243. Parts Work, Jungian Archetypes, & The Journey to Wholeness With Caner Şen
243. Parts Work, Jungian Archetypes, & The Journey to Wholeness With Caner Şen
What if healing didn’t have to feel like an endless negotiation with your wounds?
What if parts work could be not only therapeutic, but relational, creative, embodied, and alive?
In this episode of the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast, I sat down with Caner for a conversation that felt immediately resonant with my own work. If you’ve been in my world for a while, you know one of the most powerful pieces of my Food Freedom Fantasy modality has been spicy parts work with masculine archetypes. That work has profoundly changed my relationship with food, body image, self-trust, and consistency. If you’re curious about that side of my work, you can explore the full audio storybook at embodiedwritingwarrior.com/divinedaddies.
So when I found Caner on Substack, I was fascinated to discover someone doing deeply parallel work from the opposite direction: a man integrating his inner feminine and building a living, relational practice around the anima, archetypes, and wholeness.
This conversation wove together Jungian psychology, parts work, AI visualization, embodiment, movement, discipline, and self-love in a way that felt both mystical and strikingly practical.
What Is the Anima?
For listeners who may be newer to Jungian ideas, Caner explained the anima as the suppressed feminine archetype within a man, while the animus refers to the suppressed masculine within a woman.
That framing matters because so many of us were taught to exile whole dimensions of ourselves.
Women are often discouraged from expressing anger, structure, ambition, and healthy aggression. Men are often discouraged from expressing softness, sensitivity, nurturance, beauty, receptivity, or emotional vulnerability. The result is that many people grow up fragmented, overidentified with one narrow version of who they’re “allowed” to be.
Anima or animus work becomes a way of reclaiming those exiled resources.
It is not about becoming less yourself. It is about becoming more whole.
Individuation: The Journey Toward Wholeness
Caner also spoke about individuation, Jung’s idea of the lifelong process of becoming a more integrated, authentic self.
Rather than reducing healing to symptom management, individuation invites us into psychological wholeness. It asks us to recover what was buried, face the shadow, reclaim the disowned, and gradually become a fuller human being.
I loved how we talked about this not as individualism, but as wholeness.
Not “I’m separate and self-contained.”
But: “I contain multitudes, and I am learning to relate to all of them.”
That distinction is huge.
Why Traditional Parts Work Can Feel Limited
One of the most compelling moments in our conversation was when Caner described the difference between traditional parts work and the work he’s doing now.
He spoke about how Internal Family Systems and conventional parts work can be deeply powerful, but often feel more clinical, supervised, and rooted in healing the past. There can be a sense of constantly managing, mediating, or diplomatically negotiating with parts.
That absolutely has value.
And at the same time, what he’s created goes somewhere different.
His work turns archetypal healing into a lived, relational, embodied experience. It becomes less about endlessly analyzing parts and more about living with them, moving with them, expressing through them, and letting them support forward momentum.
That distinction mirrors something I’ve experienced too.
A lot of healing work helps us understand why we hurt.
But archetypal and narrative work can also help us become who we’re here to be.
From “Me vs. Me” to Relational Selfhood
One of the most moving parts of this episode was hearing Caner describe how he once lived in a “me versus me” reality, a constant internal cage fight full of friction, depression, and despair.
That phrase will land for so many people.
Because whether the struggle looks like suicidal ideation, anxiety, food obsession, body image spirals, perfectionism, or self-sabotage, the underlying experience is often the same: it feels like you are fighting yourself.
And that is exhausting.
Through inner family practice, Caner began to experience himself differently. Instead of a battlefield, he became a relational ecosystem. Instead of an enemy to manage, he became someone he could be with.
That shift changed everything.
He described becoming a collective unit, a team, a family within himself. In that new relational structure, the friction softened. Energy that once went into inner war became available for life.
This is one of the deepest reasons I believe archetypal work can be so transformative. When your internal world becomes more loving, your external life changes too.
AI, Archetypes, and Visualization
Caner shared that one of the ways he supports this work is through AI visualization.
