SOUL HEALING AND GUIDANCE – PERSONAL AND GROUP MENTORING, HEALING, TRAINING, AND PRACTICES
Historically and cross-culturally, people have sought wise leaders to help them explore their purpose and connection with the sacred. The role of a soul mentor, shaman, sage, or mystic is to help you understand your way of connecting with your soul and the sacred, whether seen or unseen. Soul mentoring will aid you in finding your unique path and the practices supporting you on the way to a more profound, genuine, and fulfilling way of being in the world.
Imagine a kaleidoscope or a Mandala created with many colors and shapes and woven into a stunning whole. As a healer and teacher in life’s spiritual, psychological, and social realms for nearly 40 years, I carry many colors of wisdom and healing practices merged into a whole. I aim to pass on what I know. Many years of living in the woods and studying with indigenous traditional healers (otherwise known as shamans) taught me powerful rituals, practices, and ceremonies.
To heal and uplift you…
- Individual or couples mentoring.
- Ceremonialist provide ceremonies and rituals for healing and significant events (baby blessings, commitment/weddings, grief and honoring, home blessings, rites of passage, dreamwork)
- leader and healer bringing in shamanic healing, guidance, and eco-psychospiritual in retreats for groups and individuals
- Supervision and consultation
What is soul/spiritual mentoring?
We are all spiritual. We are animated by the spirit of life flowing through all that exists and living in the human soul. In ancient times the earth was revered as the great generous provider of our human and spiritual needs. The spirit was recognized within all earthly and heavenly creations. The first religion was shamanism. The monotheistic religions tended to separate spirituality from embodied existence and the earth.
Moreover, generally, monotheistic religions and their social structures are more patriarchal than egalitarian or matriarchal. Many ancient spiritual traditions were earth-based and matriarchal. Some still live on as they have for thousands of years, including many of the Coast Salish first people’s traditional ways.
Spirituality and religion are not the same. Many faiths have particular and exclusive beliefs, institutions, and structures, whereas spirituality may or may not live in religious groups. I believe that the spirit of life within us is innately benevolent. I know we have access to these profound soul dimensions, including nature, destiny, purpose, relationship, and mysterious encounters.
We experience the sacred in such a vast array of ways. For some, we may share the thrill of wonder at creation in the eyes of the kitten or friend. Most of us have experienced awe and wonder, perhaps in the presence of a giant old-growth tree, the fleeting beauty of a butterfly, or even an amazing new idea. Awe and wonder may be in our midst, but we often don’t have much room for them in contemporary life. Most of us have experienced a sense of warm oneness with all things in an encounter with the sacred through a dream, beauty, love, or an entirely unexpected and perhaps strangely beautiful experience. Many people have mystical or paranormal experiences and don’t have help understanding them. Our culture has tended to separate or be suspicious of these experiences or reserve them for saints. I believe they are our birthright and essential to a whole human life.
In years of living off-grid in nature and close affiliations with Native Americans, or “first people,” as they often call themselves, my connection with an understanding of a grounded and spiritual life has given me many gifts and teachings I want to share. I offer my extensive training, healing practices, and rituals as well as knowledge of shamanism in my work. That said, I’m deeply respectful of each person’s path. We work in partnership to support the working of your destiny and soul.
There are many ways to reclaim the sacred in ourselves and our lives. Belief in a particular God or religion is not a requirement for spiritual experiences. The sacred and the care of the soul shine in everyday life stories, myths, archetypes, and ancient teachings. It is with us, within us, and not only in another world, such as heaven. Our lives can be so much richer when we reclaim the sacred in earthly existence.
IMPORTANT –please see the disclaimer and required form for services at the bottom of this page
Soul mentoring and healing may benefit…
- Those undergoing major life transitions wish for guidance through the unknowns or darkness.
- Those who want to explore their unusual, mystical, or other spiritual experience and seek better understanding from such experiences
- Those who wish to reclaim and heal their authentic selves and place in today’s world.
