I first discovered the work of Carl Gustav Jung in my late twenties. I was blown away. Reading Memories, Dreams, Reflections, I found myself slowly devouring each chapter, immersed in a world that felt both mysterious, but somehow true. It was as if I had embarked upon a transformational journey long before I fully understood where it might lead.

This encounter inspired me to apply for a Master's programme in Jungian Analytic Psychology. The training, alongside personal Jungian psychotherapy and working with dreams, profoundly changed my life. During this deep personal process, I encountered aspects of my Shadow, explored parental complexes, and gradually deepened my relationship with the Self—the central organising principle of the psyche in Jungian psychology.

Even since my first meeting with Jung, the journey of individuation has been challenging, unpredictable, but also enriching and deeply moving. We need courage and trust to enter the unknown territories of our personal unconscious and engage with parts of ourselves that had long remained hidden. Looking back, I can recognise elements of the alchemical process described by Jung: the nigredo, a period of confusion, denial, fear - the painful experience of dissolving parts of my old Ego and descending into darkness whilst meeting with Shadow aspects; the albedo, marked by moments of emerging clarity and temporary relief and hope, the citrinitas characterized by moments of awareness, flexibility around old patterns of protective/ defensive mechanisms and increased capacity for reflection and psychological insight and the rubedo, the integration of previously fragmented aspects of myself into an embodied vital sense of my own self.

The journey is ongoing, continuously pendulation between different psychological stages.

An important part of both my training and personal therapy involved working with Sandplay.