Hello!
I’m thrilled to witness the growing excitement around the upcoming Embodied Shamanism Course – big thanks to all who have already joined. I wanted to take a moment to address some of the common questions we’ve been receiving. Hopefully, this will give you a clearer picture of what to expect.
To jump right to a specific question, simply click on it:
This course is all about the body – its place in animism and shamanism, its wisdom, and its role in healing. We’ll be weaving together shamanic and animist perspectives with insights from body-centred psychotherapy, drawing on powerful techniques, practices, and theory.
At the heart of this work is Wilhelm Reich. Once a student of Freud, Reich soon broke away, frustrated by how psychoanalysis kept people stuck in their heads. He turned his focus to the body, becoming the founder of body-centred psychotherapy. A century on, his work has evolved, deepened, and uncovered profound ways to release what’s held in the body. In this course, we’ll explore these developments and how shamanism and animism take them even further.
THE CURRICULUM
(MIGHT BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
BODY IN ANIMISM & THE ROLE OF BODY-CENTRED PSYCHOTHERAPY
Module 1 will look into the body’s place in animism and an introduction to Wilhelm Reich’s work and body-centred psychotherapy practices.
Once a student of Freud, Reich soon broke away, frustrated by how psychoanalysis kept people stuck in their heads. He turned his focus to the body, becoming the founder of body-centred psychotherapy. A century on, his work has evolved, deepened, and uncovered profound ways to release what’s held in the body. In this course, we’ll explore these developments and how shamanism and animism take them even further.
The role of the Body
In the modern era, we have become very disconnected from our bodies. We live up in our heads and often neglecting our bodies. Or, if we do pay attention to our bodies, it is usually to try to master them in some way. This includes much of contemporary spirituality, which often sees the body as lesser, lower, just a vehicle, or something that needs to be controlled or disciplined. This perspective is profoundly different from animist teachings about the body.
Animism and the Body
Animists knew that the body never lies and knows the truth. They knew how to be grounded and centred in their bodies; how to be comfortable 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.
This is entirely different from our heads – the part of us that, these days, we live in most of the time. Our head is constantly making things up, telling stories, rationalising, explaining, and justifying. It is not necessarily concerned with the truth. Instead, more important to it is to feel like it understands why someone did something or why they were treated a certain way. So with our heads we create stories to explain our own actions, justify ourselves, and make sense of the world. We get caught up in these invented stories, and believe them to be true.
The body, however, is incapable of making up stories. It is always authentic and is always trying to tell us the truth. The problem is that, just as we have stopped listening to the other-than-human world – the Animal, Plants and Stone People – we have also stopped listening to our own bodies.
When we are not listening to our bodies, because our head is in charge, a gap opens between what we think the truth is – who we think we are – and what the truth actually is and who we really are.
Body-centred psychotherapy
The truth that the body holds has to be suppressed if we are to tell ourselves something different in our heads. Wilhelm Reich called this suppression “body armouring.” Body armouring is how emotions, stories, and unresolved issues become locked in the body. If you have taken previous courses, you may have heard me talk about body armouring before. But in this course, we will explore its mechanisms in much greater depth so that we can uncover the truth, wisdom, and authenticity that the body holds for us.
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Wilhelm Reich proposed that our early life experiences set the foundation for emotional and behavioural patterns that persist throughout our lives. These patterns, which develop in response to our relationships and environment, influence how we interact with the world and cope with stress. Reich’s theory also shows how unresolved emotional struggles can have lasting effects on both our minds and bodies.
Each stage of early development comes with its own emotional challenges. If these challenges aren’t handled well, they can lead to fixed emotional and behavioral patterns. As these emotional and physical patterns remain unresolved, they become fixed and solidify into what Reich called “character types.” These fixed patterns, formed from unresolved trauma, continue to influence how we perceive and respond to life, often dictating our relationships and behavior. Over time, these patterns manifest as eight distinct character types, each with its own way of navigating the world.
CHARACTER TYPES
We’ll take one character type per module and go through it in detail, including practices for working with that particular character type. We’ll draw on many practices, including technique called focusing, which is a way of accessing deep information from the body. I’ve covered this on other courses, but we’ll use it in much more depth here. We’ll also draw on other practices, such as physical self-massage to release areas of the body, and of course, shamanic journeying and other shamanic practices to help heal the wounding and resolve any trauma tied to particular character patterns.
Boundaried (Shitzoid) Type

- From conception to 6 months.
- Body type: small or tall, thin, angular, and disjointed.
- Key issue is not feeling safe to be here; not feeling welcomed, so never properly arrive on the earth. Feels they don’t belong. Unwanted. Chameleons (nothing feels real, so everything is an act/mask). Feels ‘weird’ and things feel ‘weird’. Difficulty with grounding and making contact.
- Examples: David Bowie, Lee Evans, Luna Lovegood, Vincent Van Gough.
Oral (Oral) Type

- 6 months to 2 years.
- Body type: thin, collapsed chest, s-shaped, child-like eyes.
- Key issue is feeling underfed, unsupported, and starved of love and nurture. Vulnerable. Longing, neediness, dependency. Nothing ever is enough.
- Examples: Kate Moss – waif-like models with cigarettes and big eyes.
Compensated Oral Type

