Because the wounds of modern life need both. Shamanism is designed to heal soul lossSoul-loss. The sending-away of parts of the self in order to survive: through shock or trauma, or (the chief modern cause) exiling our own parts to fit in. With Power-loss, one of the two root causes of shamanic illness. Read the full answer and Power-lossPower-loss. Disconnection from nature, the web of life and our place in it: like being unplugged from the national grid. One of the two root causes of shamanic illness, healed by reconnection (not by soul retrieval), beginning with the Power Animal bond. Read the full answer and to reconnect us with the living world; deep psychotherapy is designed to heal the vast under-worldUnder-world. The realm of our repressed and disowned psychic energies, personal and collective: Jung’s Shadow and the unconscious, mapped shamanically. A part of the middle-world, created by the Fall, not the Lower-World, and psychotherapy’s proper territory rather than shamanism’s. Read the full answer of repressed material that our culture has created, which traditional shamanism never had to face. Brought together, with the work kept Spirit-led, each can do things the other cannot do well, and together they can treat the causes of our suffering as well as its symptoms.
Why bring shamanism and psychotherapy together at all?
Because neither is enough on its own. “Traditional shamanism on its own will not be enough to save us, as it is not designed or equipped to deal with the psychological and other middle-world changes that the FallThe Fall. The catastrophe at the root of the whole diagnosis: the shift from animist, egalitarian hunter-gatherer life to owning, agricultural Taker culture. In domesticating other species we domesticated ourselves, cutting ourselves off from Mother Earth (Power-loss) and from parts of our own nature (soul-loss). When dated precisely, the Fall begins with the first city-state cultures, around 4000 BCE (Domestication begins earlier, with the Neolithic). A sickness, not our true nature. ‘Fallen culture’ is used interchangeably with Taker culture; the Great Rupture is a looser alternate name. Read the full answer has brought.” “Likewise, psychotherapy on its own will not be enough, if it continues to reduce everything to the human and sees everything through its own lens.”1 So Therapeutic Shamanism draws on both, as its name says. See What is Therapeutic Shamanism?
What has changed since traditional shamanism?
The under-world has grown. The under-world is the realm of the human unconscious, the personal and collective material we have pushed down and denied (not the shamanic Lower-World). In hunter-gatherer times it was tiny, but “Since domesticationDomestication. The process by which, in domesticating other species, we domesticated ourselves. When dated precisely, Domestication begins with the Neolithic era, before the Fall proper, which begins with the first city-state cultures around 4000 BCE. What rewilding works to undo. More about this and the Fall it has grown enormously, a thousand-fold or more.” As a result, “traditional shamanism never needed to evolve the skills and knowledge needed to do complex under-world work and healing; it developed different skills and knowledge for different times.”2 See What is the under-world and how is it different from the Lower-World?
What does psychotherapy bring to shamanic healing?
The tools for the under-world and for a healthy everyday self. “Just as shamanism is specifically designed and equipped to deal with the problems of soul-loss and power-loss, psychotherapy (or at least any deep psychotherapy) is specifically designed and equipped to deal with the issues of the under-world.”3 Rebuilding the self we live in day to day is psychotherapy’s own work: “The dismantling of a wonky middle-world selfMiddle-world self. The everyday self (ego, persona, head-and-heart), made of our stories and experiences. A genuine and needed part of the Inner Tribe: of service, not in command. Read the full answer and replacing it with a healthier one – that is what psychotherapy is made for.”4
It also brings a way of working. Therapeutic Shamanism takes from psychotherapy an understanding of the fort-holder, the part of us that sent a soul partSoul-part. A small-s, middle-world part of the self that can be lost (sent away) and can be retrieved. Not the capital-S Soul. Read the full answer away and may resist its return, and a person-centred way of working that empowers people rather than holding power over them: “This is why Therapeutic Shamanism draws so heavily from the practices of Person-Centred counselling, because the Person-Centred approach is rooted in the principle of respecting other people’s autonomy.”5 See What does it mean to work therapeutically with process, parts and resistance?
Why shamanism rather than only psychotherapy?