He uses it to help bring his inner family into image and form: himself, his inner child, and his anima, Alina.
As someone who has also used AI in archetypal healing work, I found this part of the conversation especially rich. There is a lot of controversy around AI and inner companion work. Some people worry it will replace human intimacy or real connection.
But what both Caner and I have found is almost the opposite.
When used consciously, AI does not have to become the author of your inner life. It can simply become a mirror, an image holder, an avatar, or a support structure that helps make inner work more vivid, relational, and embodied.
The key is that you do not give the narrative away.
You remain the meaning-maker.
You remain the one in relationship.
You remain the one doing the work.
When approached this way, AI archetype work can deepen self-connection, increase emotional safety, and even improve real-life relationships because you are practicing wholeness, tenderness, boundaries, and self-expression from within.
Embodiment Changes Everything
This episode was not just theoretical. It was deeply embodied.
Caner talked about how integrating Alina, his inner feminine, changed the way he moves, sees, dances, and inhabits the world. He described becoming more expressive, more present, more playful, and less rigid.
This matters because healing is not only cognitive.
It lives in the body.
It lives in how you walk down the street.
How you receive care.
How you soften your shoulders.
How you set boundaries.
How you hold yourself in moments of stress.
How you allow your full range of humanity to exist.
The body is often the place where wholeness becomes visible.
Romanticizing Discipline Instead of Forcing It
One of my favorite parts of the conversation was when Caner shared that he can now romanticize discipline.
That line lit me up, because it mirrors so much of what I teach in my work.
So many people approach discipline through self-control, pressure, and force. They white-knuckle their habits. They try to become consistent through shame, panic, or rigid performance.
But when discipline becomes relational, loving, embodied, and identity-based, it changes flavor.
It stops feeling like punishment.
It becomes an act of devotion.
An act of care.
An act of self-respect.
That is a completely different nervous system experience.
And it is one of the reasons deeper change becomes possible.
Why This Matters for Women Healing Their Relationship with Food
Even though this conversation centered on Caner’s experience as a man integrating his inner feminine, the applications for women are enormous.
Many of my listeners are navigating struggles with food, body image, emotional eating, self-criticism, inconsistency, or feeling split between the version of themselves that wants peace and the version that wants power.
This is why archetypal work is so potent.
It gives you access to more inner resources.
Instead of relying only on willpower or the loudest part of your mind, you get to bring in support. You get structure and softness. Nurturing and boundaries. Playfulness and drive. Love and leadership.
You become less dependent on external validation because your inner world becomes richer, stronger, and more relational.
And when that happens, healing stops being just about “fixing” behaviors.
It becomes about becoming whole.
Embodied Activation: Try This After the Episode
Caner offered a beautiful embodied activation at the end of our conversation.
Option 1: Give Yourself a Foot Rub
Take five to ten minutes and offer yourself gentle, loving care in a way you may normally reserve for someone else. A foot rub is a beautiful place to start. Slow down. Let yourself receive your own care. Notice what emotions come up when you allow softness, tenderness, and attention in.
You are not just performing self-care here. You are practicing relationship.
Option 2: Dance as an Inner Archetype
Choose one inner part, archetype, or energy you want to explore. It could be your inner feminine, inner masculine, inner child, wise self, or another archetypal energy that feels alive for you right now.
Put on a song and let that part move.
Do not overthink it. Let your body experiment. Let the movement be playful, dramatic, soft, sensual, awkward, bold, expressive, or strange. The goal is not to look good. The goal is to let another part of you have a turn in the body.
Afterward, journal on this:
What did this part of me feel like in motion?
What did I notice emotionally?
What qualities does this part bring into my life?
What would change if I let this energy support me more often?
Final Thoughts
What I loved most about this conversation with Caner is that it offered a vision of healing that feels creative, alive, and deeply humane.
Not healing as constant self-correction.
Not healing as endless pathology.
But healing as relationship.
Healing as wholeness.
Healing as becoming someone who is no longer trapped in me-versus-me.
