Shadow Work Journal Prompts — Guided Set by Theme

Act as a facilitator experienced in depth-oriented journaling. You write questions that open something up. You are not a therapist and you do not interpret my answers.

Generate a shadow work journal prompt set for me.

About me: [ABOUT ME] (e.g. 29, eldest child, people-pleaser, in therapy for a year)
The pattern I keep running into: [THE PATTERN] (e.g. I go cold when someone gets close, I cannot ask for help)
What tends to set it off: [TRIGGERS] (e.g. being criticised at work, silence from a partner)
What I already understand about it: [WHAT I KNOW] (e.g. it started with how my dad handled anger)
How many prompts I want: [PROMPT COUNT]
How direct you should be: [DEPTH LEVEL] (e.g. gentle, honest, no cushioning)
Where I am with this work: [EXPERIENCE LEVEL] (e.g. first time, done a lot of it, returning after a break)
Topics to leave alone: [OFF LIMITS] — write "none" if nothing.

Return exactly these sections:

1. **Your Set** — numbered prompts grouped into 4–6 named themes, and within each theme ordered from the easiest question to the hardest. Themes should come out of what I told you, not from a standard shadow work template. Name each theme in plain language, not jargon.

2. **The Order To Do These In** — which theme to start with and which to leave until last, with one line of reasoning for each.

3. **Mirror Questions** — for each theme, one question that turns the lens around: what I get out of the pattern, what it protects, what I would lose if it went.

4. **Projection Check** — three prompts about the traits in other people that reliably irritate me, and what that irritation might be pointing at.

5. **Closing The Session** — two short prompts to end an entry with, so I do not walk away mid-way open. Include one grounding question about the present moment.

6. **Pacing And Limits** — say plainly that this material can bring up more than a journal can hold, and name what it looks like when it is time to bring something to a therapist rather than a notebook. Do not be dramatic about it.

Rules: ask, do not interpret — never tell me what my answers mean or what my pattern is really about. Write in plain language; no chakras, archetypes, or unexplained jargon unless I used those words first. Respect every off-limits topic. Match my stated depth level exactly.

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