If you would like to learn about…
- What animism says about our four core aspects – Spirit, Soul, Self, and Body.
- How modern thinking, including much of modern spirituality, has distanced us from our bodies, and the negative impact this has had on our relationship with ourselves and with the world around us.
- How emphasising Spirit has led to an ungrounded spirituality, and come at the cost of losing connection with Soul.
- How instead, traditional animist cultures embraced being embodied, and lived with a deep connection to their bodies, their Souls, and to the Earth, honouring all as sacred.
- How the Body is, in fact, the gateway to the Soul.
- Learn how to tune into your body, using the wisdom of character analysis, developed by the founder of body-centred psychotherapy, Wilhelm Reich, to explore your primary ways of coping and being in the world.
- Discover and release the “body armour” created in early life experiences, freeing you from long-held patterns that no longer serve you.
- How to use things like Eugine Gendlin’s Focusing practice as a way of tuning into the body’s wisdom, and explore how this can enhance your shamanic practice.
- Explore how modern trauma-informed therapies, such as polyvagal theory and neuro-regulation, reveal the links between body and mind, and how their insights can be incorporated into shamanic practice.
- How to develop a personal shamanic practice that is somatic, grounded, and deeply embodied.
Then this course is for you!
Start date: February 2025
£300.00 for the course
Or just £330 bundled with 12 live sessions
The Live Shamanic Journeying Sessions are now open to all students with an account, not just those in the Embodied Shamanism course, so they are sold separately. You can either buy just the course for £300, or add 12 Live Sessions for just £30 more (a saving of £30 off the Live Sessions price if bought separately). Details of the Live Sessions are here.
Closed
IN THIS COURSE
Body is not just a vessel
In the last few thousand years, we largely turned away from shamanism and animism and adopted hierarchical, Fallen, Taker-culture, ‘spiritual’ beliefs instead. In doing this, it became common to think of the body as just a ‘vessel’; something we just inhabit but which is not really ‘us’; something that is not spiritual but ‘lower’, and which is to mastered, tamed and ‘transcended’. In original, pre-Fallen animism though, everything is sacred. Everything is alive and full of wisdom. And so, there is no hierarchy between any of our four fundamental ‘parts-of-self’:
1. Spirit. Our Upper-World aspect.
2. Soul. Our Lower-World aspect.
3. Self. Our middle-world identity.
4. Body. Also of the middle-world, but with a strong connection to Soul.
In reading descriptions of pre-Fallen hunter-gatherer people, one thing that is striking is how much those original animist people are described as being grounded and centred in their bodies; how comfortable they were in their own skins. Far from viewing their bodies as just a vehicle, a ‘meat sack’ they inhabited, original animists revered their bodies, They understood that the body is sacred and full of its own profound intelligence and wisdom. They listened closely to their bodies and trusted its deep wisdom and guidance. In particular, they understood that the body is deeply connected to Soul and to the Lower-World, and to Mother Earth herself.
Which begs questions. Why did we begin to look down on our bodies and become so detached and alienated from them? And how can we learn to reconnect to our bodies and the deep wisdom and intelligence our bodies offer?
This course will answer these (and many other!) questions.
OUR BODY CAN LEAD US TO OUR SOUL
Carl Rogers, the founder of counselling, was once asked, in all the thousands of people he had counselled, what the commonest issue was. He replied was that, deep down, almost everyone thinks there is something wrong with them; that other people wouldn’t like them if they knew who they ‘really’ are. In this culture, we often live with a deep sense of not really fitting in and so that there ‘must be’ something wrong with us. To cope with this, we hide our true nature and try to ‘fit in’. To do this, our heads (and even our hearts) make all sorts of stuff up. We ignore warning signs in relationships because we fear rejection. We tell ourselves that someone loves us really, despite evidence to the contrary. We tell ourselves that in order to be loved, or even just tolerated, we must hide away parts of ourselves, and so on. In doing so, we sell ourselves out, often without even realising the extent to which we are doing this.
