: Even for those who don’t have significant mental health issues, Deep Process Psychotherapy can be a powerful tool for self-discovery and personal development, helping individuals reach their full potential by addressing subconscious barriers.

The Benefits of Deep Process Psychotherapy

Lasting Emotional Healing: By addressing the root causes of emotional pain, Deep Process Psychotherapy provides more lasting relief than therapies that focus solely on symptoms.
Improved Relationships: As individuals process their unconscious emotional material, they often find they can relate to others in more open, compassionate, and healthier ways.
Greater Self-Awareness: Deep process therapy encourages individuals to become more attuned to their inner world, helping them understand their emotional triggers, patterns, and reactions more clearly.
Increased Resilience: Working through deep emotional material builds emotional resilience, empowering clients to face future challenges with greater strength and awareness.
Personal Growth and Empowerment: By gaining insight into their unconscious mind, individuals can overcome limiting beliefs and behaviours, leading to greater personal empowerment and fulfilment.

Deep Process Psychotherapy offers a profound way to access the unconscious mind, process unresolved emotions, and foster inner transformation. By diving beneath the surface and exploring the deeper layers of our psyche, we can unlock new insights into our behaviours, heal emotional wounds, and move towards a more empowered, balanced life. This therapeutic approach promotes self-awareness and emotional resilience, leading to lasting, meaningful change that can transform our relationships, mental health, and overall well-being.