Have you done a lot of therapy and personal growth work—perhaps years or even decades—and one day, you realize that what you thought was healed or resolved is still active in some way?  Or some aspect of it resurfaces? Maybe because some outer event seems to reactivate it? I have heard this lament from friends, clients and students over many years: “I thought I had resolved this! Why do I have to do it again? I’m so tired of this!” I have been in the same boat myself.  Starin

Current events in 2017 bring me back to the day after 9/11 when I sat in a packed concert hall at the University of Virginia.  The administration had set up an open mike event where all members of the campus to share their thoughts and feelings about what had happened.  I, like many others, stepped onto stage to speak about my grief and to call for everyone to seek healing not only of the wounds incurred by the previous day’s events, but of their own personal wounds from betr

In this third blog of the series on Shamanic Energy Medicine for Treating Trauma and Other Contemporary Afflictions, I go more deeply into the perspectives behind and tools used for working with clients presenting with symptoms of PTSD, depression or anxiety.  This builds upon the second blog in which I built a foundation for understanding shamanic energy medicine by drawing on several decades of research on the transgenerational transmission of trauma and the emerging scienc

One day, I was cleaning my house and listening to a radio program on the problem of post-partum depression in women.  The researcher being interviewed had done a study of a large group of women who had experienced depression and more mental and emotional imbalances following the birth of their child. These were women who otherwise had been happy to become mothers, loved their babies, and prior to their pregnancy and birth, had never had any serious problems of a psychological