- Has the same issues as Oral, but has responded by denying their neediness.
- Body type is wiry and athletic.
- Examples: marathon or fell runners and other lone endurance sports-types – proving to themselves that they can survive on their own.
Controlling (Psychopathic) Type

- 2 years to 4 years.
- Body type: either suave and charming or powerful and dominating.
- Key issue is it is not safe to be vulnerable; it is essential to be in control and to be top dog.
Dominating through charm, persuasion, manipulation and/or bullying. Charismatic. Confident. Narcissistic. Leaders. - Examples: Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, Bill Clinton, John Prescott, Mussolini – most politicians!
Holding (Masochistic) Type

- 2 years to 4 years.
- Body type: overweight, burdened, rounded shoulders; can look a bit ‘put-on’.
- Key issue is it is not safe to be assertive. Must behave oneself and do as one is told. Good boy/girl. Duty and responsibility. Enduring. Long-suffering. Low self-esteem and confidence. Must not assert oneself or be fiery. Beast of burden. Self-sabotage. May hide behind being ‘jolly’.
- Examples: Dawn French, Timothy Spall, Nick Frost.
Thrusting (Phallic) Type

- 4 years to 7 years.
- Body type: rigid, athletic, upright; because of cultural gender norms, tend to be male.
- Key issue is they feel they are only worth what they achieve. Love is given to them for success and being good at things. It is not safe to collapse and underachieve. Stiff upper lip. Captain of cricket and then of industry. Officers. Pushers and perfectionists.
- Examples: Richard Branson, David Beckham, public schoolboys, armed forces officers – the people who ‘built’ the British empire.
Crisis (Hysteric) Type

- 4 years to 7 years.
- Body type: overtly sexual, exaggerates sexual characteristics; because of cultural gender norms, tend to be female.
- Key issue is they get attention and self-esteem from being sexual and attention-seeking, but feel conflicted about this. Sexualises most interactions. Needs to be the centre of attention. Drama queen. Goes from crisis to crisis. Dramatic. Exciting. Melodramatic.
- Examples: most hyper-sexualised female pop-stars, ‘babe’ culture.
Denying Crisis Type