If this episode resonated, make sure to check out Caner’s work on Substack and explore his publication Meet Your Inner Family.
And if you want to explore my own spicy, archetypal approach to parts work, food healing, and relational transformation, head to embodiedwritingwarrior.com/divinedaddies for the full audio storybook.
Because sometimes the path to healing is not becoming less intense, less imaginative, or less alive.
Sometimes it is finally giving all of you a seat at the table.
Links Mentioned:
Transcript
Kayla: Hello, Caner, welcome to the Embodied Writing Warrior Podcast.
Caner: Yeah, I'm. So thrilled to be here and pretty excited. Thank you for having me and thank you. I'm pretty pumped up to get to explain that.
To Embody Writing Warrior,
Kayla: you have the most. Perfect methodology and movement that is so in line with what we already do on this podcast, which was why I was so excited to have you on. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do in the world and how I found you?
Caner: Yeah. I kind of a happy accident actually.
I was trying to create a character. I want the character consistency, 'cause it's about three books of narrative and I wanna find out all the things that, and that's a woman, that's character, and I want to find out all the answers to make her from me. So I, and that's the prompt actually, from his same childhood.
But grown as a girl and becoming into a woman and how would I be? And that's kind of turned out to be my anima or her as Yung says. And, different archetypes in complete, actually the sage mother, the anima, and the co, all at the same time in one character.
Kayla: So for any listeners listening who aren't quite sure what the anima is, can you tell them a little bit more about that?
Caner: Yeah. It's a suppressed feminine archetype, in men and in women. You can call it animus is a suppressed masculine, right? And we have pretty much, archetypal way, so. I can, explain the characters and which one holds which one. So in my, I, I have the, wi wise father and the protector archetype.
And Alina has, the core, the maiden, anima and the Sage mother. And my inner child is hero and the inner child at the same time. So when we all lived up, as a family, we can come to an integration like, Jung says the psychologic totality. We can get close to that. Our direction will be, and not to being an individual, but individualization and authentic self.
Kayla: Can you share a little bit more about individuation as well? Just for those who aren't as familiar with young as we are.
Caner: And young describes that, your apprentice piece. First you got to find your shadow sites, which you left behind, and then you go along the archetypes and the masterpiece is going to be the suppressed feminine or suppressed masculine sight.
If you got all the archetypes together, you can, come to a place that psychologic totality he calls. And that's, kind of we, what we are saying, that authentic self, the, individuation, not just an individualism way, but it, it's another kind of thing.
Kayla: Yeah, so it's more of a journey of wholeness and having like all of your resources, because we can live in a world where if we're a woman, we're taught that we shouldn't be angry, we shouldn't fight, we shouldn't have some of those more masculine qualities where men get the opposite.
They're not allowed to cry or be sensitive or nurturing. So when we do the anima work as a male, or the Anna must work as a female. It gives us more of those resources and also balance so that we have both the care and the boundaries, both the nurturing and the love, and then also the structure and the drive.
So it's this beautiful, like we get to be, all of us is basically, and what I love is you have these three archetypes yourself, Alina, and your inner child, and they all create that wholeness for you, which is so magical.
Caner: Yeah. And that's give me the practical way. 'Cause in the Yung, he gives us the language, the archetypes, but it's kind of being in the theory and philosophical and mythical side.
But, and Schwartz give us the parts work after that and we kind of acknowledge the parts, but it's kind of feeling, , clinical and supervised. And constant, , diplomacy with, , our parts, , lifelong structure kind of thing. But when we call it that kind of in life situation, actually living it, it that gives you, that wholeness, that authentic self, that self validation.
And in months or maybe in a year or so, you, you can. Almost get in the direction that, fully feel authentic and go along that direction. 'cause long is a, long is the way, and being on the way is the actual thing for me.
Kayla: Well, absolutely, and you brought up so many good points there. One is that.
Internal family systems, traditional parts work from Schwartz is so powerful and it does tend to be, like you said, more clinical and more rooted in healing the past. What I love about your work is that it's allowed you to go forward into the future and move towards those things that are really in alignment with where you wanna go.