- Those who want to receive guidance on their changing beliefs and understandings
- Those recovering from dogmatic or authoritarian religious groups or institutions
- Those who wish to bring the sacred into everyday practices of their lives
- Those who want to deepen their sensitivities to the living world, including the unseen in the scene
- those curious about spirituality, in particular, earth-honoring spirituality
- Those who wish a route an embodied as well as transcendent spirituality
- those who want to deepen their spiritual practices
- those who are curious about sacred, earth-based spirituality and mystics
- Those seeking soul healing
EMBODIED HOLISTIC HEALING Somatic experience (SE) is a powerful intervention. It informs all of my work with you, but I do not use it solely. My approach is a unique melding of potent healing methods, such as shamanic practices, and SE is included as one of them. In my practice, SE is interwoven with approaches such as narrative, ancient wisdom traditions, guided imagery, attachment therapy, family systems, ecotherapy, existential therapy, and creative expressions. Engage your whole person —body, mind, heart, and spirit. Ancient and cutting-edge mind-body interventions are powerful medicine. You will be treated with compassion and as a unique person and met with unique interventions to serve you. Somatic experience, as used in our sessions, is not your ordinary healing. Modern life is often overwhelming; still, you can experience relief from the relentless experience of anxiety. You can experience relief from the oppressive experience of struggling in relationships, grief, and feeling thin-skinned. You can find support during a rocky time of change and recover from trauma. You can bloom and be creative. Guiding and witnessing people heal and transform is sacred. Time and your commitment to change are essential as you gain immediate coping skills and relief from long-standing underlying painful patterns. I am warm, interactive, and collaborative, but my boundaries are firmly in integrity. You can come to be more present and vital in your life. We all have inherent strengths & wisdom to draw from and build on. Transformation and healing are real.
ABOUT SOMATIC EXPERIENCING AND ANCIENT HEALING WAYS
Dr. Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute) is the father of Somatic Experiencing. He began by wondering why people seem to get physiologically and psychologically stuck with unprocessed trauma or stress and how animals naturally recover from these in the wild. From there he studied and arrived at conclusions. He has crafted powerful insights and whole-person practices that help people heal. Trauma can be anything from a car accident to a difficult arrival in the world at our birth or a recent breakup with a lover. Somatic experience reveals how our nervous system protects us. Fight and flight and freeze are survival responses we have when we are under threat. Generally, in an overstressed world with insufficient time for us to recuperate, we may not have the time and psychologically safe environment to let out bodies’ natural healing response occur. Social pressures and culture influence us more than we may know. Learning how to tap into a more way of being in the world enriches all our experiences.
Somatic Experiencing is a powerful somatic therapy, which draws on the innate wisdom of the body, and integrates this wisdom into your natural healing process. I weave Somatic Experiencing therapy, similar to some ancient healing practices such as shamanism and mysticism, into sessions with you. They add another dimension to your healing path. I will use the interventions quite a bit with some people, and with others, it will be more subtle.
You may only need a little help with re-tuning your innate embodied wisdom, while others need quite a bit of help. While expressing your heart and your story, your body also speaks about how you are coping, healing, and where you may be stuck.
Somatic Experiencing interventions go with your innate body-mind-heart wisdom and healing process. As we each have different nervous systems and experiences, the process will differ for each person – as it should be. The healing will occur at a pace that allows you to feel comfortable. In holistic healing, you emerge feeling more coherent, more awake, alive, and fully present. You become more resilient. You can reclaim your unique rhythms and response in the dance of your life.
Interestingly, Indigenous peoples and people from some other cultures who live closer to natural rhythms know, and have known for millennia, what we are re-learning through the studies and practice of Somatic Experience and Mindfulness practices. We are relearning the primal value of a slower, more present, connected, relational way of living. Science and research confirm and recognize that our natural rhythms, intuition, and ability to heal are connected to and reliant upon the integrative rhythms of nature, our attunement to our bodies, and our connections to one another. We are like an ecosystem. It is of great value to come home to our authentic sense of ourselves and re-attune our body’s wisdom and intuition as best we can in our busy lives. The aim is for our bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits to be fully engrossed in the participatory dance of our lives.
As a soul mentor, healer, and teacher, I create and hold a safe space for you to heal and do sacred work.
