Welcome to my website. I’m Rod Boothroyd, a qualified Healing The Shadow practitioner, experienced counsellor, and life coach. I’d like to start our journey together by telling you something about how I work.

In our work together I will draw on a variety of approaches from my training and experience over the last twenty four years: most recently my work has been in Healing The Shadow, which is an up to date approach to shadow work that incorporates tools and techniques from the world of therapy. I incorporate all my earlier training in Transactional Analysis, Integrative Psychotherapy, and Coaching into my work with clients.

With a combination of techniques that can produce rapid change, I create a confidential, safe and strongly held space in which you can explore the parts of your personality, feelings and behaviour which you wish to change.

You’ll get clear insights and understanding into what lies behind your feelings, thoughts and behaviour patterns. You’ll discover why you find it difficult to change things, and quickly see why you seem to be stuck with some emotional “issues”.

At the same time, a large part of our work will be devoted to changing these old patterns into something much more useful to you in your life today. Straightforward “talking therapies” can work, but they can also be slow. My approach is to incorporate a wide range of practical techniques into my Healing The Shadow practice, so we can  change things for the better, unlock your potential, and release any limiting beliefs and emotions which are long past their sell-by date!

I will use these techniques and my considerable experience of this work to support you as you explore the parts of you which are currently hidden, repressed and denied into your unconscious mind. These are often the parts which are actually controlling every aspect of your behaviour in the world. And as they are brought into your awareness you will gain more and more conscious choice and control over how you think, speak, act and feel.

This makes it much easier for you to give up those old, self-defeating, unhelpful patterns of behaviour which formed in childhood and replace them with authentic patterns of behaviour that represent who you really are today. And, of course, who you want to be in the future.

If you would like to contact me, click here for details.

Accessing Your Power and Potential in shadow work

The great majority of people have locked away most of their positive qualities, their power and potential, what we call their “golden shadow”, as well. Often this is simply because we were not encouraged to show our our magnificence as children. So while it’s undoubtedly very helpful to work on changing the limiting beliefs you bring from the past, we will also work on discovering how you can move forward with a new ability to step into your power and presence in the world.

In the end, the objective of all counselling and personal development work is to help you be a man or woman reconnected to the world around you, and to the people in it. And most of all, to be a man or woman reconnected to your authentic self, and to your goals, dreams, visions and desires.

Why I Work This Way – And What It Means For You

I believe that progress along your own path of personal development can only be made when you’re accompanied by someone who’s walked their own path and knows the terrain.

So to explain why I work this way, I’d like to offer you some more information about my background and experience.

My experience in the world of personal development started in 1998, when I experienced a classic “midlife crisis”. After a year’s counselling, I embarked on a training course in Transactional Analysis (TA) psychotherapy, simply because the first year of this course was billed as a year of personal development. Within weeks, I was hooked!

I not only had a vision of people receiving support and being given a safe space to talk about their issues, but also a vision of  what the world would be like if people were able to access their full potential, so they could become the people they were always meant to be. The men and women they were born to be, in fact, before the world got in the way….

My interest in Transactional Analysis continued after I’d completed the training course, and in time this led me into the world of Integrative Psychotherapy, and more recently into the amazing world of shadow work – about which, more in a moment!

Combining aspects of these different approaches has allowed me to really explore my vision of a world where more and more people find their true power. And that’s a world where people behave authentically, can be more true to themselves, and feel more connected to the world and everyone and everything in it.

And my wide experience allows me to draw techniques from wherever seems most appropriate in each moment of service to my clients: counselling, therapy, or shadow work. Because these different approaches complement each other, together they provide a powerful path for change, where a client can find the right rate of progress and development for him or herself.

My own personal development work has continued to this day, encompassing work in many areas, including not only shadow work but also workshop leadership with the ManKind Project, a global organisation devoted to the development of the mature masculine. I have also held many weekend shadow work groups which  have allowed many men and women to experience profound changes in how they think, feel and behave. These workshops are places where men and women can explore their shadows, bring hidden or repressed skills and abilities into the light, focus on working with their shadow, both the unhelpful shadows and the golden shadow parts, and — in summary — become the person they were always meant to be. Much of this work has been done with my colleague Marianne Hill, who is one oof the foremost and most successful shadow work facilitators in the UK, if not the world.

All of these sources of information, knowledge, and experience, inform the work that I do with clients. More than anything else, though, I’ve found shadow work to be extraordinarily helpful in allowing people to see the roots of their “issues”, to find a way of overcoming, changing or healing them, and so becoming more and more of the person they were born to be. You can read about the human Shadow and shadow work here.

Shadow work, Counselling & Personal Development

The techniques I use include what you might think of as classical counselling techniques – creating a confidential and well-held space, giving you the opportunity to explore your feelings and receive reflection, all backed up by an empathic approach. Together we can also use selected techniques developed in shadow work and our Healing The Shadow practice, as well as Transactional Analysis, Integrative Psychotherapy, Counselling and Coaching.

This combination of theoretical foundations and practical techniques creates a safe and strongly held space in which men and women can explore all the various aspects of their personality safely. More to the point, it provides a way of understanding why you’re doing what you’re doing in a historical context.

I use these techniques and my considerable experience of this work to support you as you explore the parts of you which are currently hidden, repressed and denied into your unconscious shadow. These are often the parts which are actually controlling every aspect of your behaviour in the world. And as they are brought into your awareness you will gain more and more conscious choice over how you think, speak, act and feel.

This makes it much easier for you to give up those old patterns of behaviour which formed in childhood and replace them with authentic patterns of behaviour that represent who you really are today. And, of course, who you want to be.

In this work, we can examine any problems or issues you have around self-confidence, self-esteem, assertiveness, passivity, compliance, rebellion, love, sex and relationships, leadership, self-worth, and clarity of thinking or confusion. We can also look at your sense of your mission, vision and purpose, your identity and boundaries. And if you feel excess anger, anxiety, fear, grief or shame, we can deal with those issues as well.

Our objective will always be to work together to restore balance and stability to your inner world, strengthen areas in which you believe you are weak, and discover the limiting beliefs which hold you back and replace them with something more useful for your life today.