1 Day Workshop Programme

A brief history of shamanism
the key concepts of the shamanic universe
how to journey to the drum and rattle
how to meet ones power animal
how to work with a power animal
how to meet & work with your spirit guide(s)
how to journey in both the lower and upper worlds
the basics of how to journey for others.

What is Shamanism?

Shamanism is our most ancient spiritual tradition, far older than the organised religions. It has been practiced for tens of thousands of years in every part of the world where humans have settled. It is the spiritual practice that the overwhelming majority of our ancestors practiced, for generation after generation, going way back into human history.

It is itself not a religion, and is not incompatible with most religious traditions. Shamanism has no priests, no hierarchies, no sacred texts, no dogma, no sects or factions, no external moral injunctions. It is based on a direct and immediate personal connection with the sacred. Shamanic practitioners experience the world and everything in it as being alive and conscious. 

Given the number of different cultures in which shamanism is practiced, there is a remarkable consistency in what shamans experience and practice. This core shamanism is deeply wired into the human psyche; deeply familiar at an ancestral level, if not consciously remembered in the present. This makes (re)learning shamanism an easy and familiar experience for many people; a kind of spiritual homecoming

Shamanism is a set of tools. It can be used in many ways including healing (of self and for others) and for personal and spiritual development. Shamanic practice brings with it a deep sense of wholeness and a sense of connectedness to all life. It can instill in one a profound sense of connection with nature, something that is lost to many of us in our urbanised lifestyles, and which brings its own feeling of well-being.

Therapeutic Shamanism

This is where shamanism and psychotherapy overlap. This happens in many areas, particularly in the more body-aware psychotherapies, where the work is done in a somewhat ‘altered’ state of consciousness. In this realm, people experience their emotions and/or symptoms in metaphorical, mythological or even archetypal forms.

Shamanism provides a set of techniques for entering into this realm easily and at will, and so is potentially very useful in psychotherapeutic work.

In both psychotherapy and shamanism, usually a lay person will seek the help of an experienced practitioner (the psychotherapist or the shaman, respectively). In the case of shamanism, usually the shaman ‘journeys’ for the person seeking help, or does a healing on them. In this sense, the power is with the shaman, as the ‘expert’. In contrast, in (humanistic) psychotherapy and counselling, the therapist is an enabler, facilitating the client in their own process of healing; the therapist is concerned with empowering the client.

Therapeutic Shamanism operates at where shamanism and psychotherapy meet. It is concerned with empowering and enabling the ‘client’ as much as possible. The practitioner works with the client, to enable the client to become their own shamanic practitioner. The client is encouraged to enter into their own shamanic consciousness, meet their own guides and helpers, and find their own answers. The practitioner is there to help the client recover their own spiritual authority, power and wholeness

The practice also draws deeply from principles in person-centred counselling, of treating clients with respect, empathy and honesty. It is embedded in the understanding of ethics and power issues that one hundred years of psychotherapy have given us. Its core principles are gentleness, awareness, empowering and enabling.

Core to the practice, drawing from body-centred psychotherapy, is a deep understanding of the wisdom of the body and body symptoms.

From shamanism comes a deep sense of resonance with nature, and the aliveness and interconnectedness of all things. From both traditions comes a profound understanding of energy and consciousness.

Therapeutic Shamanism can be used for personal healing, help with life issues, raising self-awareness, personal and spiritual development, and much more