Modern-day spirituality can often reinforce this. It tells us that we are born in ‘sin’. That we need to ‘repent’. That we are not okay as we innately are, but need to ‘transform’ or ‘transcend’. That certain feelings and emotions we have are not ‘acceptable’ or ‘spiritual’. That the body is not to be trusted; that it is ‘lesser’. That our own inner nature is not to be trusted, but instead we must hand over our authority, and our ‘salvation’ to priests or gurus, and to external commands.
All this is profoundly un-animist. As Mary Oliver says in her wonderful animist poem, Wild Geese:
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.”
Our animist ancestors understood that, in order to find our innate goodness and truly love and accept ourselves, we need to connect not just with Spirit and spirituality but also with our Soul. Because Spirit and Soul are both sacred. Soul contains our core values, our core abilities, and our core wisdom. The poet David Whyte writes that Soul is “your own truth at the centre of the image you were born with”, and the “the one life you can call your own”. And more than that too, our Soul is an interconnected being. It is part of nature, not apart from it. Part of a greater whole. Part of the Lower-World, and the web of life. It is the wellspring of our interconnectedness, and our rightful place both of and in the world.
These days, our Soul often lies buried, sometimes deeply, beneath the stories, roles and scripts we have adopted in order to try and ‘fit in’. In order to find our Soul, we have no greater ally or guide than our Body. Body craves connection with Soul. If we learn to listen to our Body (as we will explore in this course), it can lead us to our core, the ‘Centre Of Right Energy’ at the heart of our true nature.
BODY-CENTRED HEALING
To reconnect with our bodies, we will primarily draw from two areas of knowledge: shamanism, and body-centred psychotherapy, and explore the links between them, and what each can learn from the other.
Core shamanism and original animism will allow us to identify and explore the wonky thinking that has led to our alienation from, not just the Lower-World, Soul and nature, but from our own bodies. We will explore what a healthy animist relationship with the body is instead, and how we can cultivate this, become more embodied, and learn to follow the deep, sacred and spiritual truths the body offers.
Body-centred and somatic psychotherapy will enable us to explore how the body always knows the truth. How it cannot be lied to. How it holds the memories of what has happened to us and how we reacted and ‘coped’; the meanings we took and strategies we unconsciously adopted, all of which are still affecting us but no longer serving us. We will look at how to ‘read’ the body’s stored history, and discover that, if we learn to listen to it, the body knows how to heal us. To do this, we will look at the work of Wilhelm Reich and draw on other aspects of body-centred and somatic psychotherapies. This will include Eugine Gendlin’s Focusing, and the many insights that have emerged over the last decade or so in our understanding of the links between trauma and the body, including poly-vagal work, neuro-regulating and neuro-masking, and more. And we will, of course, then explore these in the context of shamanic practices.
As always with our courses, there will be a mixture of theory and plenty of practical exercises, including specific shamanic journeys and other practices to bring the theory to life and help you explore and experience for yourself.
Reichian character analysis: WORKING WITH THE BODY ARMOUR
In particular, we will look at the work of Wilhelm Reich. A student of Sigmund Freud, Reich was one of the original founders of psychoanalysis. Early on, he became disillusioned with just ‘talking therapy’ though. Reich began to notice the links between our psychological issues, and the way this gets held in our bodies. In doing so, he went on to found body-centred psychotherapy. On this course, we explore a particular aspect of Reich’s rich and complex work, known as ‘character analysis’.
Reich understood that in childhood we go through various developmental stages. In going through these, if our needs are not met in a healthy way, we develop strategies to ‘cope’. These strategies involve inhibiting certain feelings and emotions. To do this, we (unconsciously) tense up certain muscles and areas of the body. The result is what Reich called ‘body armour’; a distinct pattern of tensions we unconsciously hold in our bodies. The original aim of this armouring was to protect us. However, we become stuck in it. It becomes habitual. So much so that, Reich discovered, by the age of around seven, we have unconsciously settled on our particular form of armouring as our primary strategy. It becomes, unconsciously, the primary way we approach, perceive, and react to, the world around us, and will remain so till our death. Unless, that is, we learn to listen to the body and learn how to release the armouring. In doing that, we find that the body holds the key to our health, and not just to our physical health, but to our mental, emotional and spiritual health too.
