Shamanic Healing

Shamanic healing works on a deep, inner level - it is healing for your essence; some call this the 'soul'. If you don't like to use this term, think about it as healing for the part in yourself that is truly 'you', your core, your full potential.

These healing processes enable you to find more energy balance and strength, which re-affirms your self-healing capability and your ability to positively transform your life.

Illness has many faces, including emotional, physical, social and mental aspects. The focus of Shamanic healing is on the drivers behind your symptoms, and these drivers are categorised as three main causes of dis-ease: power loss, soul part loss and energy blockages through intrusions or ancestral issues. Each of these can be addressed by one or several healing techniques - see below.

Shamanic healing has been performed since ancient times and is thought to date back more than 30,000 years.

What happens in a session?

I offer in-person sessions in West London or remote sessions per Zoom or Skype (for most issues).

When you ask for a Shamanic healing session, I will send you some questions to help you reflect on your issue. Your answers will help me focus the work. I will then go on a diagnostic 'journey' to the non-ordinary reality (the parallel universe), where familiar spirit helpers will let me know what treatment is appropriate, and in what sequence.
This is not the same diagnostic process as in Western Medicine. I am not searching for names for your problem (labels often set things in stone). The diagnostic intention is to find a healing path, and an appropriate way to support your self-healing.

Unless something else came up in my diagnostic journey, your initial session will usually be 1.5-3 hours (including a quick break), and consist of three parts:

Connecting: We will have a chat about your circumstances, issues, and the healing approach we will take. This will also give you the chance to ask any questions you have.
Healing work: This part usually serves to unblock stuck energies, giving room to parts of you that might have been hidden away or out of balance. During this part of the session, you will sit or lie down comfortably, and I might be drumming, rattling, or singing. There might be moments of silence. You don't have to pay any attention or do anything - just relax.
Giving you some resources to support your own healing. In shorter sessions, this may be a little ritual or song that you learn, in longer sessions it is usually a guided Visualisation journey where you either meet your true self or power animal, and learn how to work with it in your everyday life. Sometimes we also might work with the Medicine Wheel and you will learn how to balance the different aspects of your life.

After the first session, you might need some (shorter) follow up sessions where we do a quick update of how things have developed, and then do more healing (such as soul part retrieval, ancestral release), or empowerment/mentoring work (such as working with the medicine basket, journey work).

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How many sessions:

The number of sessions usually cannot be defined at the very beginning. I usually recommend at least two sessions of 1.5 to 2 hours:

In the first session, we will have an in-depth chat and I then do some healing work, such as soul part retrieval, energy unblocking, etc.
In the second session, you will go on a guided visualisation journey, where you learn more about your issue and your own power to heal and transform.

After this, we will see how your energy has shifted, and whether you can take it from here or would like more help. Many clients decide to come for regular "journey" sessions after their initial healing sessions - they would like to continue on the path of guided visualisation.

Will there be 'Healing'?

When you receive Shamanic healing, you work with your inner power, and with universal life energy and wisdom. The sacred 'Grandfathers and Grandmothers' - the spirits - support the process. The shamanic practitioner is only the 'hollow reed' who channels, focuses and unblocks the healing energy. 'Healing' in the exact way you expect it cannot be predicted. We do not always understand our place in the creation.
Symptoms may or may not go away. Healing is a complex process; it means that you are getting 'whole' again. Sometimes symptoms serve a purpose on this journey, which may only become clear at a later stage in the process.

However, I have never witnessed a session that did not have benefits for the client. Clients feel stronger, more balanced and often more peaceful. Their self-healing power has been rebooted. Their ability to co-create and transform their lives has been strengthened.
Those clients who feel they are at the end of their life often feel renewed energy to find a positive closure and a peaceful way to pass over.

Please note: Shamanic healing does not replace seeing a doctor or seeking medical advice.

our working principles

Some Core Shamanic Healing Techniques

Power Retrieval

Power in a shamanic sense has nothing to do with external status or manipulating others. It is 'inner power', focused energy. It is the driving force of your Life, the petrol in your tank.
There are several reasons why you may lose part of your power, for example, external influences, such as environmental pollution, and internal reasons, such as not living your purpose.
It is quite normal to lose a bit of power every once in a while; we all can self-heal and have ways to regenerate it.
If you cannot regain your power, you may feel tired or ill all the time. The world may look grey, people seem to annoy you, and you may have no perseverance at all. It may be tempting to engage in bad habits or addictions when feeling powerless. Anything that 'fills the gap'....
Retrieving your power animal can help you regain your power. There are other ways - working with power songs, movement, dreams, etc. We will find the right method for you through the diagnostic journey.

