Shamanism is the most ancient of human healing and spiritual practices. It is a way of accessing the love, wisdom, compassion, and power of the spirit world in order to receive help for one’s self or to serve others.
One of the central teachings of shamanism is that all of the world is alive and has a spirit, and that we are all connected to each other as a result of this.
Shamanic principles help me work directly with your mental, emotional and physical body and spirit essence to address the spiritual aspects of an illness. I conduct soul retrieval ceremonies and receive information about the past and future, help the spirits of deceased people to cross over, and perform ceremonies for the community.
From the shamanic perspective there are three common causes of illness. First, a person may have lost their power, and the shaman journeys to the spirit world to restore the lost power, such as in a power animal retrieval to restore the relationship to a helping animal spirit. Second, a person may lose a part of their soul essence due to extreme fright, grief, abuse, accidents, disaster, surgery or war, and the shaman journeys into the spirit world to track the lost soul piece and return it in a soul retrieval ceremony. Third, a person may take on harmful energies due to power or soul loss, resulting in localized illness or pain and the shaman extracts and removes the harmful energies and restores power to prevent them from returning.
Shamanic healing has been found to be very beneficial in treating many health issues, including all types of abuse, fatigue, chronic pain or illness, alcohol or drug dependency, and emotional or mental illness.
Shamanic counseling is used to teach a person to use the shamanic journey for personal problem-solving and for spiritual inspiration. It is also useful to help a person release self-limiting beliefs and assumption.
Globally, we are now at a critical juncture in the evolution of consciousness and human civilization where we are being asked to respond to the profound imbalances that our “success” as a species has created. If we do not do so, we will be carried downstream by our ignorance and apathy. It is now a spiritual necessity that we move beyond the sense of separation as individuals, nations, races and religions and see these categorizations as past stages in our human evolution which no longer serve us. It is time to realize the deep truth that we are one with all life and would benefit from communing with each other and all that is through unconditional love and acceptance.
As a result of this necessity, there is a growing spiritual revolution of consciousness. In every culture we teach in, there seems to be a quickening of collective awakening to the truth that we are not separate from one another, or from any life on this planet. We are deeply interconnected.
Biologically, we all share the same DNA; we breathe the same air; we depend on the same Mother Earth to provide for us; the same oil fields power our cars and industries and the same sun warm us and gives life to our planet.
Psychologically, we share the same desires and fears; the same joys and sorrows; and the same need for unconditional love and acceptance; most profoundly, we share the same spiritual essence and source. We need to realize that we are one in body, mind and spirit. Separateness is an illusion.
When we allow the direct knowledge of our true nature and identity to dawn, we discover that we have the capacity to unconditionally love and accept our selves and each other, to be at peace and live in joy of our being amidst both the blessings and challenges of our lives. True happiness and fulfillment is now recognized as an essential quality of our innermost nature, not something that we need to acquire from the outside. Our ordinary life is then the context in which our realizations can deepen our capacity that allows its expression to mature.
When we are truly, unconditionally loving and accepting, we experience happiness regardless of what we get or do not get in life and thus the quality of our desiring and wanting is transformed. A shift happens where we recognize that our deepest desire is not merely to fulfill our personal desires, but rather live in unconditional love and acceptance, embody our authentic presence and expression, and offer our gifts to each other and the world.
Our center is dedicated to supporting this essential and profound shift where at the center of the experience we discover there is an ease of being and an inner expanse of boundless presence that is benevolent and wise. Here you find the capacity to unconditionally love and accept yourself and others so you can better respond to the needs of the whole from your higher self, from the depths of your silent wisdom, as the unique expression of truth that you are. You discover that you can trust the divine presence within you that is your center and source which you can also see in others. We invite people who are searching for a spiritual community, dedicated to their own spiritual awakening, growth and development, and to the peace and well-being of all things on this planet, for all things are living.
Some may have an existential longing to realize directly who they really are. This may be felt as a desire for unconditional love and acceptance, to experience freedom, grow in your spiritual knowledge or some other
essential longing. Sometimes this longing is accompanied by a sweet anticipation of its growth, but more often it is accompanied by fear, sorrow, and despair because one feels separate or somehow deficient or
incomplete and may even doubt if there is a way through their darkness to find their inner light.