Retreats Have you ever longed to restore your soul in a beautiful place with healing practices for mind, body, and spirit? A retreat can allow a potent time of transformation. I guide people as individuals or in groups in nature retreats. They are rich in eco-wisdom, creativity, and the indigenous teachings and healing rituals I am allowed to pass on. People return over and over again to the retreats because they experience
an abundance of soul renewal, joy, and insight. Ceremonies, Rituals I offer guidance in and facilitation of ceremonies and rituals. The indigenous Elders I have trained with have encouraged me to share the healing gifts, shamanic practices, and wisdom I offer. It is my greatest desire to share the gifts that keep on giving. Ceremonies and rituals are healing, empowering, and transformative. Rituals and ceremonies help us to acknowledge and move through important transitions such as graduations, welcoming the return of the light at the winter solstice, vision quests, retreats, death, and birth. They may welcome an expanded identity as well. For example, in marriage or commitment ceremonies, we welcome the identity of we-ness – of being a couple. Both ceremonies and rituals touch upon the whole of our being, including our unconscious and the collective unconscious (in Jungian terms), or in other words, they touch the great mystery- the sacred. The seen and unseen workings of ceremony and ritual alter our consciousness and enact a kind of alchemy available to us all. Some are particularly aimed toward soul renewal and healing. They change lives. Rituals are actions we undertake with intentional repetition. They may be solitary endeavors or occur with others. Daily meditation or prayer is a ritual for some of us. Certain songs, like birthday songs, hymns, or chants, are ritually sung. Lighting candles as a call to bring in light and, with the light, the divine or illuminating and bringing understanding is a ritual. Ceremonies often have rituals within them, such as candle lighting, dancing, singing, and sometimes special clothes used only on sacred or special occasions, like a graduation gown or the regalia used by Native Americans at powwows and other ceremonies. Those ceremonies unite the community and reinforce belonging to one another – a community identity. Certain ceremonies are planned and enacted for healing. For example, I have led fire ceremonies for military veterans and other groups at retreats seeking to let go and cleanse an aspect of their lives of themselves. Some ceremonies are solitary such as a vision quest. Rituals and ceremonies can help us recover what has been lost and bring in fresh new life. I’m deeply grateful for the rituals, initiations, and ceremonies I have been graced with. I know the power of these undertakings. It would be an honor to prepare you or your group and to facilitate a life-changing practice, healing, or event. I offer guidance in and facilitation of ceremonies and rituals. The indigenous Elders I have trained with have encouraged me to share the healing gifts and wisdom I may offer you. It is my greatest desire to share the gifts that keep on giving. Ceremonies and rituals are healing, empowering and transformative. Rituals and ceremonies help us to clearly acknowledge and move through important transitions such as graduations, welcoming the returning of the light at the winter solstice, vison quests, retreats, death, and birth. They may welcome an expanded identity as well. For example, in marriage or commitment ceremonies we welcome in the identity of we-ness – of being a couple. Both ceremonies and rituals touch upon the whole of our being including our unconscious and the collective unconscious (in Jungian terms) or in other words they touch the great mystery- the sacred. The seen and unseen workings of ceremony and ritual alter our consciousness and enact a kind of alchemy available to us all. They change lives. Rituals are actions we undertake with intentional repetition. They may be solitary endeavors or occur with others. Daily meditation or prayer is a ritual for some of us. Certain songs are ritually sung like a birthday song, hymns or chants. The lighting of candles as a call to bring in light and with the light the divine or to illuminate and bring understanding is a ritual. Ceremonies often have rituals within them such as candle lighting, dancing, singing and sometimes special clothes used only on sacred or special occasions like a graduation gown or the regalia used by Native Americans at powwows and other ceremonies. Those ceremonies unite the community and reinforce belonging to one another – a community identity. Certain ceremonies are planned and enacted for healing. For example, I have led fire ceremonies for military veterans and other groups at retreats seeking to let go and to cleanse an aspect of their lives, of themselves. Some ceremonies are solitary such as a vision quest. Rituals and ceremonies can help us recover what has been lost and bring in fresh new life. I’m deeply grateful for the rituals, initiations, and ceremonies I have been graced with. I know the power of these undertakings. Preparing you or your group and facilitating a life-changing practice or event would be an honor.
