Drum Journey Mentoring

This is a method of self-healing and transformation that uses guided visualisations to create new insights and positive energy for change.

Drum Journeys are guided meditations to the soft sound of the drum. Why would you meditate with the drum? Because the drum beat slows your brain waves down. This allows you access to your sources of inner wisdom, which otherwise might be overpowered by your analytical brain. The journey method can unblock stuck energies and enable you to find your own answers and inner strength.
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These meditations might feel a bit like purposeful day-dreaming. For example, you may imagine yourself going up a mountain and enjoy the view from up there, and suddenly, a hawk lands by your side and has an important message for you. This is your Inner Wisdom - some may call it your Spirit or your True Self - which found a way to manifest itself.

The method is inspired by the cultural heritage of many native cultures - and it is still used in different formats all around the world: Drum meditations, trance dancing, meditative chanting, using the Earth Drum....

Journeying is safe. We only journey to the realms of the light,  where you can find healing, teaching and empowerment. 

What happens in a session?

Every session will be different, but we often start with an initial journey to help you find and connect with your Power Animal. Further journeys will be about an intention of your choice, or I will suggest a topic for you. 

If you feel that the same message comes through in your journeys, but you can't really make a change in your life, we may choose to do a transformation ceremony, which is a drum journey that specifically aims at an energy shift. 
More details about these methods are below. 

​When debriefing your 'journey', I will reflect back what you said and witness what you experienced.  I will not do any interpretation for you, but I may ask questions. This will help you make sense of what happened in your meditation and decide on how to apply it to your life.

How many sessions? 

Sometimes, a single drum journey session can inspire and empower you, so that you feel you can re-start your life. However, it is more likely that you need three to six sessions to feel a difference, especially if you work an a deep and difficult issue. 
​Some people make journeying a regular practice and come to a session every month. Others use it to go through a specific change in their life or to seek continuous inspiration for a creative job. 

This work can help if...

• You are searching for a new path in your life and don't now where to even begin.
• You have been struggling with the same issue for a while, without making much progress. You are over-thinking things and cannot move on.
• You are going through a major life change, such as getting married, moving abroad or taking on a new job. You need some support for the transition.
• You suffered loss and can't move on. This may be emotional or physical loss: the ending of a relationship, the death of a loved one, loosing your job, etc.
• You suffered from trauma, feel let down or abused and need inner healing and empowerment.
• You failed and cannot forgive yourself.
• You would like to celebrate or reinvent yourself for a special occasion; for example, doing something special for your birthday or your retirement.

Examples of Drum-Journey Coaching

Inner Strength:
​Power Animal

Inner Power has nothing to do with external status or manipulating others. It is focused energy; the driving force of your Life, the petrol in your tank.
There are several reasons why you may lose  your inner strength. There are external influences, such as environmental pollution, and internal reasons, such as not living your purpose or blocking yourself.
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 strength, 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, to try to 'fill the gap'. But bad habits dis-empower you even more. 
The simplest way of regaining some of your inner strength is retrieving your Power Animal. You can do this for yourself, on a guided drum journey, or I can do it for you. You then will learn how to work with your personal Spirit Animal in everyday life, exploring its qualities and teachings. 
All Power Animals that come to you are true teachers and helpers. ​

Self-Exploration:
​Medicine Wheel

The Medicine Wheel  is a map of the universe and a roadmap for your healing and development journey. The four main directions represent aspects of your life, which can be in harmony or out of balance. ​Exploring these dynamics can make you feel at peace with who you are and how you relate to the world. You may uncover sides of yourself which are not useful and can be given away.  Others are helpful and you want  to use them more.
An example; you may be strong in the East (developing lots of ideas and initiating new beginnings), but not so powerful in the West (failing to manifest your vision). If you notice such a dissonance, you can learn how to strengthen and integrate the different aspects of your life. The teachings can be very practical; for example, helping with problem solving and working through conflicts. 
The principles of the Medicine Wheel are reflected in many ancient societies:  the First Nation People of the Americas and Australia, the Jewish Kabbala, and the Wheel of Life of some Asian cultures. 
This work is also available for groups and families who would like to build a Medicine Wheel on their land.

Balance:
​Chakra Integration

Chakras are energy centres in your body that support you with different gifts: For example your base chakra helps you with grounding, and your throat chakra with communication and self-expression. They can get out of balance, for example your throat chakra might be blocked and you then find it hard find your voice and make it heard. 
In our coaching sessions, you can explore your chakras through guided drum journey work. In this meditation, you will find a specific Spirit animal or wisdom keeper in each of your chakras. Connecting to them and aligning them with each other will bring new insights. balance and healing.
Once you have found your 'team' of Chakra helpers and know how to work with them, you can visit them and ask for their advice for challenges of your life.
Chakra journeys are also appropriate for people who have been working with chakra healing for a while, and now would like to explore these concepts from a different angle.
This work is inspired by Steve Gallegos' method of the Personal Totem Pole. 

