Shamanic healing is a process of engaging your spirit to return to your true self, in recognition of the whole and in acceptance of its parts. Here we heal the mind, body, heart and the part that often escapes us but is always calling: our spirit.
In that sense, we can honor ourselves by listening for that call and answering it. Sounds like an easy enough task, but why then do we ignore it? What is it that lies beyond the curtain that we don’t want to see…or know?
I remember my teacher and initiator into the Toltec Shaman path, Ari Ruiz, once said, “Shamanism is doing the work.” I haven’t found a better description yet, because in truth you can’t just show up and expect a miracle, you have to do the work to change a situation. In healing, we have to do the work to not only feel better, but be better: with creating better thoughts, taking conscious action, releasing what’s not ours, and remembering to love.
To do all that we have to explore what we haven’t wanted to acknowledge: our wounds, and fears, and shadows, that may enjoy dancing in the dark but really crave a spotlight to be seen. In the unknown we learn to hold ourselves with compassion and be deserving of our own attention. That is how we bring hope back into uncertainty, and that is how we begin to heal.
You don’t have to be in crisis to benefit from shamanic healing. Many people seek this work because they feel stuck in repeating patterns, disconnected from themselves, overwhelmed by grief, uncertain about their purpose, or simply aware that something in their life no longer feels true. Healing isn’t reserved for emergencies, it can also be an act of coming home to yourself.
The Healing Path I Never Expected to Walk
Shamanic healing has been my main practice for almost a decade now, half of that time as a practicioner, but it was not a path I ever expected to turn to. They say this path calls you, yet a choice must still be made to take it. And there it was waiting for me when I had lost all hope of ever healing.
That’s what I had been told anyway: that it would always be this way and I had to learn to live with it. I had become frustrated, afraid, and felt guilty for fucking my body up. Was this really the end of the road? But a little voice kept nagging me, and it was telling me to find another way to heal.
I had nothing to lose except a comfortable career doing police work at that time. I chose to pursue healing anyway because ultimately I was miserable, and pain management was just a bandage on a deeper wound. I missed my sovereignty, if I ever knew it, but really I missed myself. Shamanic healing opened those doors wide for me and hit me square in the face. The process wasn’t easy but I have no regrets because in exchange for a little risk I received a lot more: I learned to heal myself.
First I had to get over myself though, or at least the part that was identified with my pain. This was “the block” that had to be removed, but it was also the one I was leaning on to justify my needs. It kind of made me feel special and at least got me compassion from people, but it was definitely keeping me sick.
So next I had to learn how to show up for myself, which admittedly I didn’t know has nothing to do with anyone else — not my work, not my family, not my relationships, not the strangers I kept helping — yet these were the very same things that I always put first and before me. This was “the resolution” that I had to commit to no matter how uncomfortable, and I hated saying no to people.
Lastly I had to stop fighting and let nature run its course, despite the control I desperately wanted to have over my healing. This was “the surrender” that was needed to sustain the change and movement that I had invited into my life, but more than trusting the process or even yourself, this just takes practice and time.
Discovering my power and remembering my medicine was completely unexpected —I had just wanted to feel better. But a transformation occurred that I couldn’t deny. I found myself walking into life with a new perspective and a desire to continue expanding into my most authentic self. In practice, to dream a better Dream.
What Can Shamanic Healing Help With?
Shamanic healing invites a depth and intimacy not found in other modalities, conditions which contribute to the personal evolution and spiritual awakening of the seeker. This is what my practice is centered around and what I hold space towards. My intention is to hold space for the kind of healing that creates lasting transformation, where the changes experienced in ceremony continue to unfold in everyday life.
Here are some of the changes my clients have experienced:
✓ Emotional release
✓ Greater clarity
✓ Stronger intuition
✓ Renewed purpose
✓ Healthier boundaries
✓ Feeling present again
✓ Reconnecting with joy
✓ Breaking recurring patterns
One of the key benefits of shamanic healing is that it’s a highly personal practice — which is as pure as you can get. Everyone has a unique path back to themselves and a reason to find themselves where they are too; shamanism will not point the way – because it honors your ability to choose – but it will reveal what is open to you and guide you every step of your way.
When you step into the world of spirit you leave time behind, which is how you can then rearrange space. But the point of shamanic healing isn’t just to create shifts, it’s to be in harmony with yourself. This takes a willingness to change the story you’ve always told, and the courage to let it go.
In shamanic healing we address all parts of ourselves, not just the layer that is obvious to us. If we become physically ill, our spirit was long before afflicted with something unnoticed. When we check in with all of who we are, we are able to find deeper resolution to what ails us and heal with more strength, but most importantly, with more capacity to expand beyond our healing.
