Shamanic Healing and Ceremony
Shamanism teaches us that everything that exists is alive and has a spirit. Shamanism and ecology both talk about a richly complex web of life through which all species, all beings are interconnected. We are a part of all things and all things are a part of us. Shamanic practitioners walk in both realities—the natural world and the spiritual world—to help promote balance and harmony for peoples of all species and for the planet.
Kathleen’s shamanic practice includes people, pets and places. Her office is in Glenview, IL. She offers remote sessions via Skype or phone for out-of-town and international clients. Services and pricing.
- Shamanic healing is inclusive of all spiritual and religious traditions.
- Shamanic healing can be a complement to western medicine practices and other holistic therapies.
What is Shamanic Healing?
The shamanic view of healing is holistic, taking into account physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions of a person. Shamanic healing seeks to bring the client into a state of wholeness by addressing the spiritual and energetic origins of illness.
From the shamanic perspective, illness is caused by a loss of life force. This can occur through power loss, soul loss, energetic intrusion, spiritual intrusion, ancestral issues and past life issues. (Explanations found below.) Typically there is a combination of causes for a person’s illness or imbalance.
Shamanic healing addresses the origins of this power loss and releases the energetic imprint of the trauma so it no longer feeds the illness or imbalance. It then restores a client’s life force and provides guidance for integration of the healing, allowing the client to return to a state of balance and wholeness. Clients are also empowered by connecting them to their power spirits and guides and to the natural world.
How Does Shamanic Healing Happen?
Through a shift in consciousness, shamanic practitioners enter “non ordinary” reality to request healing and guidance from the spirit world. They act as hollow bone, a conduit to the energetic and spiritual realms, so the healing can come through for the client. Practitioners access this shift in consciousness through journeying.
Shamanic practitioners journey with the assistance of rattles or drums. The sound and vibration facilitate the shift into the deeper states of consciousness necessary to access the healing energies and guidance from spirit.
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What Conditions and Illnesses Can Shamanic Healing Address?
Any illness may have a significant underlying spiritual or energetic issue, regardless of the form the illness takes—physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.
Mental and emotional illnesses are more likely to have a spiritual component that may respond to shamanic healing techniques. They include, but are not limited to:
Depression, PTSD, trauma (rape, abuse, bullying, shame), addiction, anxiety, panic attacks, thoughts of suicide, self-harm, bipolar, multiple personalities.
Physical illnesses can have spiritual or ancestral origins or can be exacerbated by energetic or spiritual issues that arise due to the physical illness.
Spiritual/Energetic Concerns People who are highly sensitive to energies are often told there is something wrong with them, when, in fact, they have gifts and abilities that they need to learn how to use. Some indications are hearing voices, seeing/sensing spirits, taking on other people’s energy, knowing things before they happen, chronic nightmares.
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Ways We Lose Life Force
Power Loss: There are many ways we lose or give away our power: negative beliefs we carry about ourselves, imbalances in relationships, feeling cursed, being disconnected from the natural world, being disconnected from our spiritual guides and allies. Shamanic healing helps us reconnect to our sources of power, clear negative energy connections, curses and beliefs and restore vital life force.
Soul Loss: When we experience trauma, illness, or significant change in our lives, there can be a part of our vital essence that hides or disassociates in order to survive the pain. This is called soul loss. Sometimes these soul parts aren’t able to reconnect once the trauma is past. Soul retrieval is a shamanic process that brings these soul parts back and integrates them, returning the client to a state of wholeness.
Energetic Intrusion: Energetic intrusions are caused by unresolved emotions, such as anger or grief, which we have taken into our bodies in response to hurt or have received as a projection from someone else. An intrusion can also begin from chronic self-abuse and negative self-talk or from a physical injury. Intrusions can be extracted through shamanic healing.
Ancestral Issues: Unresolved issues in our ancestral lineage can cause illness and unhappiness in current time. Shamanic healing can bring healing to these patterns and release the client from their influence.
Past Life Issues: Unresolved patterns and relationships from past lives can cause illness and unhappiness in current time. Shamanic healing can bring healing to these patterns and release the client from their influence.
Spiritual Attachments: Spirits who have not crossed over into the light can attach themselves to people and/or negatively impact them. A spirit release (compassionate depossession) ceremony brings healing to these spirits, helps them cross over and brings healing to the client.
Services Offered 
Shamanic Healing Session
- Addressing specific issues of concern
- 90 minutes on average. $135 ($90/hour)
- In person and long distance (phone or Zoom) appointments.
