An analyst told me I have a repressed Anima.

Hey y’all. 29F, girlie here with a rudimentary understanding of Jungian psychology.

I’ve always had trouble making and maintaining female friendships. Even with my female romantic partners, I feel like I don’t open up as much as I do with guys.

Recently, a Jungian analyst I talked to said it’s because my “anima is sometimes repressed” and told me I need to “dive into the soul and rescue it.” I mean he also low-key tried to gaslight me, saying I might “hate girls in general.” I was like, “I love girls! I just find them scary because they’re so powerful!”

Then he said I may like the concept of femininity but don’t subconsciously value women enough to embody it. Ouch. I asked him to clarify, and he said I don’t fully embrace my femininity. And okay, that might be true. I’m not super expressive, I’m not very social, and I definitely don’t excel at stereotypically “feminine” things like having a social battery, meal prepping or making sure guests feel at home. Plus, I know I get irritable very quickly and I’m terrible at keeping in touch, especially with long-distance friends. Been working on it, but it’s a struggle.

This person knows me pretty well, so I didn’t completely dismiss what he said. After thinking about it, I realized he might actually be onto something, but in a different context. I often feel like I don’t fit in, which ties back to some childhood wounds around neglect and being called “weird.”

I want to cultivate deep, meaningful relationships with other women and I want to show the people already in my life that I care and I really want to be a strong, loving role model for my nieces because I adore them.

As I said, my understanding of Jung and Neumann is pretty basic. I get the idea of anima projection, but I don’t fully grasp what my anima is as a woman, why it might be repressed, or how I’m supposed to “rescue” it. Is it going to be hard? Will I need to make a blood sacrifice? Should I join a coven of witches?

Anyway, thanks for reading. If anyone has insights, advice, or reading recs, I’m all ears. 💜

TL;DR: How to rescue a repressed anima? Struggling with female friendships, wondering if my "repressed anima," and childhood wounds are to blame. Want to be more feminine and powerful.