For generations, therapy meant booking a weekly session with a licensed professional. You sat on a couch. You talked. You unpacked.
But for many in Gen Z, that image feels outdated. Impersonal. Even inaccessible.
Instead, they’re turning inward—quite literally—through something called shadow work.
Search TikTok, YouTube, or Reddit, and you’ll find thousands of young people journaling their “shadow,” confronting suppressed emotions, and diving into parts of themselves they feel therapy never touched.
To some, it’s empowering. It’s raw, spiritual, and radically honest. But to mental health professionals watching the trend explode online—it’s also raising red flags.
What Is Shadow Work, Really?
The term comes from the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, who believed we all have a “shadow self”—a collection of the parts of ourselves we reject, hide, or fear. Our envy, anger, insecurity, and trauma. The pieces that don’t fit the version of who we want to be.
Shadow work is the process of recognizing those traits, meeting them with compassion, and integrating them into your conscious self.
Done properly, it can be healing. Powerful, even.
The problem? It’s not easy. And when it’s trending on TikTok, it’s often oversimplified and self-guided—without any guardrails.
Why Gen Z Is Embracing It
So why are more young people trading licensed therapy for self-led shadow work?
A few reasons keep coming up:
- Accessibility: Therapy is expensive. Shadow work? Free.
- Autonomy: Many feel more empowered doing emotional work alone than with a stranger.
- Spiritual appeal: Shadow work overlaps with manifestation, astrology, and energy healing—all popular in Gen Z circles.
- Distrust in institutions: After growing up in a world full of broken systems, some Gen Zers view traditional mental health services as clinical, cold, or limited.
Plus, the content is everywhere. Creators share shadow prompts, emotional breakdowns, and before-and-after “glow-ups” from doing deep inner work—making it look both aesthetic and transformative.
What Experts Are Saying
Psychologists aren’t dismissing shadow work entirely. In fact, many integrate it into their own practice. But they are concerned about the way it’s being done—and sold—online.
Here’s what they’re worried about:
- Lack of support: Unearthing trauma without a safe container can retraumatize people.
- No structure: Without guidance, it’s easy to spiral into self-blame or unhealthy patterns.
- Misdiagnosis: Some are treating mental illness like a spiritual block, avoiding necessary treatment.
- Over-identification with the shadow: Instead of healing, some users glorify pain or wallow in it.
“There’s a fine line between deep emotional work and re-traumatizing yourself,” one therapist shared. “And it’s a line many people don’t even realize they’re crossing.”
Is It All Bad? Not Exactly.
To be clear, not everyone using shadow work is avoiding real therapy.
Many are blending both. They journal, meditate, and explore their inner world between sessions. Others say shadow work helped them feel ready to seek professional help.
And in fairness, some therapists admit the mental health field hasn’t always done a great job reaching younger audiences.
Shadow work feels more personal. More human. It doesn’t pathologize your pain. It invites you to be curious about it.
But without structure, it can also become a feedback loop of self-judgment, spiritual bypassing, or confusion.
A Better Way Forward? Integration
Maybe the answer isn’t choosing between therapy and shadow work—but learning how to combine them responsibly.
Some suggestions from professionals:
- Use shadow work as a supplement, not a replacement for care.
- Work with therapists who understand spiritual frameworks, if that’s important to you.
- Avoid using shadow work to diagnose yourself or explain away deep struggles.
- Set boundaries with online content—what you consume shapes how you heal.
At its best, shadow work asks you to get honest about the parts of yourself you’ve been afraid to face. But healing those parts still takes time, support, and sometimes… help from someone who’s been trained to walk that path with you.
Final Thought
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to understand yourself. To heal on your own terms. To find language for what hurts and what hides inside you.
Shadow work gives people that language.
But like any powerful tool, it comes with risk—and responsibility.
Because the shadow is real. But so is the need for safety, care, and connection.
And sometimes the bravest thing isn’t facing your shadow alone. It’s knowing when to bring someone into the dark with you—just long enough to help you walk out.
