This is a holding page for a newly-emerging heart project of many years in crafting, which began several years ago with the popular Roots & Resonance Seasonal Circles in Hebden Bridge.

Since then, I have been on a journey of self-growth including adjusting to health challenges, learning multiple wisdom teachings, academic study and integrating my work as a Therapist & Counsellor.

I am excited to share that I am beginning to open up one-to-one client work in animist (shamanic) & energy healing; alongside considering community & group offerings; likely beginning Autumn & Winter 2025 / from Spring 2026. Long term, I hope to offer courses tailored to the needs of our times, and our individual spiritual health.

*Animism is an ancient and timeless world-view, found cross-culturally, that honours and includes all life as sentient, aware and responsive to our relationship with them. All life including plants, animals, rocks, rivers, technology, ancestors, the dead, spirits of place..Animism at its heart allows us to be in conscious relationship with all life - acknowledging human interconnection with nature (rather than dominance over nature), and that in return we are never truly alone. It has existed as a word-view since humans first started making meaning of the stars, the seasons, the migratory routes of animals...and it is as relevant now as it was thousands of years ago, and Earth needs us to know this.

Heeding The Call - Why Animism (shamanism) - Why Now?

In these times of great polarity and multiple global crises, which impact all life on Earth, many of us feel called to activism, care-taking or change-making; but can also feel overwhelmed, burnt out, powerless or even find our selves tapping into collective trauma states on a scale never before known.

Forming healing, inclusive and earth-centred community is a timeless and essential way to help us show up for our individual needs; in witnessing each other, and relating more deeply to our lands, our home and the wider worlds - including the Spirit world, The Ancestors, or the Unseen. For example, regardless of your religion or beliefs on this; responsible care for the dead and our ancestors - human and other-than-human - is a powerful and ancient ethical way of life many of us have lost. Resilient and responsible community honours the joy, grief, messiness and beauty of alive-ness; and the shared weight of the collective shadows we're seeing in the world. This includes fostering the current challenge we see playing out globally in extremes - how to address impacts of inequality, oppression, marginalisation and how this plays our in localised forms. Gritty work! And we begin by facing and healing our own fears, shadows and wounds. Perhaps that is the main work of our lives - and that is in itself is a brave contribution to the collective and the wellness of your descendants. I am fascinated in the intersections between cross-culture spiritual practice and modern psychology/psychotherapy.

Animist practices and healing arts offer some powerful, simple and ancient tools and technologies that are true medicine for these chaotic, lonely and heavy times. They help us step into and co-create more robust, diverse and supportive communities. They can also be a powerful compliment to psychotherapy, trauma healing and other modalities. They can help us tap into meaning, our personal experience of it, without dogma or a need to fit into a particular way of being...And we can dance and play!

However, in westernised, non-indigenous and 'new age' contexts - without some key foundations and ethical practice - shamanic practices can be appropriated, misdirected, psychologically destabilising for some (or even dangerous), or used to bypass important psychological, political or social aspects of the human world.

My Approach to Shamanism

As a sacred activist and via my training with inspirational teachers and guides; it is my aim to not leave 'politics, intergenerational trauma or cultural ethics' out of the healing process or the circle - but to invite it all in! The shadows need to be illuminated and explored - to be integrated - or they cause rampant chaos, inside of us, and out there in the world...'love and light' spirituality is not enough. Animism welcomes all shades of embodied experience. From an animist perspective, at least in my experience, a spiritual quest is arduous - one of grit, periods of darkness, unravelling and suffering - as much as great moments of ecstasy, inner peace, and beauty. This is where guided shadow work and shamanic healing can be deeply supportive for some of us.

The technologies of how to perform safe, effective and personalised ceremonies and rituals can be life changing. Sitting in circle together, before heading off to a solo wilderness retreat or night vigil is a powerful experience. Learning to speak with your Ancestors and honour them, and in doing so begin to heal long-standing intergenerational wounding (literally, seeing it change your current family life) - is one of the most profound experiences I have had. Dancing with wild abandon to rousing drums...well, you get the idea! These are all examples of how liberating an animist world view can be, and how your soul will open up it's gifts and the masks will fall...

My approach is eclectic, from years of self-study, and with training from teachers with integrity. I incorporate my 25 years of psychological and spiritual influences into this work, from traditional paganism to integrating science-backed somatic and ecstatic practices. Many of the therapeutic interventions widely used today are strongly influenced by ancient ways! For example, they help people stay grounded in their bodies when feeling strong emotions - aiding responsible relationships, release their emotions in healthy responsible ways including the taboo ones like grief or anger, and provide relaxed or blissful states.

My work is constantly driven by reverence for the timeless and ancient, as well as modern psychology and what humans need now for current-world challenges. My belief is despite living on a land where my pre-christian ancestor's ways were persecuted and lost hundreds of years ago (before those same "institutions/systems" began colonising beyond globally), spiritual community and practice can be re-envisioned. This is rather than appropriated from far-off lands; the exceptions being when express permission and training has been given from Elders & Wisdom Keepers) And we have plenty of signs, messages, ancient texts, poems, and frameworks to draw on, even in the West. For example, I have a deep love of plants, kitchen herbalism or 'hedge witchery', astrology and divination, mythology, folklore and folk magic (especially of the Celtic and Northern Lands), story telling and the arts. I love to bring this creativity and playfulness; and encourage others to bring theirs into shared group spaces!

What am I offering or Planning for this work?

I am allowing this page, this offering, to unfold and change gently as I plan carefully based on what may be needed locally, and beyond. I am also managing my growing therapeutic practice - so bear with me as I settle in to my new work, and return to Calderdale. 2026 is likely the year of easing into more group offerings and seeking collaborations and venues.

I offer one to one work, already, for those who feel some call to shamanic healing or have some prior experience / practice in this area. Please note there may be a short wait, as I am seeking a comfortable, appropriate new venue for this work.

I plan to develop introductory courses, online and in-person, alongside one-off ecstatic dance rituals and accessible community offerings, in collaboration with others.

Dream with me - please send me a message if you feel called to find out more or to collaborate!

Coming soon: Shamanic healing for one-to-one clients - this page is in development and will include specific information about this process. For now, please contact me to find out more and arrange a potential consultation call, if working in this way appeals to you.