I have been deeply involved in the psychotherapy world for around forty-five years now. In that time, in all the helpful things I have come across, discovering Reichman character analysis stands out as one of the greatest and most useful by far. It is an incredibly useful tool for understanding yourself, but also for making sense of others too. Understanding it is not just a ‘light-bulb’ moment, a moment of insight, but light-bulb after light-bulb after light-bulb, as you start to realise just how much sense it can make of things.
... AND MUCH, MUch MORE!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do I need a background in psychotherapy to do this course?
Not at all! People usually find the material in this course hugely eye-opening and useful even if they have no prior experience in therapy. You really don’t need any prior therapy experience, just an openness and curiosity about the inner lives of yourself and others.
I already have a background in psychotherapy. Will this course be useful to me?
Yes! Most psychotherapists I have taught this work to find it incredibly useful, and not just in terms of their work with clients, but in so many other aspects of their life too.
Do I need a background in shamanism to do this course?
Yes, and not only in shamanism, but specifically in Therapeutic Shamanism. To do this course, you must have done our First-Steps course, and at least one Next-Steps or Further-Steps course with us (please note, there really are no exceptions to this).
I have already done the Inner Tribe course. Will this new course be covering the same material?
The vast majority of the material on the Embodied Shamanism course is unique to this course. If you have done the Inner Tribe course though, you will find the two courses dovetail together and can greatly add to each other. If you haven’t done the Inner Tribe course though, that is absolutely fine too! You really don’t need to have done the Inner Tribe course before doing the Embodied Shamanism one.
Mental health!
As you will be aware, with all our courses we stress that, whilst shamanic healing can be of great benefit with mental health issues, to be done safely it does require a reasonable degree of mental robustness and emotional resilience too. As such, like meditation and other similar practices, it can be contra-indicated in mental health issues such as psychosis, mania, severe depression, or dissociative disorders. In addition, this particular course involves exploring deep mental and emotional issues. People will be able to work at the depth that feels comfortable to them, and at a pace that suits them. However, if you have any mental health issues, current or historical, which you feel may impact on your ability to do this work safely, then please discuss this with us prior to booking on the course (any such discussions will, of course, be treated confidentially).
practical DETAILS
Fees, PAYMENT IN INSTALMENTS & UNLIMITED ACCESS
We are committed to keeping our courses as low cost and accessible as possible. On average, our courses are at least half the price of any comparable course, and often much cheaper still. The cost of this course is £300, or £330 if you book the course and the twelve live sessions.
Also, remember that (depending on what country you are from), through our website, PayPal offers the option of spreading the payment over three, monthly instalments. There is no fee at all for this, nor any interest incurred.
Please note, once the course starts, bookings will close. It will then be probably at least three years, and probably longer, before we offer it again. Remember though, once you have signed up for the course, you have access to it ‘for life’ and so do the course in your own time and pace. So, even if you don’t want to commit to doing it the course in February to June 2025, if you are interested in the course then seize this opportunity to book, and then you can do the course at a time that suits you.
The course starts on Saturday 1st February 2025 and consists of:
• 12 pre-recorded theory modules. Each module contains a video presentation of between 1 and 3 hours in length, with accompanying learning resources. They will be released at weekly intervals, in two blocks of six, with a seven-week break in the middle to allow people to catch up and process if needed. The dates are Feb 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and March 1st and 8th. Then a seven-week break before the next modules on May 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st and June 7th.
• As usual, a website forum and an (optional) Signal group, where students can ask questions, discuss topics, share experiences and additional resources, and get support, encouragement, and a sense of community.
• Bonus recordings if and when needed.
In addition, there is the option of adding:
• 12 live shamanic journeying sessions. On each of the 12 dates above, there will also be a Live Shamanic Journeying session. These are optional, so you can buy the course without these (for £300), or add all 12 live sessions for just £30 more (a saving of 50% on the usual Live Sessions price). Whilst the Live Sessions are optional, people who attend them usually find them of great benefit. The Live Sessions start at 2pm UK time and are two hours long. Recordings of these will only be available to those who have signed up for them. Click here for more details of our Live Shamanic Journeying sessions.