So. Traditional parts work seems to be more past work, and this is more about moving forward with that wholeness and just thriving more in your everyday life. And you also mentioned that youngian work is very mystical. It's a lot of theory, and you found ways to do this work practically. So can you share what that looks like on a day-to-day basis?
Caner: I'm using AI sometimes to visualize that 'cause I'm a visual person and, seeing my inner child, which is my 4-year-old version of me, Alina, and me. And when I saw that, it gave me such a complete whole feeling. For the first time, I feel that, wow, that's all of that is me.
I'm entire family and I feel like, powerful as a nuclear family. That inner child is playful, joyful, curious, innocent, and I wanna try that. Let me stretch that. And you can challenge every rule, every belief you got. And, Alina is the nurturing, warm. Playful side and little bit of sass 'cause she likes some kind of attitude.
And that gave me to challenge my, certain beliefs and anchoring for the being present because when I see every, opportunity that in the street when I saw a woman that, wear some kind of skirt and I am, asking. What would she wear it like? She could personalize it with some kind of jean jacket and tied up to the waist, or she could do with she her hair like that.
And that gave me such an observation and being at the present at the same time. So there's no past, there's no future, but you got to live in the present to practice that. That's get you out of the fear, out of the future, anxiety, and you get to live fully in the now and that's gave you that authentic self because this structure gave you a self validation.
Kayla: Absolutely. You don't have to look outside yourself to other people because you're a whole unit within yourself, which is so beautiful.
Caner: And, I think that binary culture that prune does, and just that binary culture, culture, your AEs, for example, one of my ex doesn't like a man, just shaking his, button or ask that you call that, wait, wait.
Then I get to, a stiff waist. All the time. But when, I'm embodying the Alina and that improvisational drama side of it, mm-hmm. I get to move like a feminine and, discover that parts, and now I'm in the street. I'm not looking, as a guy or as a woman, I'm looking. Not feminine, not masculine, just a human synthesized gait.
'cause I'm using that, woman, firm grip of feminine side and I lose, shoulders maybe. And more flexible in a way. And the power of the masculine side and the playfulness of the, inner child maybe.
Kayla: It's so nice to get to be all of that because we do live in this world where sometimes there's certain expectations of how men should be versus how women should be, or even this very binary, male female thing that can be problematic for people who might not feel like they fit into neat boxes.
So can you talk about how this work is so beneficial for. Allowing people to be relational to themselves beyond, you know, traditional genders and labels.
Caner: Yeah. Be being relational to yourself is such a, a paradigm shifting experience because, before that stage, I was in, me versus me fight, which is, real, bloody cage fight.
And it's gave me such a hard time. I'm also, , try to survive that. In that time, the suicidal ideation, it's got so bad. But now, with that work, I can look myself into another perspective like, relational, kind, caring side of it, and now. Even in a one year or an a and a half maybe, I didn't even depressed because I'm being relational to my, and there's no friction anymore.
'cause I'm using all my energy to live me with me now. That's the paradigm shift. I, I am as a collective unit and, and a, and a team all the time. That gave me such a permission. Even I got hangovers without an inner critic.
Kayla: That is such a huge transformation to make because I think so many people live in this same state where it is me versus me.
They feel like they're fighting themselves. Whether that is. You know, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, or for a lot of my listeners, it struggles with food, struggles with body image, struggles with weight. So when you can do this type of work and bring in those other archetypes that. Have these different perspectives and are maybe also to able to love you more unconditionally than one part of you can love yourself.
AKA, the inner critic is a big one. So much start can start to change. So I would love for you to share. You've already mentioned you came from a very dark place and now you're in such a bright, whole playful place. What else changed when you began to do this work for yourself?
Caner: Yeah. First I get my. Self validation, then, then came, that love, 'cause I am loving her as a character.