Because psychotherapy rarely helps us find our Soul, or reconnects us with the other-than-human world. Looking back on his own therapy, Paul Francis sees that psychotherapy is good at replacing the unhealthy stories of our middle-world self with healthier ones. It is good at creating healthy souls, but rarely will it help us find our Soul.6 The qualities therapy develops match those of healthy hunter-gatherer adults, but “The only major difference is that therapy doesn’t usually reconnect us with the other-than-human world.”
Shamanism can also do something psychotherapy usually cannot. “Soul retrievalSoul retrieval. Finding an exiled soul-part and inviting it home. In the modern psyche the fort-holder who sent it away must consent first, and the retrieval itself is a beginning: the real work is integration. Read the full answer is a specialism of shamanism”, and it “can generally not be done by psychotherapy alone.”7 Sometimes a part is not just repressed but actually leaves altogether, and this is when shamanism comes into its own, because it can find the parts that are no longer in the room. See What is soul retrieval?
Why does Therapeutic Shamanism have a psychotherapeutic flavour?
Because Paul is both a psychotherapist and a shamanic practitioner, and sensed that each could enhance the other. “For a long time, I practised psychotherapy and shamanism side-by-side, but as separate practices.” He found that “Bringing a psychotherapeutic awareness to shamanic work does not have to weaken the link with Spirit.”8 Across his series, “some books will focus more on the shamanic aspects of the work, and some will lean more towards the psychotherapeutic side.”9
The flavour does not make it a watered-down shamanism. “There are certainly psychotherapy practitioners who do practise a watered-down version of shamanism. But that is categorically not what Therapeutic Shamanism is about.”10 Its journeys are led by the Guides.
Does Therapeutic Shamanism replace psychotherapy?
No. The two do different jobs, and many people need both. The idea that shamanism is better than psychotherapy is “a wonky thought”, and one that leads to people not getting the kind of help they really need: Paul comes across a lot of people in the shamanic community who could really do with psychotherapy.11 Both shamanism and psychotherapy deserve respect in equal measure. They are different practices, but practices which overlap.12 See What can psychotherapy and shamanism offer each other, and where should they remain different?
Why does Therapeutic Shamanism include psychotherapy when talking about spirituality?
Because spiritual practice alone does not heal our psychological wounds. Using spirituality to avoid them is called spiritual bypassing. All of the many deeply spiritual people Paul has worked with as a therapist have needed good psychotherapy too, just like everyone else.13 Trying to transcend the everyday self instead, “in the end, it simply does not work.” See What is spiritual bypassing and how can psychotherapy help prevent it?
How does Therapeutic Shamanism differ from Internal Family Systems or Voice Dialogue?
They share the understanding that we are made of parts, but differ in what the parts can be and where they can go. Internal Family Systems (IFS), Voice Dialogue and Transactional Analysis are amongst the psychotherapies that work with parts of self. Therapeutic Shamanism adds that some voices are not parts of us at all but real beings, and that some parts have left altogether and need a soul retrieval. The full answer is at How does Therapeutic Shamanism relate to IFS, Voice Dialogue and Gestalt?
What does body-centred psychotherapy bring to Therapeutic Shamanism?
An awareness of the body and of what it holds. Wilhelm Reich, the founder of body-centred psychotherapy, is one of Paul’s heroes, and Paul is a body-centred psychotherapist himself. Paul has seen clients enter a light trance “when they have moved from talking about content” into being aware of their body, feelings and inner processes.14 Wounds from before we had words are hard to reach by talking alone, and usually need therapies “that focus more on sensations and movement, such as the various body-centred psychotherapies”; shamanic journeying “can also be highly effective” with such wounds.15 See What is body armouring and what does Reichian work contribute?
How does the body relate to parts of self?
The body is one of the parts, and a conscious one. The physical body is one of the main parts of self, alongside Soul, Spirit and the middle-world self. “Our bodies are a conscious part of us; a part of us that has its own wisdom and intelligence.” Yet “many people these days are barely in their bodies at all, but ungrounded and living in their heads.”16 See What are Soul, Spirit, the middle-world self and the body?