Soul Retrieval

When we experience trauma, parts of our essence may leave to seek safety in the spiritual dimension of reality. The experience of trauma is always subjective - it can be anything from experiencing abuse or witnessing violence to losing a beloved teddy bear in our childhood.
It might also happen that we give away part of our soul - for example when we love 'too much' in co-dependent relationships.
Soul parts often come back of their own accord. We can help this by doing things we love to do, also by finding time for meditation and prayer, being in nature or with people who nurture us.
If soul parts do not come back, we may feel lost or torn, unable to fully engage in relationships and prone to chronical illness or addictions.
If I notice that this might be happening to you, I will journey in pursuit of the lost soul-parts and bring them back. I then will work with you to help integrate this part of your essence, and to prevent further soul loss. This work often enables other healing to happen.

Extraction

Our vitality and wellbeing can be disturbed when we carry something that does not belong to us. These blockages often come from negativity; our own or other people's. Negativity might be built through any kind of pollution, conflict, negative thinking patterns, guilt or an unrealistic self-image.
Energy disturbance can also be caused by over-shadowing influences of someone who has died but could not fully pass over. For more information about this, see Peace with Death page.
Repeating patterns that come down the ancestral lines can also interfere with your natural energy balance. For example, if your ancestors were involved in conflict or war, some negative energy can still shine through.
If I find energy blockages in your system, I can remove and neutralise these through Extraction work.
If there are any ancestral or soul-release issues, we will be using treatments called Compassionate Depossession and/or Curse Unravelling.

Read more about Soul Retrieval in our blog post.

Accessing your Inner Guidance (Divination)

These sessions will provide new insights, guidance and inspiration for your questions and struggles. Accessing guidance in a core shamanic way can be done in two ways:

I can journey on your behalf. I meditate to the drum beat, and enter 'non-ordinary reality' with your question in mind. I bring back metaphorical images which can provide new insights for you.
I can call in one of my familiar helping spirits to channel information for you. You will be able to ask your questions directly.

Whatever you will perceive or learn from this work is not a prediction of the future. If you receive advice or guidance from the universe/your essence, you should not look at it as an order. There is always free will; this work is mostly about exploring options, receiving inspiration, and becoming aware of the potential of different paths you can take. For example, when I 'journey', I will not ask any "yes-no" or "when" questions for you; in our initial chat, we will translate these into more useful questions that will empower you to make your own decision.
Please note: An amazing way to access your inner guidance yourself is learning how to journey, or going on guided visualisation journeys. More info is on our Journey Coaching page.

What happens in a session?

You first will choose whether you would like me to journey for you, or whether you would like to 'meet' one of my helping spirits and get direct information. If it is a journey, I will either speak the journey aloud or summarise what has happened. If it is direct information, I will take a bit of time to call my spiritual helper close and you then can ask questions.

After the journey work, we will have a chat about what happened in the journey, and I will show you how to work with the information you received. However, the interpretation of the information you gained will be up to you. Sometimes the meaning might be immediately clear, sometimes it might be metaphors. The language used is geared to you, so you are the only one who can make full sense of it.
An example: The essence of a message you gained on a journey may be to 'speak up more to step into your full power'. If this was a message for me, I might encounter a chattering Blue Jay on my journey (I often work with animal guides and therefore can understand this metaphoric language). If I journey for you, and you are - just as an example - very much into chakra work, the same message could be transmitted through the image of a lively river flowing through your throat chakra.

Shamanic Dream Work

The two methods mentioned above for receiving insights and guidance also apply to dream work.
The shamanic way of interpreting dreams is rather different from the psychological way. There are hardly any prescribed scripts or interpretations of dream language, besides maybe some archetypes that are connected to the history of the community. It is all about individual interpretation of the dream and receiving its direct teaching and power.

If the dream does not immediately make sense to you, you can journey to the dream and ask why it came. A powerful dream has 'spirit' in it; you can talk to it. For example, if you had a dream about a dog who kept trying to get into your house, you could visit the dog again on your journey and ask her what she needed and why she was there.

Spirit Release - Psychopomp

The purpose of this work is to re-balance energies that are in the wrong place at the wrong time. For example, people can get stuck after they die and may need a bit of extra help to find their way 'home'. They may feel that they have some unfinished business here (e.g., an unresolved conflict), or are attached to their life-style, to people they loved, or their earthly task.

If you feel that this has happened to a loved one who died, you may feel puzzled, fearful or too embarrassed to talk about your experience. Please do call; we will find a gentle way to guide the wandering spirit 'home'.

These issues can sometimes be solved in just one session, but sometimes deeper healing of the person who initially attracted a wandering spirit is needed as well.