Others we work with are already irrevocably awakened to the timeless truth of who they are. While patterns of suffering may persist in some parts of their life, unconditional love and acceptance, the bliss and peace of their true nature is recognized as the ever present ground of their spiritual path. For them what is often desired is support in their process of deepening and integrating their path. While the dawning of true insight and freedom marks the end of living with the chronic illusion of being alone, it is also the beginning of a process where unconditional love and acceptance blossoms within, where all aspects of our humanness are embraced and transformed in the light of an awakened body, mind and spirit.
Shamanic Soul Revival
The shamanic practice known as soul retrieval is perhaps the oldest and most important level of spiritual healing because once the energetic nature of an illness-causing invasion has been addressed, the cause is still unresolved, namely the tears in the fabric of the sufferer’s soul cluster and aura that allowed the intrusions to enter in the first place.
As long as these empty spaces remain unfilled, there is no guarantee that the invaders will not reinvade given an opportunity to do so because those holes are like open invitations. But how does the process of soul retrieval actually work?
Soul Retrieval Ceremony
All of us, in every culture everywhere, had ancestors who were hunters if we go back far enough. In doing soul retrieval work, the shamanic practitioner teams up with the spirits who assist them, then they go to work together, tracking the lost soul parts much like hunters.
And this is where spirit medicine has something important to offer the psychotherapeutic paradigm. Psychologists and psychiatrists know about dissociation, but where do the dissociated parts go? In doing soul retrieval, the shamanic healer and their spiritual assistants locate the lost soul parts in the Lower, Middle, or Upper Worlds of the Spirit World.
Bringing Back the Soul Parts
Then with the assistance of their helping spirits, the shamanic practitioner enters into relationship with them, convincing them to return and bringing them back to their original owner. In this process, the person’s soul cluster is restored, and their energetic matrix may return to its former undistorted state.
Interestingly, a soul part that has taken refuge in the Lower Worlds may often be found in the company of an animal spirit who is caring for it. When this soul part is brought back, the animal spirit may return with it, resulting in what is called a power animal retrieval.
A soul part located in the Middle World of dream may be found in the company of an ancestor, perhaps a revered grandparent who has already crossed over. A soul part in the Upper World may be seeking reconnection with its oversoul, a guardian angel, or even with its “soul family.”
As the soul cluster is restored, the shaman instructs the client in how to take an active role in reintegrating these lost self-aspects, assuring a successful reunion and ensuring that the extracted illness intrusions will not reoccur.
Healing the Spiritual and Energetic Levels
I discovered by accident that I could intuitively recall lost soul parts during hypnosis and Reiki healing. As a psychotherapist, I am able to combine psychotherapy, with ritual work to prepare the client for the return of the soul so that there is a renewed space of healing for the recovered soul part. I also conduct a diagnosis, discover the identity and nature of the illness and trauma that cause the soul part to leave the body. But unlike our modern Western practices, shamanic healing can also empower clients dramatically, divine their illnesses’ ultimate causes while in an expanded state of awareness, neutralize them at their spiritual and energetic levels, and prevent their reoccurrence by utilizing the assistance of compassionate forces poised to help us just beyond the borders of this physical world we all take so much for granted
Integrating Shamanic Methods Into Psychotherapy
Evidence of shamanism dates back to prehistory, perhaps as early as 40,000 years ago, and the practices continue to this day. As a psychologist in private practice in Western society, I have had the opportunity to introduce and integrate shamanic methods with psychotherapy. My guiding principle is to help my clients, and over the course of many years, I have become pragmatic, using many varied methods and approaches. Depression, dream work, resolving therapeutic impasses, physical healing with spiritual and psychological components, empowerment, the removal of curses, soul retrieval, strengthening of the self and the releasing of shame are just some of the situations in which shamanic techniques can be used.
Shamanism and psychotherapy are a natural fit in industrialized society.
How and when does a Western therapist decide to use shamanic methods?
What are the indications and contra-indications for their use?
How does the psychotherapist introduce and use these techniques?
How do these methods influence the client and the therapy relationship?
Shamanic methods uniquely access non-ordinary reality, and draw uponspiritual dimensions for help. Non-ordinary reality (NOR), a shamanic term defined by Harner and anthropologist Ingerman and others, is outside everyday life, and is divided into separate worlds; the Upper World, which helping spirits inhabit and the Lower World where power animals are encountered.The Middle World in this shamanic cosmology is ordinary reality, and is experienced with the five senses.
