I get asked this a lot!

In general terms, talking therapies are a fantastic way to bring your issues into sharp focus before ‘diving down’ to work with raw emotion from the inside-out.

Sound therapy is great for deep relaxation and breathwork is fantastic for working experientially with emotions and linking them back to 'held' narratives in the body. Finally, drum journeys are good for creative visualisation and guidance.

Without wanting to sound too cryptic, the type of session I'd recommend depends on the issue you're working with. Normally in the first instance, simple is best.

Have a look through my treatments to see if anything draws you in and call me if you need to talk things through.

Anyone who feels the calling. Especially you!

mildly curious?

stressed or fatigued?

lacking confidence or experiencing body issues?

need some pampering to help you chill?

lacking focus and direction in life?

seeking creative inspiration?

difficulty processing emotions?

Or perhaps you’re feeling READY and want to do some deep inner work:

conquering addictions?

revisiting major life traumas such as separation, shock, abuse or abandonment?

dealing with long-term illness?

on the cusp of major life changes?

needing to stand in your power?

Book a free discovery call and you’ll know if my approach is a match for you.

Come as you are, spill the beans over a cuppa and I’ll design a session to suit. This doesn’t have to involve anything too heavy like endless delving or trite ceremonial chanting if that isn’t your bag.

Equally, the experienced or curious among you, who like to work with smudging, guided visualisations, invocations and ritual, are encouraged to go wild! Sage, rapé, tobacco and cacao are great allies to work with when the situation calls, but you have all the inner technology you need, so I’m a fan of keeping things simple.

Generally sessions last around 90-minutes, including time for sharing and integration. For more information, see my treatments.

Ask the guy with the doctorate.

This work is a fantastic compliment to any traditional talking therapy (including Medicine Wheel work) as an aid to work with surface thoughts.

Cognitive talking therapies have us believe that dysfunctional thinking leads to dysfunctional emotions or behaviours. Shamanic work puts the theory in reverse working with abstract felt sensations from the inside out.

Pause for thought: Feeling tones came before the ability to think and analyse (unless you were spouting that doctorate as a foetus). The English-language shoehorns approximately 3,000 words into sonic shapes to define these states; an evolving art that’s as useless and poetic as catching a butterfly. How many feelings do we experience without definition?

Trust the process, sit a little longer and find out what’s on the other side.

There’s no pressure to disclose anything you’re not comfortable with; we can work with the essence of your issue regardless. If relaxation is the goal, you may wish for me to keep things simple, but above all, stay within your comfort zone and try not to prescribe an outcome.

A degree of fear and trepidation is healthy as it signifies the commitment you’ve made to yourself. Like excitement, boredom and sleep, fear can be a useful gateway to access the good stuff! Sometimes we need to move through these gateways to shift habits that don’t serve and subconsciously drive our life choices.

Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut and none of us are exempt, but living a heart-centred existence needn’t necessitate a ‘growth through struggle’ approach. Let go of the need to validate a session through the level of drama and suffering. Sometimes the process can be ecstatic!

Book a free discovery call and I’ll be happy to discuss any concerns.

I’ve hand picked a few clinical studies here.

It’s good to keep your feet on the ground, so believe nothing and question everything. The modalities presented here aren’t at odds with modern scientific principles. The idea that earth, air, fire and water make up all matter has been the cornerstone of philosophy, science and medicine for two thousand years.

Creative imagination doesn’t have to be exempt from rational thought. A structured approach gives us a map to navigate inward, creatively reshape our existence and ground our experiences in a meaningful way when we return.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.” – Albert Einstein

No.

Sound therapy

The juncture between Alpha and Theta brainwaves, reached by sound therapy, is often called the crossover point by neuroscientists. Here, subjects have experienced “seemingly miraculous resolutions of complex psychological problems”[3] including a significant reduction in anxiety levels[4].

Sound therapy has also found success in shifting patient anxiety before an operation[5].

Breathwork

Vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork), actually changes the expression of genes associated with stress, immune function, energy metabolism and insulin secretion[27].

“It’s almost like yin and yang,” says Mladen Golubic of the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Integrative Medicine. “The vagal response reduces stress. It reduces our heart rate and blood pressure. It changes the function of certain parts of the brain, stimulates digestion, all those things that happen when we are relaxed.”[28]

Breathwork

Breathwork is extremely effective in treating depression. It has even shown success among those resistant to antidepressant medications.[30]

Neurons in the brainstem are constantly monitoring our breath patterns. Studies show that if these neurons are surgically removed, our natural stress responses are bypassed and we feel much calmer[31]. Changing your breathing rhythm has a similar effect, tricking the brain into shifting your mood.

Sound therapy

14 out of 15 patients with acute migraines (and 5 out of 6 with chronic migraines) underwent a course of ‘brainwave entrainment’ sound therapy and experienced a complete relief of symptoms in just five minutes! So a single session may be enough.[6]

Breathwork

In a recent study of 40 chronic migraine sufferers, vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork), applied for four hours a day over three months, showed a 50% reduction in persistent headaches[29].

Breathwork

The part of the brain called the amygdala[32] is strongly linked to emotional processing. Studies show that stimulating the amygdala with a large inhale will allow us to identify fearful objects much quicker[33]. It therefore corresponds that when we’re in a panic state, our breathing naturally becomes faster to help us cope with dangerous situations.

Sound therapy

When we drift off to sleep on our journey to the unconscious, our brains pass through various brainwave cycles. The act of inducing Theta brainwaves through sound therapy can shortcut this process to achieve deep, altered states; perfect conditions for stress reduction and sleep[7].

Breathwork

Clinical studies of vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork) have shown to prevent weight gain in response to a high fat diet[39].

The vagus nerve plays an important role in controlling metabolism and a calorie rich diet has been shown to reduce its efficiency.

Sound therapy

Neuroscientists trained a group of alcoholics to enter Theta brainwave states (a process naturally activated by sound therapy). These participants showed a much greater recovery rate than those in a separate control group[8]. Thirteen months later, the group demonstrated “sustained prevention of relapse”, these findings were again confirmed after three years[8].

Breathwork

Vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork) may help addicts overcome substance abuse. A groundbreaking study in VNS and cocaine use lead to a significant decrease in drug seeking behaviours among participants[40].

Breathwork

Breathwork, along with the relaxation response of vagus nerve stimulation, reduces cytokine production[45][46].

Eh? 😉 In English, cytokines are substances secreted by immune system cells, which connect with other cells, in search of assistance, causing buildup and inflammation.

Trials of vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork) were carried out on 14 patients with treatment-resistant fibromyalgia. Five reported pain relief and improved physical function after just three months, twelve reached this point at eleven months and two were pain free![49]

In a separate study, three multiple sclerosis (MS) patients displaying routine symptoms of postural cerebellar tremor (PCT) and dysphagia showed sustained improvements over the course of three months[50].