Welcome to the mystery
I am a Mystic with Shaman training, I believe in each persons ability to heal themselves, and that we need to heal with another supporting and witnessing us.
I found these words online written by Edith Hunter and they resonated deeply with my soul.
The elements of shamanism are curiously similar throughout the world. “Shaman” is a universal title for a person who does such work, though “visionary” or “one who experiences spirit events” would also describe the practitioner, and those terms link shamanism to religion.
SHAMAN derives from SAMAN – which is taken from Tungus of Siberia. Where it means SPIRIT HEALER.
I live by the law of mystical participation.
Shamanism is neither religion or science, it is an activity in a world that is ordinary yet spiritual. it can be viewed as healing or helping technology. The technology of the sacred as it has been called. Acts and experiences instead of a set of beliefs or customs. Edith Hunter.
https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/shamanism-and-spirit/
Turner, .Edith"Shamanism and Spirit" Expedition Magazine 46.1 (2004): n. pag. Expedition Magazine. Penn Museum, 2004 Web. 17 Feb 2023 <http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=8465>
My understanding of Trauma Recovery and Wound Healing is:
"It is truly possible."
Trauma happened in relationship, just as wounds happened in relationships.
Trauma is healed in relationship.
I have studied Trauma from person with PTSD perspective for over 30 years. This transitioned into professional training in various areas.
With training in Trauma from the theoretical perspective, along with the Soul/Spirit perspective I began training from the physiological perspective, the body. I am currently in my final year training in this area.
The trainings require me to do the work, to live the work.
Thus giving me first hand experience with the healing of many of my traumas.
I live the healing work in every moment of my life and have been blessed with the experience of how this is an asset in another's journey. The client has a knowing, that I am with them as they navigate through the journey to self healing and self power.
I walk with a person through the many traumas on all levels assisting in taking their power back.
I educate each person I work with, so they learn to trust themselves as they retrieve aspects of self that have been wounded.
I support each person's faith and assist in integrating healing that supports ones faith.
I don't do the work for the person, I am with the person as much as they allow me to be.
It's not my desire to create dependency, it's my desire to create a relationship that creates space for healing and create self connection to one's own ability to heal themselves.
From here, one may have the capacity to assist those they love in healing.
Know that what ever you feel is valid. And not wrong.
“I was wondering in your experience, what really works for trauma survivors? “
What I have experienced is a combination of Mind-intellectual understanding and connection, joined with a connection to Spirit healing energy that we all have access to.
These two aspects combined with body awareness and intelligence.
Which in my opinion is where the trauma sits.
Walking with one who has lived this and continues to walk in the work is what has worked for me.
At 22 I was diagnosed with PTSD and later the C-PTSD diagnosis. After coming to the place where all the coaching and CBT from therapy was not working. I began training in deeper aspects of trauma and ways to gain my power back.
I began training in trauma at first for my own healing.
It's evolved into being of service to others, I have been blessed with the capacity to sit with another in their darkest night and brightest days.
I have been working with people in these journeys back to their own personal power for 5 years now.
I offer judgement free witnessing.
May you have a moment of safety on your journey of seeking what will work for you.
Walking in Grace
I dove deep into grief for six years and journeyed through its wastelands and caverns. A tragedy took one of my daughters life, taking a part of me with her.
The part that thrived confidently in what I knew, confident in my ability to be raw and open. The part who had hosted gatherings and taught groups lay dead on the floor in front of me for four years. I could not see this. I was blinded by grief.
Taking the time to grieve has been the most crucial aspect of my life for most of my life. I grieved the loss of family, culture, and connection very early in life. At a very young age, I knew I wanted something different, so I would leave my family and grieve the loss that I chose. I kept leaving to find myself; each time I returned to the family, I would discover I did not fit in even more.
Grief struck and filled with confusion; I could not understand why "I could not find myself" in the family. Was it because of them or because of me that I had to leave to find myself? I am aware that as much pain I experienced in my life as a result of my family, I also caused them pain. Each time I walked away, I left them laced with rejection. I never told them that I needed to find myself. I only told them I did not need them.
As I came to the awareness, making the; "MIND, BODY & SPIRIT" connection is my greatest asset. To me, this is "Dancing in the Shadows."
Dancing in the shadows has brought rhythm to my life and removed the blinders I wore for almost 56 years.
Through Soul Retrieval, I discovered the dead aspect of myself, still there on the floor. 4 years after the death of my daughter. This aspect was barely breathing, frozen in terror and grief. The pain was so deep that it left a bleeding gaping wound. I saw this aspect of myself lying in a pool of thick warm blood, barely alive. Seeing this part of me was horrifying, so wet with grief, broken and lifeless.
Through a fellow student's great love and guidance while training under Dr. Jane Simington, life was breathed into this frozen, wet aspect of myself.
Gently the fear began to thaw, and the bleeding waned as this aspect of me sat up, still on the floor, but sitting. My horror subsided as I saw colour fill her face. I reached out, and she took my hands, joining me in life. We (both aspects of myself) knew we had to walk a thousand miles together before we would be fully one.
She (this retrieved aspect of myself) was a reluctant companion that summer. She still needs to be skilled in grieving and living; she had been lifeless and silent for four years. When we experience horrific trauma, aspects of ourselves leave - this is called soul loss. I learned that spring that being gone is genuinely being gone. This aspect of me had not grieved the loss of my daughter, and she had not found a reason to smile and laugh. She(the retrieved aspect of myself) had not held my daughters' babies or any other children since hearing of my daughter's death. She (the retrieved aspect of myself)challenged every thought and action this summer.
Together with this retrieved aspect of myself, I navigated a move to a new home with emotions that had not been experienced due to the complicated grief. Anger interrupted the settling in and made unpacking a challenge. Lased with an underlying refusal to accept anything, I continued to unpack and set up a place for my integrated self to breathe and teach.
I was gently talking to this unintegrated aspect grieving ourselves back together in a loving conversation; we danced in our shadows together. I acknowledged and honoured her fears and confusion, loving her into me and loving me home in me. It was a long, complicated and challenging journey back to me, back to teaching again.
Through Grace, I was afforded the opportunity to heal myself and dance in my shadows.
I look forward to what life offers as I Dance in My Shadows with all who, with courage, dance in theirs.
The inability to recognize the soul loss is why I was unable to teach again. Why I kept putting off all calls for teaching from those I have taught before and new ones who awaited my ability to share a way of dancing in the shadows.
Soul loss plays a role in our difficulties, fears, and unrecognized grief.
These aspects of ourselves haunt us that we have lost; they seek their home in us. They complete us and bring unacknowledged gifts that will enhance our lives in ways we are unaware of.
Soul retrieval has put the pieces of me from my childhood, from trauma and tragedy back together.
I wish this for everyone.