The Role of the Shamanic in Therapy
Interest in therapeutic shamanic journeying is on the rise. More and more health practitioners and licensed therapists are turning away from traditional methods of talk therapy and towards something more intuitive: accessing and understanding the innate wisdom we all hold within.
Shamanism is often misunderstood. While shamanism has ancient roots (it was actually considered the first religion of all humankind!), it has no formal ties to any specific religion or culture. Shamanic practices focus on the deep connection that we all hold to the divine. These practices are a mixture of activities and experiences that are practiced across various religions, governments, and cultures. The beauty of this is that shamanism is never in conflict with any deeply held religious beliefs you might have— in fact, shamanism can be used to help enhance your spiritual growth.
"Because it is not an organized religion as such, but rather a spiritual practice, shamanism cuts across all faiths and creeds, reaching deep levels of ancestral memory. As a primal belief system, which precedes established religion, it has its own symbolism and cosmology, inhabited by beings, gods, and totems, who display similar characteristics although they appear in various forms, depending upon their places of origin."
~John Matthews, The Celtic Shaman
Shamanic healing is a great tool in the context of therapy. It can help you get out of the “let’s talk about our feelings” rut and shift into a deeper state where you can find some clear internal and intuitive direction. If you are feeling curious about shamanic healing, trust that curiosity! Here are the basics of a type of therapeutic shamanic healing, as well as what a typical shamanic journey can look like within my practice.
What Is Shamanic Healing?
As a mental health practitioner who practices shamanic healing, I get to experience the healing power of accessing intuition and internal wisdom in our modern world. While the idea of shamanism might conjure up all sorts of mental images, it really couldn’t be more practical and pragmatic— clients who come to me for shamanic healing are looking for internal clarity around their modern-day problems. That is the power of shamanism: just as in ancient times, internal wisdom exists.
My job as a therapist is to help you tap into that innate wisdom and intuition. I help my clients reach a trance-like state through the use of repetitive drumming, guided meditation, and guided instruction. While in this state, you are able to connect with your internal world using your imagination. This state of shamanic trance is not a hypnotic or unconscious state— it’s a time in which you are focused on what is happening within.
While you are on a shamanic journey, you work to connect to the aspects of your consciousness that are often dulled or drowned out by the chaos of the outside world. We have a very active and very noisy mind! Shamanic journeying helps you trust your own inner wisdom and inner guide by learning how to quiet the mind and focus on your true inner self.
What Do I Need for a Shamanic Journey?
A Safe Space
I have a few tools I use when I guide my clients through a shamanic journey. First, a safe space. My clients know that they are loved unconditionally and are safe to explore all corners of their consciousness and ego while in my care. I work to be a loving, helpful facilitator that can guide them without judgment through their journey.
A Statement of Protection
I typically prepare the space for my client by burning incense and palo santo and opening the space with a song and statement of protection over the journey. There is nothing scary about a shamanic journey, but I do want to make it clear that we are only allowing helping and benevolent spirits into our space.
Movement or Stillness
Another unique thing about shamanic journeying is the freedom the client has as far as movement. Some will lay down, some will sit up, and some will walk around. All you really need to do is whatever best helps you open your inner eye. I also require my clients to be sober. The beauty of the wisdom that you find during a shamanic journey is that you can learn to access it during your waking life, and being in an altered state creates an unnecessary barrier to that sort of transfer.
A Repetitive Beat
I use click sticks or a drum to create a repetitive beat. You can use anything- a shaker, two sticks, even a pill bottle!- it just has to have some quickness to it. While the beat goes on, I guide my client with guided meditation, guided instructions, or silence. My client uses this time to pay attention to what is happening within. Often, they have visions or experiences that they need help decoding.
What Is the Role of a Therapist in Shamanic Healing?
As a therapist and facilitator, my job is to help my client connect to inner truth, wisdom, and unconscious aspects of self. Often, you will see or feel things in your journey that you would like to decode. I have had clients see symbolic images (a bear, a cave, a person) or experience a physical feeling.
After your shamanic journey, I use my understanding of dream language to untangle the complicated feelings and imagery that you might have experienced during your journey, but I am careful not to lead or guide your interpretation.
Having a guide allows you to interpret what it felt like to experience what you did and what the symbols might mean in your waking life. By trusting your own experience, you are able to learn how to harness and access this innate wisdom beyond the ceremony itself— this is the lasting benefit of a shamanic ceremony!
What Are the Benefits of Shamanic Healing Ceremonies?
Instant Effects
The relaxation and clarity that comes with turning away from the external and tapping into the internal can be felt almost immediately. We live our lives in such a rush! We use our five senses to decode all the external stimuli that bombard us, but we rarely get the chance to turn that five sense inspection inwards. Shamanic journeying helps you focus on your internal landscape, which allows you to connect to your higher self and your internal experience. Shamanic journeying is a change to close our eyes, tune into our senses, turn on our intuition, and look at ourselves for answers instead of the outside world. It feels amazing and gives us benefits we can learn to harness in the long run.
Long Term Benefits
My clients often report that they have increased trust in their own inner wisdom and intuition. By connecting with our quiet unconscious, we are able to move beyond the second-guessing and questioning that often plagues our waking lives. By tapping into our internal power and wisdom, we are able to feel a sense of independence and autonomy. It’s a type of empowerment that comes exclusively from within- and, therefore, is unshakeable.
What Can We Learn from Shamanic Healing?
Shamanism has been around for most of human history and has thrived across thousands of religions, cultures, governments, and lifestyles. The reason why it is so enduring lies at the heart of it all: there is something about us, something within us, that yearns to connect with the eternal and divine. By accessing this innate power, we are accessing a stillness within us that is free from the distraction and nuisance of the modern world. A facilitator can help guide you on the path to finding this place of stillness and light. If you are interested in walking through a shamanic journey, I would love to be your guide.
Be Well,
Dori Lewis
References:
Harner, Michael. “Science, Spirits, and Core Shamanism”. Shamanism Press. Spring/Summer 1991, Vol.12, No.1
Money, M. “Shamanism as a healing paradigm for complementary therapy.” Complementary therapies in nursing & midwifery vol. 7,3 (2001): 126-31. doi:10.1054/ctnm.2001.0546
Wallace AFC. Religion: An Anthropological View. New York, NY: Random House; 1966:72
Dobkin de Rios, Marlene. “What we can learn from shamanic healing: brief psychotherapy with Latino immigrant clients.” American journal of public health vol. 92,10 (2002): 1576-8. doi:10.2105/ajph.92.10.1576