Therapeutic Shamanism
Shamanism and psychotherapy, working together
Questions about Therapeutic Shamanism: the self and its parts, why we get ill, the healing work, how shamanism and psychotherapy meet, growing up, and the Wheel of Life.
Begin here
Two of the first questions to read live in the Orientation topic on the Shamanism page: What is Therapeutic Shamanism? and How is Therapeutic Shamanism different from traditional and Core Shamanism?
The Four Realms, the Five Elements and the Wheel of Life
What do Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether represent?
Also answers four more questions
How are the Four Realms and Five Elements related?
Also answers two more questions
The self and its parts
What are the different parts of the self in Therapeutic Shamanism?
Also answers seven more questions
What is the inner tribe?
Also answers one more question
What are Soul, Spirit, the middle-world self and the body?
Also answers eight more questions
- What is the middle-world self?
- What is the role of the body in parts-of-self work?
- Why does Soul need a healthy middle-world self?
- What is the relationship between Soul and the body?
- What is the relationship between Soul and the middle-world self?
- Why is Spirit not enough?
- What is the role of the body?
- What is an Upper-World self?
What is the difference between Soul and a soul part?
Also answers 22 more questions
- What is the difference between an Orphan part and a lost soul part?
- What are qualities, parts and strategies?
- What is the difference between Soul and Spirit?
- What is the difference between Soul with a capital S and soul with a small s?
- Is soul retrieval the same as finding Lower-World Soul?
- What is Deep Soul?
- Why is Lower-World Soul connected with nature?
- What is the Human Oversoul?
- Is Soul the same as personality?
- Can my Lower-World Soul appear spontaneously?
- How is Soul connected with right relationship?
- What is the relationship between Soul and Power-loss?
- What is the relationship between Soul and soul parts?
- Does finding Soul mean escaping modern life?
- Can modern society make it difficult to live from Soul?
- Is finding Soul the same as finding my purpose?
- Is finding Soul a one-off event?
- What is the purpose of Soul work?
- What is the difference between Spirit and Soul?
- Why is Soul not enough?
- What is a Lower-World Soul self?
- How do Spirit and Soul shape the middle-world self?
What is the Adult and what does healthy inner leadership look like?
Also answers three more questions
What is the Inner Critic and what other inner roles do we develop?
Also answers three more questions
Why do parts get stuck and what happens when the wrong part is in charge?
Also answers two more questions
How do we map, hold council with and work with the inner tribe?
Also answers three more questions
How do Guides, journeying and grounding support parts-of-self work?
Also answers six more questions
Why we get ill
What is Power-loss?
Also answers twelve more questions
- What causes Power-loss?
- What are the symptoms of Power-loss?
- What does Power-loss have to do with modern civilisation?
- What does Power-loss have to do with the body?
- What does Power-loss have to do with the Adult?
- How does Power-loss show up in parts-of-self work?
- What does Power-loss have to do with the other-than-human?
- Is Power-loss always obvious?
- What is the relationship between Power-loss and the Mother wound?
- What is the difference between a part of self and an intrusion or entity?
- What are introjects?
- Is illness always caused by emotional or spiritual issues?
How do body shock, armouring and childhood wounds contribute to dis-ease?
Also answers one more question
The healing work
What is shamanic healing?
Also answers twelve more questions
- Why does shamanic healing need both energetic healing and unpacking?
- Is shamanic healing the same as receiving guidance?
- What kinds of problems can shamanic healing work with?
- What is shamanic healing for intrusions?
- What are ancestral burdens in shamanic healing?
- How does shamanic healing work with parts of self?
- Can shamanic healing help with physical illness?
- Can shamanic healing help with emotional wounds?
- How is shamanic healing different from Reiki or energy healing?
- How is shamanic healing different from traditional shamanic healing?
- Can I ask for healing around a relationship?
- What should happen after a shamanic healing?
How is Power-loss healed and what is Power-retrieval?
Also answers eleven more questions
- What is Power-retrieval?
- Why is Power Animal so important in healing Power-loss?
- Can psychotherapy heal Power-loss?
- What role do Animal, Plant and Stone People play in healing Power-loss?
- Can someone live in a city and still heal Power-loss?
- How do we begin healing Power-loss?