THE CURRICULUM
(MIGHT BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Part 1: SOUL LOSS & SOUL RETRIEVAL
We’ll start with soul loss and shamanic soul retrieval. In our culture, the word “soul” is often used imprecisely, meaning different things to different people. In original animist and hunter-gatherer cultures, there were specific words to describe different aspects of the soul.
Our first task is to clarify what we mean by soul retrieval and differentiate it from other concepts like power loss, which can appear similar but have distinct causes and remedies. We’ll also examine shamanism as a parts-of-self model, recognizing that we consist of various aspects. We’ll discuss the differences between the middle world soul (small ‘s’ soul), the lower world soul (capital ‘S’ Soul), and the upper world spirit. Additionally, we’ll clarify the distinction between spirit and the aware self or witness, which are often conflated. Understanding these distinctions will help us determine when soul loss is relevant and how to address it.
We’ll explore traditional soul retrieval techniques from indigenous practices and consider complications that may arise, such as intrusions, possessions, entanglements, and ancestral or family burdens. We’ll also address modern challenges in soul retrieval, particularly when parts are resistant to returning. This issue, common in contemporary times but less so in indigenous cultures, requires insights from modern psychotherapy, specifically parts-of-self models.
Part 2: PARTS-OF-SELF MODELS
Shamanism is the original parts-of-self model in terms of recognizing there are different parts of us – our Middle-World self, Lower-World soul or Upper-World spirit, a body and so on.
There are in psychotherapy many other parts-of-self models as well that are incredibly useful. So we’ll explore some of these models, focusing particularly on Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, which is currently one of the most popular ones. While we’ll look at the IFS in a fair bit of detail, we’ll also compare and contrast it with other psychotherapeutic models. This comparative analysis will demonstrate how these models contribute to and enrich the shamanic understanding of the self.
Often, it’s not enough to perform a soul retrieval alone. If there’s a part that opposes the return of the lost soul fragment, integration becomes incredibly tricky, if not impossible. Therefore, understanding our inner system of parts is crucial for dealing with any opposing elements.
Part 3: SELF-COMPASSION PRACTICES
When performing soul retrieval, we may encounter resistance from other parts of ourselves. In psychotherapy, the idea that “there are no bad parts” is crucial—every part must be welcomed back. This requires us to practice self-compassion and loving-kindness toward all parts of ourselves.
Self-compassion often needs to be learned, especially in a culture where many people have strong inner critics. For soul retrieval to be effective and lasting, it’s not just about bringing the soul part back or integrating it through dialogue. It involves learning and practicing self-compassion. There is a wealth of knowledge on self-compassion practices from psychotherapy and meditation, and we will explore these practices from a shamanic perspective, focusing on shamanic self-compassion practices.
Part 4: EMBODIMENT PRACTICES
Finally, we will delve into embodiment and grounding practices. Being whole, having inner parts in harmony, and being properly present and embodied are interconnected. The body plays a vital role in integrating parts-of self.
The field of embodiment and shamanism is vast and fascinating. This course will serve as an introduction, with two follow-up courses planned for next year: one specifically about shamanism and the body, and another on the work of Wilhelm Reich, the founder of Body-centered Psychotherapy, and what shamanism can contribute to his understanding of the body.
SOUL LOSS & SOUL RETRIEVAL
We’ll start with soul loss and shamanic soul retrieval. In our culture, the word “soul” is often used imprecisely, meaning different things to different people. In original animist and hunter-gatherer cultures, there were specific words to describe different aspects of the soul.
Our first task is to clarify what we mean by soul retrieval and differentiate it from other concepts like power loss, which can appear similar but have distinct causes and remedies. We’ll also examine shamanism as a parts-of-self model, recognizing that we consist of various aspects. We’ll discuss the differences between the middle world soul (small ‘s’ soul), the lower world soul (capital ‘S’ Soul), and the upper world spirit. Additionally, we’ll clarify the distinction between spirit and the aware self or witness, which are often conflated. Understanding these distinctions will help us determine when soul loss is relevant and how to address it.
