My Love Affair with Shamanism...

Shamanism first hooked me years ago, when I picked up a copy of Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan at age 22 in a traveller’s bookshop in Bangkok. Since then, it has been both my teacher and my guide through life’s deepest transformations.

I first trained with Shamanka Women’s School of Shamanism 16 years ago and worked alongside my teacher, Eliana Harvey, for seven years as an assistant on Shamanka trainings and as a shamanic practitioner and bodywork therapist at the adjoining retreat, Middle Piccadilly Rural Retreat. It was there that I co-created 'Emergence Retreat' with Dom Harvey, a 3-day intensive retreat weaving together Shamanic healing, bodywork, and Spiritual mentoring for people who found themselves facing intense burnout.

After leaving Middle Piccadilly, my path led me to create my own company 'Bear Paw Natural Therapies,' which included Dreaming Bear Shamanic Drum Circles ~ a monthly full moon circle and 'Lion~heart Egyptian Mysteries,' a women’s journeying and healing group rooted in the wisdom of the Egyptian Neteru.

When COVID-19 hit, like for many, life took an unexpected turn. Over the past five years, I’ve been through a profound death and rebirth cycle. A near-death experience in 2021 began a painful shedding process that I am only just coming out of. During this time, I let go of most of my belongings, including my beloved drum collection, my huge library of esoteric books, and most of my tools. I even burnt all my journals stretching back 25 years! I believed shamanism was done with me as Ayurveda emerged and took center stage, offering a new path forward. Last January, I travelled to India on a one-way ticket, not really knowing what was about to hit me! It seemed Spirit certainly wasn’t finished with me yet. After last year’s gritty ride; my breakdown and out-of-the-blue ADHD diagnosis, the spark of shamanism has returned in full force! Alongside my training in Ayurveda and the allies that have walked with me through every chapter of my life, my work is beginning to emerge in a way I could never have imagined.

Shamanism is and always will be my greatest love. It is an exquisite art of deep transformation. It’s about healing the unseen: the wounds held in the energy body that inform our thoughts, emotions, and physical health. Through these ancient healing practices of shamanic journeying, extraction, soul retrieval, and compassionate de-possession, Shamanic practice helps to remove blockages, rewrite the blueprints of our past trauma, and bring us back into alignment with the sacred wholeness within us all.