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Creating Energy for Change: Personal Ceremonies

Personal ceremonies/transformation journey help you create a specific energy shift when you feel stuck or disconnected. They consist of guided journey work, reflection, and a series of symbolic actions. These can be as simple as arranging some candles on a table to express a 'map' of your True Self. Or they can be more complex, such as going into nature and letting your negative thoughts flow down a river.  Some examples of classic transformation journey are below. 

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True Self Reconnection

This is a guided meditation in a ceremonial setting, which will lead you to the 'non-ordinary reality' where you meet your True Self; the place in yourself that contains your deepest wisdom and your purpose for this life.
Once you have met your True Self, you will practice a simple method to connect to it in your everyday life. This will enable you to receive guidance and support from that deep place within you whenever you need it.
You then can  re-evaluate your life out of a "True-Self" perspective: What is serving your path here in this world, and what is in your way. A journey to a healing place will allow you to release what you no longer need. 
A Soul Reading can be part of this ceremony. I will journey for you and bring back something that represents and honours the strength of your Soul (such as a story, a chant, a magic word, a power-dance, etc).

Medicine Basket - Vision Work

The Medicine Basket offers a powerful ceremony to help you let go of things that no longer serve you, and attract the things you would like to invite as part of your journey into the future.
The Medicine Basket can also represent your 'Spirit Womb'. You honour the place in yourself that creates new life. This does not have to be a child, but it can cover all aspects of being creative and giving room for new seeds to grow and blossom in your life. The Spirit Womb is also a deep, warm cave where you can find safety and a place to hibernate. Sacred darkness will enable your eyes to see more...
Women - especially those who have lost their physical womb or go through menopause - often feel healed and empowered by Spirit Womb work. However, this work is not just for women - everybody has a Spirit Womb. 

Manifestation and Cord Cutting

Being 'tied down' by dysfunctional relationships, ideas and projects can hinder you to bring your dreams alive. Manifestation and Cord Cutting are two related ceremonies. In Cord cutting, you will cut the cords that tie you to co-dependent, draining relationships, while strengthening the positive cords that connect you to the Universe and 'all your relations'. 
The Manifestation Ceremony will help you clarify your vision and goals - from the place of your True Self. This is not about societal expectations of who you should be, but an in-depth exploration of who you want to be to honour your True Self. You then gather your resources and learn about concrete action steps to manifest your goals.  You send your intention out to the universe through a powerful ceremony. The last step is letting go - surrender and find peace with the suiting power of the Water. 
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Example: Liz recounts herDrum Journey

Here is the account of a specific drum journey and how a client applied it to her life: 
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"The purpose of my meditation was to seek guidance on how I can find more clients for my catering business. When the drum started, I was guided to imagine myself walking in a lovely garden. I was told to look around to see whether I could find a bird or another animal, and sure enough, there was a Spotted Woodpecker. I introduced myself to the Woodpecker and asked him whether he could show me some answers to my question.
He invited me to come and fly with him, and we both took off high into the clouds. Up there, I saw a neon sign, bright with red and yellow colours. Nothing written on it though; it was just a blank board. Woodpecker told me to write my name on it. I did not know how to do this, and I asked woodpecker for help. He plucked one of his feathers and used it as a writing pen. His ink was a drop of blood that had come out from his skin when the feather was plucked. He gave me the feather and told me to write. I felt reluctant and shy to do it. Woodpecker kept encouraging me. Finally, I wrote my name on the neon sign, and it lit up even more and started to turn. Then I heard the call-back signal of the drum, Andrea told me to give thanks and say good-bye. Then I went back to the garden and into normal reality.

What did the Journey teach me?

I noticed that I had been reluctant to believe in myself before this meditation. Yes, I wanted to put my name ‘out there’, but I was not self-confident enough to really stand out from the crowd and believe in the quality of my offerings. Woodpecker taught me that I had to be more self-confident and really put more of myself - even a ‘drop of blood’ - into this business. This was a real boost for me. I keep imagining the neon sign and I still see it turning and shining up there - a good reminder that I ought to believe in myself".

The Power of Journeying

Here is the voice of a client who learned Drum Journeying at the Fireside Lodge, and then used it in his daily life: 

"Journeying has made a *colossal* difference to my life. I struggle to put into words how it’s helped my sense of wholeness, wellbeing, balance and purpose.
I had two big breakthroughs. The first was discovering how to journey to make friends with a specific part of myself which I struggled with. For example, I journeyed to make friend with the part of me that is unhappy, wants to be looked after, or hides from the world. 
The second big breakthrough, only in the last few months, is discovering Journeying to be available to a specific part of myself that I used to supress. For example, I want to be available:  to my deep sense of weariness, or to my feelings about a particular life change, or also to my joy without feeling guilty about it.
Both break-throughs have been huge. I feel so much better able to navigate the next few decades of my life.
So let me express my gratitude, and hopefully you’ve got a sense of why the words “thank you” aren’t enough for me."

Journey well!