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About Shamanic Counseling
Applied Shamanic Counseling helps you access inner guidance, reconnect with parts of yourself that may feel lost or disconnected, and explore healing through experiential, symbolic, energetic, and earth-based practices.
What is Applied Shamanic Counseling?
Applied Shamanic Counseling is a contemporary shamanic healing model developed by Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. It draws on core practices found across many shamanic traditions and adapts them for modern personal and spiritual development.
At its core, shamanism is an earth-based and experiential approach to healing. Traditional shamanic systems often understand human wellbeing as inseparable from our relationships with the natural world, community, spirit, and dimensions of experience that may not be accessible through ordinary analytical thinking.
Applied Shamanism views fragmentation and disconnection as important sources of suffering. We can become disconnected from our bodies, relationships, communities, sense of purpose, inner wisdom, the natural world, and parts of ourselves that have been pushed aside or forgotten. Shamanic practices offer experiential ways of exploring these forms of disconnection and moving toward greater integration and wholeness.
I approach this work with both openness and discernment. Shamanic experiences may involve vivid imagery, intuition, energetic sensations, dreams, helping figures, symbolic journeys, or experiences that feel spiritual or mystical. I do not assume that there is one correct explanation for what arises. Clients may understand these experiences spiritually, psychologically, symbolically, religiously, or in some combination of these ways.
You do not need to adopt a particular metaphysical worldview to engage in this work. I do ask that you be open to the possibility that meaningful guidance and insight can emerge from within your own experience.
Benefits of Applied Shamanic Counseling
Shamanic Counseling Can Help You...
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Access inner guidance and wisdom
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Deepen spiritual or mystical connection in a way that fits your own worldview
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Develop a greater sense of agency and personal power
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Reconnect with parts of yourself that have become disconnected, suppressed, or difficult to access
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Recognize patterns, beliefs, relationships, or ways of living that are no longer serving you
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Experience greater integration and wholeness
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Deepen your sense of connection with nature, other people, and the larger world around you
Potential Components of Shamanic Counseling Sessions:
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Shamanic journeying (learn more here)
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Power retrieval
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Soul retrieval
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Dreamwork
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Energetic and experiential practices
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Other Applied Shamanism practices as appropriate
Frequently Asked Questions About Shamanic Counseling
Do I need to have any special powers or abilities in order to learn to journey?
No. Shamanic journeying is an experiential practice that can be learned by people from many different backgrounds. You do not need to consider yourself psychic, intuitive, or spiritually gifted. I only ask that you be willing to turn your attention inward and remain open to the possibility that meaningful imagery, intuition, or guidance can emerge from within your own experience.
Do I need to ascribe to a specific religion to benefit from Shamanic Counseling?
No. I do not require adherence to a particular religion or metaphysical belief system. I do ask that you believe, or at least be genuinely open to the possibility, that you can access meaningful guidance from within yourself. Beyond that, there is considerable room for different interpretations of what occurs during the work. Some clients understand shamanic experiences spiritually or energetically. Others understand them psychologically, symbolically, or through the language of imagination and intuition. My role is not to determine which interpretation is ultimately correct, but to help you explore what arises with curiosity and discernment.
Do you do shamanic healing on me or do I do it myself?
Applied Shamanism includes practices in which the practitioner conducts a healing process on behalf of the client, as well as practices such as shamanic journeying that clients can learn to use themselves. In my own practice, I primarily use Depth Hypnosis, which draws inspiration from shamanism, where I serve as a facilitator for the client's own experiential process. I use practitioner-led shamanic healing less frequently and generally when it seems particularly appropriate to the client's goals and preferences. Regardless of the method, I see the client as an active participant in the process rather than a passive recipient of healing.
Is it possible for me to work shamanically on myself?
Yes. One reason I value Depth Hypnosis and shamanic journeying is that they can help people develop greater access to their own inner resources rather than relying entirely on a practitioner. Depth Hypnosis, also developed by Isa Gucciardi, integrates elements of shamanism, Buddhism, energy medicine, hypnosis, and transpersonal psychology. The practitioner facilitates the process while helping the client develop their own capacity for insight, exploration, and healing.
Can Shamanic Counseling help me understand my dreams?
Yes. Dreams can provide rich material for personal and therapeutic exploration. They may reveal emotional patterns, conflicts, imagery, associations, or perspectives that are difficult to access through ordinary waking reflection. In Shamanic Counseling, dreams can be explored in relation to your psychological life, spiritual path, relationships, and current concerns. I approach dream material with curiosity rather than assuming that a dream has one predetermined meaning.
Is Shamanic Counseling Psychotherapy?
No, it is not. It is a complementary and alternative method that can be done alongside psychotherapy as an adjunct service or as a standalone service. As such, you will not be able to use your FSA, HSA, or out-of-network benefits to cover Shamanic Counseling, and it will not be part of your treatment plan. This is because while Shamanic Counseling has a long history of efficacy across many cultures and time periods, it has not yet been studied extensively in modern clinical research and is thus not an evidence-based treatment.
Qualifications
Emma Donovan, MA, LPC, LCPC, is certified as an Applied Shamanic Counselor through the Foundation of the Sacred Stream. She has completed many courses over several years which include dreamwork, shamanic journeying, power retrieval, soul retrieval, energy medicine, plant medicine, and advanced shamanic concepts.
Shamanic Counseling is considered an alternative modality. You may choose it as a standalone service or as a complementary service to psychotherapy. Shamanic Counseling is also one of the core pillars behind Depth Hypnosis, an evidence-based method that can be conducted within psychotherapy.
If you are particularly interested in Applied Shamanism or have questions about it, please bring it up in your consultation.