By sitting in our power we can learn to Dream again and build not only the life we want, but also become stewards for the planet in protecting its own Dream, of which we are a strand of. I’m not speaking about the dream we have when we hit the pillow, but the one we are shaping with our consciousness to become manifest as our greatest work of art; that is the Toltec way.
Our Dream is fed by our impulses, unconsciously or not, but it only picks up momentum when we act in our authenticity. Before that it can seem like life is a game to be lost, or that destiny has no escape, which is a reality that appears true when all the feedback you receive is distorted by outside programming. That is why in shamanic work we aim to wake up to our dream and IN our dream. By examining our inner landscape — be it through medicine, journey, or ceremony — we can finally be real enough with ourselves to dismantle the illusion of having a life, and realizing that we are life; our Dream can then instead be fed by our power.
In everyday life, that may look like finally leaving a relationship that no longer reflects who you are, pursuing work that feels meaningful, or learning to trust your own inner knowing instead of everyone else’s expectations.
"A dream finds its refuge in the heart."
Why Healing Isn't Always Comfortable
Shamanic healing doesn’t take preparation but it does take nerve. Choosing to meet yourself with no filter and to see your truth plainly can be an intense experience, but it can also be a loving encounter with what you’ve been seeking for a long time.
Resistance, at this stage, is just another trial to face against how you really feel, and while opening the heart space can make you feel more vulnerable than you’ve been willing to be, it’s the key to being able to receive again. There is absolutely a surrender that must happen, but it’s less about giving something up and more about embracing what has always been there. Healing isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about becoming less defended, so the person you’ve always been has room to emerge.
For example, a session may unexpectedly bring to the surface emotions that were suppressed because you didn’t know how to process them at the time or didn’t feel safe to. Choosing to heal signals to your body that you’re ready to release it now so anything foreign or heavy that’s been disrupting your system finally has permission to leave. An opportunity is created to move through something without judgement in an effort to return to your true self, this time as a witness to your growth and not a victim to your situation.
The beauty of a shamanic healing session is the container that it forms for seeing this revelation through: with compassion and non-judgement, with support and transparency, but most importantly with a reciprocal heartbeat and unconditional presence.
Through a commitment to showing up for yourself and building a discipline around your practice, shamanic work can be both fulfilling and illuminating as a healing path.
What Happens During a Session
Energy moves naturally and sometimes all you have to do is get out of the way to come back into your flow. A shamanic healing session will help identify where, in your body and in your life, your power has stagnated and help restore movement and force.
All of my sessions are approached with intention and respect. I like to establish expectations and safety protocols for a comfortable experience, which includes letting you know what I’m doing throughout the session and checking in with your needs.
We begin with having a platica, which beyond conversation is an open-hearted dialogue to help track the healing process. This is a safe space for you to share what you’ve been going through, to be received with non-judgement, and for your personal information to be protected and undisclosed.
Following our talk we move into doing energy work and you may be standing, sitting or laying down depending on the technique. I will use my hands or tools to activate your energy field, which may involve sound or light touch, and you will be guided to engage your breath. We move a lot of energy during this portion and it’s normal to feel temperature changes, skin sensations, or involuntary movement. Additionally, your spirit guides will often show up here to offer work or guidance.
Most sessions are both therapeutic and interactive. To wrap up, I will help integrate anything that came up for you so that you know what to continue working on, and any recommendations from your guides; I will also provide after-care instructions for grounding. After a shamanic healing session it is common to feel lighter, more relaxed, emotionally released, or re-energized.
You don’t need prior experience with meditation, spirituality, or shamanism. You don’t need to know how energy works. Curiosity, openness, and a willingness to participate are enough.
Is Shamanic Healing Right for You?
Only you can answer that question.
Shamanic healing isn’t about convincing you to believe in anything. It’s an invitation to become curious about yourself. To pause long enough to ask whether the life you’re living truly reflects who you are beneath fear, expectation, and old stories.
Healing doesn’t erase what you’ve lived through. It changes your relationship to it. The places that once held pain can become places of wisdom, compassion, and strength.
If something in this article resonated with you, perhaps that’s worth listening to.
Whether you’re navigating grief, illness, major life changes, spiritual questions, or simply feel that you’ve drifted away from yourself, you don’t have to walk that path alone. It would be an honor to support you in that journey.
When you’re ready, I invite you to schedule a shamanic healing session and discover what becomes possible when you remember the medicine that has always lived within you.