Shamanic R&R: Realign and Restore
- For on-going self-care and an overall “feel good” (full description)
- 60 minutes $90
House Clearing and Land Clearing
- $90/hour and $45/hour for travel
- Time involved depends on size of house/property. 1.5 – 2 hours on average
Shamanic R&R: Realign and Restore
Clear, strengthen and revitalize your energy—physically, emotionally and spiritually. During this 50-minute session, you’ll relax on a heated massage table, listening to soothing music. I will use different hands-on and hands-off energy modalities to clear blocked energies. The session may include the use of crystals, stones, feathers and other gifts from Nature for healing. Through a journey, the spirits will guide whatever healing is needed to strengthen you. And then the amazing vibrations of the drum will revitalize and enliven you.
You do not need to have a specific issue to work on during a shamanic spa treatment. This is about pampering and empowering yourself. It’s a wonderful self-care practice that you can treat yourself to on a regular basis!
What to expect from a session
Healing sessions usually last 90 – 120 minutes. We begin with a short meditation to ground and open up our energies, call in helping spirits and set intentions to facilitate healing in a good way for your highest and greatest good.
We spend some time in discussion (in the first session, this is usually more extensive than in following appointments) to gather information about the healing that is desired, sources of energy blocks, unhealthy patterns and beliefs, medical and emotional history, and other topics that are helpful in guiding the healing session.
As a practitioner, I act as a conduit for the spirits who come through the do the actual healing work on a client. During the healing, a client usually lies down on a massage table while I go into a meditative state with the use of rattles or drums. For most healings, the client is in a restful state without interaction with me. For some processes, the client participates through visualization and dialogue. I also work with the healing properties of stones, feathers and other elements from Nature.
A client’s reactions during a healing journey vary from person to person. Some feel energy moving through them, some have visions or insights, others rest peacefully and some fall asleep.
Once the journey is complete, I share all the details of the experience with the client and then attune them to the life force being returned to them through a drum healing. Then we talk about how to continue integrating the healing after the session.
As with any kind of healing modality, shamanic healing works in stages and usually requires more than one session.
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Shamanism’s Roots
Shamanism is one of humankind’s oldest and perhaps original form of spirituality. Early in human evolution, we began to look to the spirits of ancestors, animals, plants, elements and deities for help, guidance and sustenance. These compassionate beings assisted us by teaching humankind about how to live in the world and by offering protection. The spirits taught ceremonies and rituals for hunting, agriculture, fertility and healing. Connection with the helping spirits provided a framework and sense of continuity that helped people to feel safer and to function well within their world. The spirits offered relationship, thus spirituality in a shamanistic sense means having relationship with Spirit or spirits. It was observed that there were both compassionate and non-compassionate spirits in the world. Humankind sought the help of the compassionate spirits in order to have their lives, their endeavors and their health blessed and improved.
Certain people were observed to have strong affinities for communicating with these spirits and they became known as the shamans, the seers and the mediators. The shamans served their community in many capacities. Some shamans were healers, seers or masters of ritual to ensure the success of various endeavors. Shamans were the ones whose job was to ensure that balance be kept between the seen and unseen worlds. Practitioners of shamanism offered healing for spiritual illness, possession and soul loss. These problems afflicted people in earlier times and are still afflicting people in these times.
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Space and Land Clearing
Houses, buildings and land can harbor the energies of past traumas and spiritual entities. Memories and emotions, as well people’s energetic imprints, can get stuck in houses. A clearing ceremony moves out and brings healing to unwanted energies and spirits. Then blessings are called in to the home.
Land clearing ceremonies release past traumas and bring healing to the spirits and to all beings living on the land.
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Ceremonies
Stone People’s Sweat Lodge Ceremony
An opportunity for people to gather in sacred ceremony for prayer, healing and connection to all of life.
The Stone People’s sweat lodge ceremony provides you with an opportunity to pray for yourself, for other people, for your community, for the earth, for all your relations. Spend some quiet time reflecting on the healing you wish to pray for on all these levels. Bring your open heart to the ceremony.
No experience is needed. Newcomers are welcome!
Women on their moon time (menstruating) are welcome in this sweat lodge ceremony.
The lodge is located in Frankfort, IL. The address will be provided when you register. We try to offer lodge once a month. Upcoming lodges are listed in Workshops and Events. Information on what to bring will be on the event page.
Equinox and Solstice Ceremonies
The change of seasons is a powerful time for ceremony, healing, dreaming and celebration. Equinox and solstice ceremonies will be listed in Workshops and Events.