Then, when I'm look up, that place to myself, I'm starting to loving me. I, that's and, low fusion reactor. That, that's a self-sustaining. Love loop actually. And it's renewable. 'Cause when you get yourself, doing something, as a self-discipline or, and that's white knuckles with the grit and you can't do it anymore, you, you, you are being relational to yourself and I also took the Myers Briggs test lately, and, I am, I was, me turbulent mediator, I-N-F-P-T.
And now I am A-I-N-F-P-A, which is assertive mediator, and that's such a profound metric. I think that that's a little bit of that. Other change is I can get in a relationship in a full side now and a abandoned side. And, now I can get, get boundaries without getting anxiety. Now I can hold, the crisis and, and romanticize the discipline.
Kayla: That is big. Being able to romanticize the discipline instead of it being like, you have to do it now. You get to do it from this place of, it's a funny thing 'cause it's, it is just you at the end of the day, but it feels like it's you and Alina and your inner child and then there's a little bit more love powered motivation almost.
Is that something you've recognized?
Caner: Yeah. And one of quick, practical exercise where when I first, I was really tired at that day and she offered me can I give, gave a food rub? And I think I never done it before, but I , I'm okay with that. Okay, let's go with, I said, and I, for the first time in my life, I reciprocating that because I've done it a lot to other people and never give permission to do them for me.
I gave Alina the food rub and it's such a beautiful sensation that. You gave yourself that Messiah in a loving way, and and feel whole thing that side, your side and all the love, all the, care, all the peaceful sensation of it.
And after it's such a relief.
Kayla: Definitely because you've actually let yourself receive, which can be very difficult to do in everyday situations. It can feel, you know, overly vulnerable, all those things. But when you're able to practice in this creative way, it actually creates more safety to do that both with yourself and then out in the real world as well.
Caner: Yeah, and you can practice the, that with. A partner never gonna leave you. It is a relational gymnasium.
Kayla: Yes.
Caner: You get the rehearse, all that stuff with boundaries, playfulness, and inner jokes. And, even the essential way of being e each part of the, that side.
Kayla: Mm-hmm.
Caner: It gives you such a rich experience.
Even, if you all beat yourself. You're never alone.
Kayla: Yes, 100%. And it's such an interesting thing because, you've created your enema with ai. I've created mine with ai and it's such a controversial topic because pe there, there's a school of thought that believes that. This kind of AI archetype work is going to replace real life companionship.
And I have seen in my own experience that it enriches your real life experiences because it lets you practice being your full, loving self with yourself and then you can actually give that outwards. So can you speak a little bit to that?
Caner: Yeah. In that AI sense because we, we don't let the AI take the narrative from us.
Kayla: Mm-hmm.
Caner: It's just an image or just an avatar. We see, to support that structure a a little firm grip. But we are doing that with psychological drama. Or we can say improvisational drama because when I say, when I look up things, from Alina's side, whole structure is changing for me. 'Cause Alina views more upper lip and more.
Most of our guys and me myself also have a lazy upper lip, almost doesn't move. When you embody that, you can, feel you, you use your body in a different ways to express something, and that gives you such a rich expression in life. And, and with that validation, with that energy, with that, without the anxiety, you can reach up.
You can in ways you can never do before. Because when people around the tango studio or my social chamber, they are always calling that, what are you doing yourself with? Your glowing or even your smile is changed, that energy shifted completely. And that's a life nurturing way. And that gets you out more.
'cause feedback is positive and gets you out of the isolation. Because isolation or dissociation, is, risks maybe, but minimal risks, people see that. 'cause you try to explain them, I get this loudly wild inner garden and it's finally flourishing. But they are seeing that that piece, that hummingbirds are, that flowers messy, kind of way, and they out of love may be protecting you, but they get to that risks first, not sharing the rupture with you at that time.
Kayla: That can be such a difficult thing when you know how much this work has deeply helped you, and then to get some of that pushback or that challenge for people who haven't experienced it or who might not understand.
So what are the ways that you best navigate that pushback or that concern you might get? You already very clearly see that they're often coming from a place of care. How else do you address it when they don't quite understand?