A shamanic journey is the method most often used to enter a state of consciousness that allows access to non-ordinary reality. By drumming or rattling, the therapist and client can enter an altered state of consciousness and communicate with spirits in the Upper World or power animals in the Lower World, in addition to working with spirits in the Middle World. Beings encountered in non-ordinary reality are experienced as real.
I use shamanic journeying with clients in psychotherapy to enter non-ordinary reality. A journey allows the therapist and client to bridge ordinary and non-ordinary reality and Introduction of shamanic methods: Why and When.
Experiential methods have been part of treatment ever since the beginning of modern psychotherapy when Wilhelm Reich introduced body-based techniques. Along with increased awareness and understanding of trauma in the last 20 years, there has been a flowering of experiential mind-body-energy techniques to treat people who have experienced trauma. Hypnotherapy, eye movement and reprocessing desensitization (EMDR), TAT somatic experiencing, past life regression therapy, and guided imagery are some of the approaches used today within psychotherapeutic contexts.
I have also journeyed alone to access my helping spirits when I need consultation to help me understand what is going on either in the therapeutic relationship with someone in my practice or in the dynamics of a client.
Using just the name or names of a person, members of a peer consultation group in which I participate journey to understand a case, with good results. People suffering from depression, a sense of emptiness, or of “not being all there,” particularly benefit from shamanic practices. The soul retrieval method brings back lost parts of the soul in ways that no other experiential method can do. Many clients who have a history of sexual, physical or emotional trauma benefit from this technique. It is a way to reinvigorate, re-integrate without re-traumatizing a wounded person.
Introducing shamanic methods into a psychotherapy treatment is a different process than what occurs in tribal societies or in a freestanding shamanic practice. In indigenous societies, or a freestanding shamanic practice, both client and practitioner share the same worldview, or openness to the same worldview, and there is little need for extensive explanation and education. Within a psychotherapy practice, some clients may be uncomfortable with any alternative to mainstream psychology, and may not be open to a shamanic approach. In addition, they may not want to tap into the spiritual dimension in their therapy. Therapeutic judgment determines when and how much to push the boundaries of a client’s comfort level. It goes without saying that a therapist should not force a client to try anything they do not want to do.
If a client is open to trying a shamanic method, explanation is essential. Using such techniques requires expanding the worldview of the client to include concepts such as soul, energy, non-ordinary reality and journeying into Upper, Lower, and Middle Worlds. I find that most people intuitively and quickly grasp the shamanic worldview, and are interested in getting relief from their suffering. A brief discussion and perhaps some reading is usually a sufficient first step.
Just as building an alliance with the helping spirits is an important part of shamanic work, building an alliance with your client is crucial in psychotherapy. Unless the use of shamanic methods is well established with a client, as in the case of Ellen, it is contraindicated if there is not a positive therapeutic alliance. In tribal societies, the shaman has a respected position, and any person requesting their services knows them or knows of their reputation, and views them in a positive light. A healing alliance is already established from the outset. When I have had clients see me just for shamanic work, alliance building is still important, and I must connect quickly with them in a caring, confidence-inspiring way. If I cannot do this, shamanic work will be unsuccessful, and should be delayed until a better connection can be forged.
Typically, I share the imagery from my journey with the client, as they share their experience during the journey with me. I am careful to share the imagery in ways that can be heard by my client. Often the process of sharing brings great healing benefit.
Shamanism and psychotherapy complement each other. As shamanic techniques access help, wisdom, and guidance from the spiritual dimension of non-ordinary reality, they extend the range and scope of therapeutic interventions available to the healing process. Mainstream psychotherapy, with its focus on the psychological dimensions and rooted in contemporary culture, offers approaches that are valuable on their own, and facilitates the effectiveness of shamanic methods by providing an anchor and context for their use. In addition, therapists who use shamanic practices can increase their impact through follow up within the therapy relationship. Through the application of shamanic practices, therapists act as bridges, dancing between healing approaches, connecting two worlds, the non-ordinary spiritual realms and ordinary reality. Therapists also act as explorers, bringing new methods and insights to the psychotherapy process, further expanding the frontiers of healing.
*References Cited *
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