What is a Shaman?

A quick look through the internet will come up with many different definitions of a “Shaman”. The definition that fits the healing that I offer is “a person who contacts a spirit world in an altered state of of consciousness”. My “altered state” is achieved using music. Drumming or rattles in particular. Each Shaman is unique, and has their own relationship with the spirit world. This means that each experience with a shaman will be unique.

Why I use Shamanism in Healing?

I have always been called to understand not only my heritage, but the practices of Shamanism, particularly with healing. After training with my teacher and mentor, I realized that the effects that I was feeling from learning this medicine would be something that many of my clients would benefit from. Initially I offered healings to personal friends or relatives. After seeing the effects this was having on those that I knew and loved, it was a natural extension to offer it to my clients.

What is Shamanic Healing?

My work comes from the traditions of core shamanism. The healing involves a rhythm usually produced with a drum or rattled, as mentioned above. During this rhythm, I journey to my spirit world. The benefits of this to you are that in the shamanic spirit world, there is nothing but benevolence and love. So a Shamanic Healing is a path to rely on the Shaman’s benevolent spirts to help the client in many different ways. These include the following classic shamanic healing practices.

Power Animal Retrieval

Part of the spirit world includes animals. As a Shaman, I have a relationship with particular animal spirits that help me in my practice. A Shaman may also journey on behalf of a client to find an animal to help the client with many different things that may be having a negative impact on the client. An example things the animal can help with:

Sleep disorders

Chronic pain

Fear

Anxiety

Depression

Grief

The animal is given to the client to, literally, offer a more powerful way to deal with things like these that are hard to relieve. That is why it is referred to as a “Power Animal”. In these cases, the animal restores your own Power!

Extraction Healing

Have you ever been at work, or in public, around a particularly negative vibe or event, only to find yourself dragging afterwards? Negative vibrations work like that. What happens when you can’t seem to get rid of that feeling? Sometimes the negativity lodges itself in your body. This can be manifesting as a specific pain in your body that has no medical explanation. An Extraction Healing is the process involving a journey by me to use the benevolent spirit world to remove those “hot spots”.

Soul Retrieval

The term soul means so many different things to people. Different religions and cultures have specific definitions of what it means to have a soul. In Shamanism, a human cannot exist with out a soul. This is similar to many other belief systems. A difference in Shamanism is that we believe that the soul can be damaged, or “shattered” by serious emotional or physical trauma. How this manifests itself is similar to an extraction that needs removed, but more of a general loss of self. If you feel like since a particular hard event in your life happened, a transition, you are not yourself, you actually may be missing a soul fragment. A Soul Retrieval is a journey by me, using spirits, to find missing fragments of soul. Sometimes you may not be missing a fragment, sometimes you may be missing more than one. This practice can have a very healing impact on your life, with many feeling better than they have in a long time.

Death & Dying

Mortality is a heavy thing to many. Some struggle with it from an early age. One of the gifts of Shamanism is that we spend a lot of time in the physical and spiritual worlds. That time spent in those worlds is absolutely a benefit to the Shaman, but also a benefit to those who seek comfort around the idea of death as a part of life. This can be as simple as a journey on the clients behalf to check with the spirits of loved ones that have already passed. It can also be beneficial for those that may be getting close to a transition them self. Dealing with an impending transition can be very difficult for many. The role a Shaman plays in the case is just to ease worry and fear. As with any of part of Shamanic healing, this is only done with the consent of the client.

Psychopomp Healing

An extension to the work with death explained above, is called Psychopomp healing. Most of us live in a place where our religion or the religion of loved ones are very specific about what happens to the dead. This is a relief to some, but can be very rigid to others, especially in the midst of losing a loved one. Psychopomp is a specific practice of helping souls transition from this middle world to the upper world. Most times, the souls of those that die, move on without any help from a Shaman, to the upper world. Sometimes they get stuck. Particularly if the death was sudden. Usually it’s an attachment of some sort to a person or persons who are still living. It can be also be a confusion of the recently departed to understand what has happened. This practice involves a journey on behalf of the client to check on a loved one who has passed and help them transition to the upper world, letting go of any attachments in the middle world.

Space Clearing

Since we all have spirits, and those spirits transition to the upper world, mostly on their own, we have a condition sometimes where souls stick around. As mentioned with Psychopomp healing, this is usually caused by attachments to the middle world by those that have passed. In some cases, a particular space, building, area, may have had a traumatic event happened where many lost their lives, either at the same time, or over a period of time. A person may notice a negativity or unwanted feeling when in those spaces. A Shaman, with the assistance of their spirits, can visit those spaces and help those spirits transition to the upper world. This practice leaves the space in a clean state for the living.

Breathwork

Breathing is life. We do it all day, every day. But we tend to forget to do it when we need it the most. Fear, stress, anxiety, worry even excitement can trigger our reptilian brain in us to stop breathing. Breathwork is the practice of being still and breathing in a continuous, circular manner. During this ceremony, you will use your own breath to do the healing. It is common for some to transcend consciousness and for others to experience other worldly experiences. Each person is different, but the exercise of using this technique can bring tremendous amounts of healing. I will lead the ceremony and hold space for you throughout.

Each ceremony begins with an introduction to the technique. There will be music, as well as sound healing going on while you breath.

WHAT TO BRING:
-A yoga mat, cozy blanket, and thin pillow
-Layered, comfortable clothing; body temperature can fluctuate, so please wear layers and non-restrictive clothing
-Optional: Eye pillow or mask/bandana to block out light

Remote Healing

Because Shamanic healing works with spirits in the upper and lower world, it is really not essential that I be in the same place as you for a healing. Most of the practices within this page can be done remotely. All I need is your permission to work with you and we can set up a remote session with as little as a phone.

For a remote healing we will start with a detailed conversation on desires of the healing and possible expectations. The I do the work while you as the client are resting quietly at home or some other safe place.