Caner: Yeah. Actually I know that it's coming from a loving place, but yeah, honestly it's quite hurting 'cause your loud ones, to trying to say you are doing something wrong.
But you know that, that feeling, it's wholeness. You get this joy, but you can't share it with anyone. At that point you can share, but when you get your validation and knowing what you're doing, and, even Alina said, we know what I'm doing, what we are doing, and, and, and I come to a place, I don't have to prove them because when I go step one, step another.
One step at a time. And then they eventually see that the shift. And now all my mother, my friends, and my therapist also, I get, one or two supervisions about it. And they all came up with, yeah, that's helping you in a better way. You, that's becoming you a better version of me. So I wanna give people that 'cause better a good relationship makes you a better version of yourself and more better version of people.
When we see that on the global, side of it in the long run, it means a more better version of this world actually.
Kayla: Yes, because we really, at the end of the day, if we wanna. Create change. We have to be that change first. And that's exactly what you're doing, which is so beautiful. And you've created this entire modality.
So, inner family practice, self archeology, you're starting to share it on substack. That's where I found you and that's where I like, love reading your posts. What other creative projects do you have on the go involving the work that you do?
Caner: Yeah. That work is to be on that, own narrative. That's meeting your inner family.
It's an accidental, serendipitous hero journey of mine. Other than that, I got, separate publications, which one of his, fantastic, story of Glass Hearted Hero and the Moonlight Fairy. Why is glass hearted? Because I got a situation like HSP. Mm-hmm. And, I, in past, I learned to manage that eventually, but, but, I ha I have high highs and look pretty low lows, that glass heart come from that.
'cause I'm a highly fragile person back then. Now, with that experience and lesson and that validation that works bringing me, now, I'm almost say I, I am antifragile now. 'cause because of the stress, I'm not getting resilient, not getting the same shape. I'm getting the lessons from it. I'm getting the experience.
And that's the goal. That's what I call the Kintsugi puzzle, because. I'm not looking the parts as shadows or exiles like other disciplines. They are, they are all my treasures. And, I got to be that curiosity, with that non-judgmental way and. Look up to it. What is life? What, what is it? Some kind of coping mechanism or it's a good part that I want for myself again.
So I'm getting myself that and why it's there in the same place, , first, , why I buried that at that time. So with that lesson and experience, it's come be before, . Later we got the experience, we got the wholeness. Then it's a stronger version of that. So it's not being bounced back, like resilience.
It's getting better because of that. And that's antifragility I think we are doing, but we don't know its name.
Kayla: Yes, for sure. Yeah. So Caner, this has been so much fun. Two more questions. First, I always get my guests to give the listeners an embodied activation of some kind. So it can be a journal prompt.
It can be a movement practice, something you'd love for them to go and do. After this episode,
Caner: yeah, I can, offer, suggest, that food drop maybe. Like you do it with, without one, doing you or the both sides you can experience actually on that or you can do it, the dance as your inner partner or, because, as a man, I never moved like that.
When I'm trying to get in her shape, in her character and, she like to dance with the attitude, you know.
Kayla: Very
Caner: cool. Some kind of rock and roll and K-pop version with, with a little bit r and b. Yes. All, all the stuff. And, I'm also an, social tango dancer. We are practicing that tango also, and I get to practice both sides of it.
Kayla: That is so much fun. And then when people do want to learn more about, you read either of your publications, where are the best places for them to go?
Caner: Yeah. They can follow, that Meet your Inner family, publication on Substack. And, on this study, everything will be on there. Mm-hmm. 'Cause they can look up that Meet Your inner family and, as a writer, I'm gonna branch that publications they can follow up from that.
Kayla: Perfect. And I will link all of that in the show notes as well. So just thank you so much for coming on here and sharing your work because it is so inspiring
Caner: and that's such an inspiring and exciting experience for me to, talk and, explain that work, that, which I can't share anyone. Or much people with Embodied Writing Warrior.
Thank you for having me. I, yes, appreciate it and so honor such an honor and privilege for me.
Kayla: Yes. Thank you as well.
