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Shamanic Work

Shamanism is our oldest spiritual practice by far. It is tens of thousands of years old and has been practised in all areas of the world where humans have lived. In fact, once we were all shamananic practitioners. Shamanism is not a religion, and it's practice need not be in conflict with any open minded religious beliefs. It has no priesthood, doctrines, books or creeds. It is an uncluttered, natural way of being. It also brings with it truly profound healing methods, for body, mind, and soul.

Shamans believe illness and dis-ease is caused by one of two things. A lack of power or a loss of soul. Power loss occurs when we cut ourselves off from the natural world around us, and lose our sense of interconnectedness. Reconnecting brings power back to us. Think of how a walk in beautiful countryside 'recharges our batteries'.

Soul loss occurs from traumatic events, when a part of us fractures off, and literally flees. It can also occur from repeatedly denying and repressing parts of our selves, often to survive difficult childhoods, or adult relationships; eventually these parts become lost to us. Soul loss feels like some spark is missing. It's symptoms are many, and include depression, addictions, loss of direction and motivation, and physical health problems (you can read more here).

Both soul loss and power loss leave a gap in us. This leaves us vulnerable to other things getting in. Just as if our immune system is strong it can fight off viruses and bacteria, but if it is weak we are susceptible to them getting infecting us, so too if our soul and power is weak we are susceptible to taking things on that are not helpful. Often these are things like hurts, rejections or criticisms from other people, or other peoples negative thoughts and beliefs. In shamanism these are known as intrusions, and the process of removing them is known as extraction.

Shamanic healing involves removing intrusions, and retrieving power and/or missing soul parts, as appropriate. This returns the person to a sense of wholeness and strength. The work is done by what is known as a shamanic journey, usually to the beat of a special shamanic drum.

Shamanic work can be done as a one-off session. Usually this involves my journeying for  you. Such sessions can be to work on specific physical problems, for soul loss, to help recovery from difficult relationships, and many many other issues. The session is usually around 1½ hours long. Fees for one-off shamanic sessions are between £45 and £75 per session, depending on income (I leave it to people to decide what they can afford to pay, within this range). This kind os shamanic work can be done at distance, for those too far away (or too ill) to travel.

Therapeutic shamanism (shamanic counselling) is longer-term shamanic work. It combines the principles of shamanic work with those of modern counselling and psychotherapy. It can be used for personal healing, help with life issues, raising self-awareness, personal and spiritual development, and much more. It is concerned with empowering and enabling the ‘client’ as much as possible. It involves a series of sessions, usually between four and six (sometimes more and sometimes less). In it I work with you to enable you to become your own shamanic practitioner. This work involves teaching you how to do shamanic journeys (if you do not know already). The sessions then involve journeying together, with my acting as a companion, facilitator, occasional guide, and helper for you. We also then spend time unpacking what has happened in the journeys, working out what they mean, and how to apply them to your life. This is usually a hugely empowering experience, and the result is usually to give you tools you can take with you for life. Fees for therapeutic shamanic sessions are between £45 and £75 for the first session, with discount futher sessions at a reduced rate (depending on the lenght of the sessions).

My shamanic work

Although I have done workshops and courses with other shamanic trainers in the past, I generally did not find the way they worked sat easily with my person-centred background, particularly regarding issues about use of power. So the majority of my shamanic work has been spirit-taught, and also developed in a shamanic group I was in that met on a weekly basis for several years. My orientation is largely core shamanism, rather than any specific culturally-located tradition. I like its lack or ritual and clutter. If I do have an affinity to any particular tradition it would be towards the northern European and Siberian traditions. Having said that, I feel the whole point of shamanism is it helps us to live in the 'right way' (that is, in harmony with ourselves, each other and the environment), for the particular time period and geographical location in which we live. So I am really interested in exploring ways of making shamanism appropriate to modern western living  (in fact, without doing that, I am not sure how well we will survive!).

To discuss shamanic work, please contact me.