What I do Best in my Healing Work

27 11 2010

My friend Patty, a shamanic healer visiting me from Canada, recently asked me what I thought I did best in my healing work. What a great question. It is one I will continue to contemplate.

I answered rather quickly, and without much thought. I said that it was probably the same thing I did best in ordinary reality.  I told her I knew who a person was when they were three years old, who they are now and who they will be when they are 90 years old.

Patty responded that this meant I was a seer.

I had never thought of this before. I don’t generally see anything so much as I just know things and feel their truth with every fiber of my being. I’m not a mind reader.

It happens that at my best moment I don’t feel any separation between me and another person. For that matter I don’t see any distinction between me and the air, the earth, or anything.  In animism there is a core belief that all things are imbued with the same energy. This is given credibility through the study of physics which tell us all things are made from the same energy particles. In meditation we become aware of the possibility to expand beyond our own skin. I guess that this is how I begin to know stuff I wouldn’t be aware of in my ordinary state of consciousness. Using the language of my youth, I call it the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Whatever it is, it means that the healing I participate in comes from this place of shared consciousness.  I become a hollow bone through which healing passes. So I guess what I do best, is get out of the way.





What to expect from a healing session

27 11 2010

“I am sorry for coming when I am such a mess,” the man coming in the door said.

“It seems like everyone who crosses my door says that,” I replied.

This one factor, feeling out of control, unites most of the people I see. As Americans, we share a cultural value which pressures us to power through our life, ignoring our pain. It isn’t until we are tied in knots, often by yet another difficulty (i.e. divorce, unemployment, medical issue) that we seek help. We often only seek non-traditional intervention when every other thing we have tried has failed. It I no wonder that people come to a shamanic practitioner with feelings of embarrassment, failure and even shame at needing help.

It is very good news that people universally leave feeling better because:

  • They have immediate confirmation that there is something to this non-traditional stuff.
  • They typically receive specific information, energy and/or spiritual healing.
  • Most importantly, they leave aware that another human being isn’t afraid of their pain and will stand in it with them.  I’m not an energy vampire, wallowing in their pain, but a brief open-hearted sharing allows a person to let down their defenses.
  • By letting down defenses a patient releases a burst of creative energy in which healing and the awareness of the possibility of healing is received.
  • They become awareness of a context for their experience.

This doesn’t mean that everyone leaves cured of all their problems. However, they typically move forward unburdened and hopeful. I often don’t see a patient again for several months and when I do, they tell me that things are going better, even when they are in a difficult period of their life. They often attribute part, or much of this, to their experience of shamanic healing.