- Same issues as crisis type but more conflicted about the attention, so is cooler and unobtainable. Aloof. ‘You can look but you cannot touch’. The Ice Queen.
- Examples: Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, Isabella Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman.
SEGMENTS OF THE BODY ARMOUR
Body armour tends to build around seven key segments of the body. Each segment relates to specific emotional patterns and unresolved trauma from early development, contributing to the build-up of body armour that restricts emotional and energetic flow.
- Ocular Segment: This area includes the eyes, forehead, cheeks, and scalp. Emotional expressions such as suspicion, anger, and grief are often stored here, stemming from difficulties in trusting or seeing the world clearly.
- Oral Segment: This includes the mouth, jaw, and chin. Tension in this segment is connected to feelings of desire, fear, pain, or struggles with communication and self-expression.
- Cervical Segment: Involving the neck and tongue, this segment is associated with emotional patterns like self-pity, helplessness, fear, and a block in self-expression or creativity.
- Thoracic Segment: This includes the chest, arms, and shoulders. Emotional blockages here often relate to love, grief, rage, and fear, affecting one’s ability to express heartfelt emotions.
- Diaphragmatic Segment: The diaphragm and stomach are central to this segment, which holds tension related to the experience of pleasure, pain, and emotional release. Blockages in this area hinder the flow of emotional expression.
- Abdominal Segment: This includes the muscles around the abdomen, spine, and pelvis. Emotional patterns stored here are linked to trust, fear, and nourishment, often reflecting one’s sense of safety and grounding.
- Pelvic Segment: The pelvic area, including the genitals and surrounding muscles, holds emotional tension associated with sexual feelings, anger, rage, and fear, as well as struggles with personal power and pleasure.
For more insight into what we’ll be covering, check out our latest blog, Shamanism & the Wisdom of the Body.
What makes this course so special?
I’m really excited to be offering this course again. Now, if you’ve been around the college for a while, you’ve probably heard me say that before – I only run courses I enjoy teaching. However, I am particularly excited to be offering this course, partly because:
- It’s a course I don’t get to teach very often – the last time was back in 2017 – so I’m really looking forward to returning to it.
- More than that, though, the material itself is unique. You won’t find it anywhere else.
- And it’s something that has been hugely important to me, both personally and professionally.
Personal experience:
Reich’s work is something I hold very dear. My own journey with it began in my early twenties when I first got into psychotherapy. Back then, I was very much in my head, disconnected from my body, so I chose to work with a Reichian therapist. He was incredibly body-centred – so much so that for the first year or two, we barely spoke. Instead, we worked directly with what was happening in my body, with the emotions and sensations as they arose. And that was life-changing.
One day, he broke his usual silence and mentioned something called Reichian Character Analysis. He explained a bit about it and told me which character type he thought described me. That session wasn’t just a lightbulb moment – it was one after another, stretching on for months, even years. Reich’s work became the foundation of my understanding of myself and others, shaping my professional work and teaching in ways that are hard to overstate. It’s impossible for me to imagine going through life without that framework.
So why haven’t I taught this course since 2017?
Not because it isn’t useful – it’s one of the most valuable courses I run – but because other things took priority. I was writing books, then COVID hit, and we had to focus on getting our core shamanic courses up and running online. The more psychotherapy-oriented courses were put on hold for a while. But now, I’m finally able to bring them back. Last year, we ran the Inner Tribe course, exploring how shamanism and parts-of-self work fit together. This time, we’re looking at the body – how body psychotherapy and shamanism weave together. And I couldn’t be more excited to teach it again.
Who is this course for?
This course is for anyone who works with people – whether you’re a therapist (psychotherapist, counsellor, bodyworker, reiki practitioner, chiropractor, etc.), coach, teacher, or social worker – you’ll find this absolutely invaluable. If you’re not a therapist, but you want to understand yourself better, raise your self-awareness, resolve emotional wounds or trauma, and resolve behaviour patterns, this course is perfect for you. I can’t even begin to describe how incredibly useful it is.
I hope I’m getting across just how insightful and practical this work is. Also, if you want to deepen your shamanic practice and live in a more embodied, authentic, and animist way, you’ll find this course invaluable.
Live Sessions
A practical note: the live sessions are offered, but they’re absolutely not compulsory. If you can’t make the live sessions, feel free to sign up for the course anyway. About half of our students attend live sessions, while the other half don’t. If you can’t attend, please don’t be put off.
Just to clarify, starting from 2025, the live sessions will run alongside the Embodied Shamanism course but will be open to anyone doing any course. So, if you’ve taken a First Steps course with us and want to attend the live sessions, you’re absolutely welcome. These live sessions aren’t teaching sessions. They allow time for questions and answers regarding how to do shamanic journeys. They are shamanic journeying group sessions, although you don’t have to attend them.
The feedback we get is overwhelmingly positive – people who do attend find them incredibly useful, helping with motivation, learning from others’ journeys, and clarifying things. So, if you can attend, please do consider it. You can sign up for Embodied Shamanism without the live sessions for a slightly lower fee, or you can add them in as well.
Miss the deadline, miss the course!
I have been getting a stream of emails from people saying they want to do the Embodied Shamanism course, but who don’t want to sign up for it now. The expectation seems to be that we will still let them sign up for it at some point, even when the booking window has closed, so I want to clarify our position on this and explain the reasoning behind it.
This is not an open-ended registration course!
Some of the confusion may have come about because we have begun to offer some courses with open-ended registration (the new self-directed courses). To be clear, these are only Next-Steps courses (and as yet, only some of those). The reason we have set these up is so that students who finish a First-Steps, and who are keen to keep exploring, have something to go straight onto. Our other courses still have limited booking windows, though. The reason for this is that, without a booking deadline, if people think they can book a course whenever they want, what happens is that the number of bookings plummets. The reality is that, without deadlines to encourage people to book, the college would go out of business pretty quickly.
So, if you are interested in the Embodied Shamanism course, you need to book before the deadline closes in February. Otherwise, you will be waiting a long time before the course is open to bookings again (as the course will go back to the bottom of the pile again regarding which courses we offer, and it will likely be several years before we can repeat it). Remember, you can pay for the course in 3 monthly instalments (if you aren’t offered this by PayPal when you book, contact me, and I can set this up for you manually). Plus, even if you don’t feel ready to do the course at the moment, if you book on it, you have access to it indefinitely, so you can always do it in your own time and at your own pace.
Ongoing access and free course repeats
Ongoing access to the course
When you sign up for the courses, you have access to the recordings and the other teacher materials for life – life, of course, meaning for the life of the college. So as long as there’s a college running, and as long as the internet exists, you’ll have access to the recordings. So you can take as long as you want to work your way through a course, and you can come back to it and revise any bits of it as often as you want. It’s sort of like buying a book – once you bought the materials, you know, they’re yours and for as long as you want.
Transcripts are available!
For those whose first language isn’t English and have concerns about understanding, transcripts are available. Vimeo automatically generates transcripts for our hosted videos, and Zoom provides transcripts for live sessions, though they’re AI-generated and may not be perfect. Nevertheless, they offer sufficient assistance for comprehension.
Payment in three instalments
In terms of payment, we utilise PayPal, and you may be aware that PayPal offers a “Pay Later” option. When you book for the course, you will likely see a PayPal “Pay Later” option, allowing you to spread the payments in three interest-free instalments of £100 each. However, occasionally you may not see this button, as the option is not available in all countries worldwide, and for reasons that appear somewhat arbitrary, PayPal may not offer it to certain individuals. If you wish to pay in instalments but cannot find the “Pay Later” button, please contact me, and I will arrange to send you three monthly invoices instead, enabling you to pay in instalments that way.
I hope to see you on the course!
The Embodied Shamanism course starts on February 1st, 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.
Blessings,
Paul Francis