When we have lived through trauma, loss, betrayal, illness, oppression, or other forms of profound suffering, it can be tempting to look back and try to make the suffering meaningful. Spiritual traditions sometimes encourage us to see our wounds as gifts, as though the terrible things that happened to us were somehow necessary so that we could become who we were meant to be. I do not believe we need to do that. Trauma does not make us spiritually special. We do not need to be

Transformation in meditation For many years, I thought healing meant understanding. I began psychotherapy in my early twenties and eventually spent years in Jungian analysis. That work changed me profoundly. I learned to recognize the dynamics of my family, understand the ways I had adapted to an unpredictable childhood, and see patterns in myself that had once been invisible to me. I mined my dreams for images of transformation and meaning. I became deeply self-reflective an

The Golden Love-Light of Healing There are experiences that do more than hurt us. They can alter our relationship with ourselves, with other people, with the Sacred, and with life itself. Trauma, violence, betrayal, abandonment, oppression, grief, and other forms of suffering can leave us feeling profoundly alone, even when we are surrounded by people who love us. We may feel disconnected from ourselves, unable to trust what we once trusted, or spiritually disconnected from a

Discovering Your True Self Who are you? Most of us answer that question, at least initially, with the facts and stories of a particular human life. We are our names, families, relationships, professions, identities, accomplishments, failures, and the places and cultures that have shaped us. We are also shaped by what has happened to us: the people who have loved us well or failed to love us, the opportunities we have been given or denied, the losses we have endured, and the c

A Shamanic Healing People come to shamanic healing for many reasons. Some are carrying the effects of trauma, loss, betrayal, or difficult relationships. Others feel stuck in patterns they understand intellectually but have been unable to change. Some describe feeling disconnected from themselves, their bodies, their spiritual lives, or a sense of meaning and direction. Still others have already done considerable healing and arrive with a different kind of question: There is

My trauma-body awakened in February 1993. Ice poured down as if from the heavens. The season had already been brutally cold. It was February 1993. My husband’s and my small, cinderblock rental cottage stood on a 3000-acre horse farm in Albemarle County, 15 miles south of Charlottesville, Virginia, at least a mile from any major road. By the time the storm passed 2 days later, we could not open the front door. There was an unnerving stillness in the air and the sky remaine

There are experiences in life after which we may say, “I have never been quite the same.” Sometimes the change follows an obvious trauma: violence, abuse, the death of someone we love, war, betrayal, abandonment, or another experience that overwhelms our capacity to absorb what has happened. At other times, the loss is quieter. A child learns that a particular gift is unacceptable. Someone repeatedly suppresses an essential part of themselves to remain connected to a family o

My client, Lisa, the executive director of an NGO in Washington, D.C. is lying on the massage table, fully clothed, as I use my stones, rattles, breathwork, and feathers to encourage her energy body (that bubble of light surrounding and interpenetrating the physical body) to open. I then spin the most blocked chakras clockwise, so they release. After about 10 minutes, I journey into her subconscious to extract an unhealed trauma wound that is causing symptoms of anxiety and d

I am a carrier of a mesa, a beautiful, multicolored medicine bundle containing various crystals and stones used for creating a vibrational frequency of healing, harmony, balance, and abundance for myself and others. The tradition of this portable altar goes back to the ancient Inca and can be found today among the medicine people of the Andes, in particular the Q’ero, their descendants. In the past 20 years, many paqos, or medicine people, have been called by the spirits to o

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Shamanic energy healing is an effective way to heal symptoms of trauma from this and other lifetimes.

“ Beloved Condor Spirit and Spirit of Macchu Pichu, I am feeling stuck around manifesting the next step in my mission and purpose in life. Please give me guidance!” I was sitting in front of my mesa—the word used by the Q’ero people of the Andes in Peru for a power-packed medicine bundle. I said more—about what I had done so far, about my ideas and thoughts, wishes and dreams. But I knew once I opened Sacred Space by praying to the 6 directions—East-West, North-South—Mother

In my early 20s, I got myself into therapy. Talk therapy, that is. I had a lot to say and process. It was extremely helpful to have a compassionate witness and guide as I tried to understand the complexities of my complicated relationship with my narcissistic mother (though I didn’t have that word back then). My self-confidence was low, my anxiety high. Frankly, I didn’t know who I really was. This was the beginning of a long journey to heal from family trauma. Therapy was

When Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in his powerful and inspiring speech to the United States joint chambers of Congress on December 21, 202, noted that Russians must “defeat the Kremlin in their minds,” I resonated deeply with it. I felt its truth going far beyond the way the Russian government continues to manipulate and oppress its own people and deceive them about the invasion of Ukraine. The “Kremlin in the mind” is arises out of a wounded ego sickness that a

I am going to be real here. I am grieving, depressed, frustrated, overwhelmed, and feel helpless. I have brain fog and alternate from these emotions to being numb. I have several times in the past few weeks lifted my fingers over my laptop keyboard to write, but have felt empty of words. This is a serious sign that I am not doing well, as I am always and ever a wordsmith in the flow of insight and inspiration. But this morning, as I read the newspaper, I knew I had to just ge

I have been asked many times how I healed from the trauma I experienced? How can I be so (mostly) confident and live with a measure of inner peace even when outer conditions are not always easy? Yes, I am happy to say that I am at home inside myself. I no longer suffer from the chronic instability of complex PTSD (c-PTSD) and a radical sense of confusion about my truth, my true self and my authentic self-expression. I have a refuge within that is usually pretty solid. Yes, I

(This blog is part of an ongoing series in which I share intimate details about my life in order to inspire and educate my readers about trauma, healing and spirituality and what it has to do with helping this troubled and beautiful world heal into peace. Please excuse any repetition; I must write each piece assuming my reader may not have read the others.) When your natural, authentic personality and talents are not seen and nourished by those who are your parents or caregiv

So many of us came into this world with a natural empathy—defined as a capacity to feel and experience within oneself other’s feelings, thoughts and even bodily sensations. This gift could have extended beyond our immediate family or homeplace, whether it looked like the standard nuclear setup or not. This meant that we might have been able to feel the suffering and joys of our neighbors, animals and even the Earth. Children like this are often very open and even seem to pos

Yep, that's what I think. I suspect that many of you have been in some kind of talk therapy--maybe even on and off for years. I've heard...

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the violence brought against peaceful protestors in the US in 2020, African Americans and...