- Does healing Power-loss mean becoming more powerful over others?
- Can Power-loss make us vulnerable to intrusions or unhealthy entanglements?
- What is the purpose of healing Power-loss?
- Is soul retrieval the same as Power-retrieval?
- What is Power-retrieval in shamanic healing?
What is soul retrieval?
Also answers sixteen more questions
- Why can soul retrieval be more complicated now than in traditional cultures?
- How does a soul retrieval journey happen?
- Can soul retrieval be done in one session?
- What are intrusions, and why can they matter in soul retrieval?
- Is soul retrieval the same as finding the Lower-World Soul?
- Why does soul retrieval need self-compassion?
- Can soul retrieval be done for someone else?
- Can I do soul retrieval for myself?
- How do I know if a soul part is really mine?
- Why is Power Animal important in soul retrieval?
- What is the role of Guides in soul retrieval?
- Can soul retrieval help with addiction or compulsive patterns?
- Does soul retrieval replace therapy or medical care?
- What is the purpose of soul retrieval?
- What is the relationship between parts work and soul retrieval?
- What is soul retrieval in shamanic healing?
What does healing mean in Therapeutic Shamanism?
Also answers three more questions
The therapeutic heart: shamanism and psychotherapy
Why does Therapeutic Shamanism bring shamanism and psychotherapy together?
Also answers eight more questions
- Why does Therapeutic Shamanism have a psychotherapeutic flavour?
- Does Therapeutic Shamanism replace psychotherapy?
- How does Therapeutic Shamanism differ from Internal Family Systems or Voice Dialogue?
- What does body-centred psychotherapy bring to Therapeutic Shamanism?
- How does the body relate to parts of self?
- What does psychotherapy bring to shamanic healing?
- Why shamanism rather than only psychotherapy?
- Why does Therapeutic Shamanism include psychotherapy when talking about spirituality?
What does it mean to work therapeutically with process, parts and resistance?
Also answers seven more questions
- Why should resistance be respected in soul retrieval?
- What is self-compassion in parts work?
- What does it mean to “hold the locus of evaluation with the client”?
- What are the core conditions in parts-of-self work?
- What does “the body never lies” mean?
- What is the relationship between body and grounding?
- What does the client do in shamanic healing?
What are Focusing and the felt sense, and how can they support shamanic work?
Also answers three more questions
What is body armouring and what does Reichian work contribute?
Also answers thirteen more questions
- What is Embodied Shamanism?
- What does the body need?
- Why is the body important in shamanic practice?
- Is the body lower than Spirit?
- How is the body related to Soul?
- How is the body related to Spirit?
- Why does the head still matter in Embodied Shamanism?
- What is body armouring?
- What does “getting out of our heads” mean?
- How does trauma affect the body?
- What is the role of movement in Embodied Shamanism?
- How does Embodied Shamanism relate to grounded spirituality?
- What is the purpose of Embodied Shamanism?
How do embodiment, grounding and the nervous system support healing?
Also answers seven more questions
- What does breath have to do with embodiment?
- How does Power Animal help embodiment?
- What is the relationship between embodiment and truth?
- What is the relationship between embodiment and safety?
- What does embodiment have to do with anger, grief and fear?
- How is shamanic healing different from counselling?
- What makes shamanic healing therapeutic?
What is spiritual bypassing and how can psychotherapy help prevent it?
Also answers sixteen more questions
- Can journey interpretation become spiritual bypassing?
- Why is disembodied spirituality a problem?
- What is spiritual bypassing?
- Why is spiritual bypassing a problem?
- How does spiritual bypassing affect shamanic journeying?
- What does spiritual bypassing have to do with the ego?
- How is spiritual bypassing connected with the Upper-World?
- How is spiritual bypassing connected with Soul and the Lower-World?
- How is spiritual bypassing connected with the body?
- What is the difference between healthy detachment and spiritual bypassing?
- What is the relationship between spiritual bypassing and non-duality?
- What does spiritual bypassing have to do with anger?
- What are common signs of spiritual bypassing?
- What is the antidote to spiritual bypassing?
- Can spiritual bypassing happen in shamanism?
- What is the purpose of naming spiritual bypassing?
Growing up: Adulthood, Eldership and initiation
What does it mean to become a True Adult?