We’ll explore traditional soul retrieval techniques from indigenous practices and consider complications that may arise, such as intrusions, possessions, entanglements, and ancestral or family burdens. We’ll also address modern challenges in soul retrieval, particularly when parts are resistant to returning. This issue, common in contemporary times but less so in indigenous cultures, requires insights from modern psychotherapy, specifically parts-of-self models.
PARTS-OF-SELF MODELS
Shamanism is the original parts-of-self model in terms of recognizing there are different parts of us – our Middle-World self, Lower-World soul or Upper-World spirit, a body and so on.
There are in psychotherapy many other parts-of-self models as well that are incredibly useful. So we’ll explore some of these models, focusing particularly on Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, which is currently one of the most popular ones. While we’ll look at the IFS in a fair bit of detail, we’ll also compare and contrast it with other psychotherapeutic models. This comparative analysis will demonstrate how these models contribute to and enrich the shamanic understanding of the self.
Often, it’s not enough to perform a soul retrieval alone. If there’s a part that opposes the return of the lost soul fragment, integration becomes incredibly tricky, if not impossible. Therefore, understanding our inner system of parts is crucial for dealing with any opposing elements.
SELF-COMPASSION PRACTICES
When performing soul retrieval, we may encounter resistance from other parts of ourselves. In psychotherapy, the idea that “there are no bad parts” is crucial—every part must be welcomed back. This requires us to practice self-compassion and loving-kindness toward all parts of ourselves.
Self-compassion often needs to be learned, especially in a culture where many people have strong inner critics. For soul retrieval to be effective and lasting, it’s not just about bringing the soul part back or integrating it through dialogue. It involves learning and practicing self-compassion. There is a wealth of knowledge on self-compassion practices from psychotherapy and meditation, and we will explore these practices from a shamanic perspective, focusing on shamanic self-compassion practices.
EMBODIMENT PRACTICES
Finally, we will delve into embodiment and grounding practices. Being whole, having inner parts in harmony, and being properly present and embodied are interconnected. The body plays a vital role in integrating parts-of self.
The field of embodiment and shamanism is vast and fascinating. This course will serve as an introduction, with two follow-up courses planned for next year: one specifically about shamanism and the body, and another on the work of Wilhelm Reich, the founder of Body-centered Psychotherapy, and what shamanism can contribute to his understanding of the body.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
LIVE & PRE-RECORDED ONLINE TRAINING
- Zoom Online Sessions With Founder of Therapeutic Shamanism, Paul Francis.
- Live Shamanic Journeying.
- Study in the Comfort of Your Own Home.
SUPPORT BETWEEN SESSIONS
- Detailed Course Notes.
- Video Recording of Every Class.
- Submit Your Questions for the Next Session and Discuss with Peers.
- Learn at Your Own Pace.
YOUR SHAMANIC TRIBE AND COMMUNITY
- Meet Like-Minded People.
- Connect Between Sessions on Website Forum and (optional Signal group).
- Deepen the Connection in Break-Out Rooms During Live Sessions.
WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY?
ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS
JOIN US!
To attend the ‘Embodied Shamanism’ course, you need to have completed our First Steps course, and at least one other, Next-Steps or Further-Steps, course with us (please note, there really are no exceptions to this).
The closing date for enrolment is February 1st. The course is highly unlikely to be repeated until 2028 at the earliest, so please do take this opportunity to book (remember, once booked, you can always work through the recordings at your own pace, and with no time limits).
Payment by instalments. We are committed to keeping our courses as affordable as we can, and this course is way cheaper than almost any comparable one. However, please remember that (depending on what country you are from) PayPal offers the option of spreading the payment over 3 monthly instalments. There is no fee at all for this, nor any interest incurred.
£300.00 for the course
Or just £330 bundled with 12 live sessions