SERVICES (Workshops and Counselling)

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WORKSHOPS:

 

THE FOUR-FOLD WAY SERIES:

The Way of the Warrior; The Way of the Healer; The Way of the Visionary;

The Way of the Teacher (based the Angeles Arrien's Four-Fold Way)

 

THE GENESIS SERIES:

Introduction; The Wild Child; The Hunter-Gatherer; The Dreamer

 

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COUNSELLING, MENTORING and SHAMANIC HEALING:

My healing approach draws on my graduate studies in transpersonal psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (where Angeles Arrien was my thesis chair) and advanced studies with The Foundation for Shamanic Studies. I offer counseling, mentoring and shamanic healing to clients on an individual basis, either in person or working at a distance.

 

My approach to counselling

SOUL CENTRED COUNSELLING AND MENTORING:

Offering an integral approach to understanding life's challenges as opportunities for transition and growth.

Each life experience is unique. There is no formula that guarantees happiness or fulfillment. We are born into a culture, a family, into a set of circumstances. We have abilities and potential. We begin our journey full of trust, prepared to meet life head on.

The road is not always smooth, and as a result of difficult or even misunderstood experiences, we can develop defenses and beliefs about ourselves that limit our positive experience of being in the world. We can establish patterns of behavior that interfere with our clarity of vision and undermine our relationships with others and the world in general, all without understanding what is happening or why.

We come to an awareness that something needs to change when we can no longer ignore that we are hurting. This may manifest as the loss of a sense of purpose or meaning. We may find it difficult to relate, communicate, connect, be heard or understood. We may experience anxiety, grief, difficulty in concentrating, bursts of anger or sadness. Specific events may block, frustrate or even overwhelm us. The list could go on and on: trauma, transition, separation, divorce, children leaving home, loss of a loved one, loss or change of work, retirement, illness, or simply the stresses of daily life. We feel destabilized.

As conscious human beings we long to live the promise of contentment and fulfillment that we were born to experience. Whether we are aware of it or not, we all share the human impulse towards wholeness, connection, participation and balance. We are not in this alone. We affect others and are affected by them. But, we each have the unique opportunity to change what isn't working for us, to use our challenges, blocks and defeats as opportunities to lay down our defenses and re-vision our lives.

My studies and experience in shamanism and transpersonal psychology have helped me understand that much of our sense of alienation and loss comes from the fact that we have forgotten our interconnectedness. Indigenous peoples knew this and the cutting edge of science is confirming that we are all an integral part of a larger whole. We have forgotten that we have a place and a purpose, that from a larger perspective we are each an important story in the making, part of an ever changing world, and part of something larger.

My approach in counselling and mentoring is to work in partnership with each individual to co-create a plan and a process to promote healing and growth on all levels - heart, mind, body, spirit. This process will be different for each person, reflecting the truth that each story is unique and that the road home will take many forms.

 

My approach to shamanic healing

I received my formal training at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. Founded by internationally renowned anthropologist Michael Harner with a three-fold mission to study, to teach, and to preserve shamanism, The Foundation for Shamanic Studies has built a reputation of consistency and excellence by providing effective, quality training in Core Shamanism to interested learners worldwide. Dr. Harner has been recognized as the pioneer and leader of the revival of shamanism – including bringing the shamanic journey to the Western world – since the early 60's when he chose to immerse himself in tribal spiritual traditions rather than restrict his study to more traditional academic techniques.

What is Shamanism? Over tens of thousands of years, our ancient ancestors all over the world discovered how to maximize human abilities of mind and spirit for healing and problem solving. The remarkable system of methods they developed is today known as "shamanism," a term that comes from a Siberian tribal word for its practitioners: "shaman" (pronounced SHAH-mahn). Shamans are a type of medicine man or woman especially distinguished by the use of journeys to hidden worlds otherwise mainly known through myth, dream, and near-death experiences.

Through the practice of core shamanism these worlds are accessible to anyone who chooses to explore them. Leaving aside any reference to the cultural expressions of indigenous shamanic traditions, we focus on the universal shamanic techniques of information gathering (divination) and spiritual healing (extraction healing and soul retrieval). We work to discover the spiritual causes for lack of wellbeing through the shamanic journey. It is important for clients to learn to journey, if they are not already trained in journeying. In this way they benefit by participating in their own process, following up on any healing help with journeys to their own spirit helpers for instruction, support and guidance. This work is intended to be personally empowering.