The path of the healer

People often wonder how it is shamanic practitioners find their way into this world of healing. Here is how I got here ( the short version):

In 1996 I was a physician assistant (PA) in family medicine, immersed in modern medicine. I’d been in active practice for 20 years and I was drained. I had some serious health issues arise out of that chronically overworked, over-stressed and undervalued place. In talking with a friend PA who’d been working as many years as I had, she said bitterly “A trained monkey could do this job.”

I felt the deep truth of that: the way that the practice of modern medicine is shaped by so many external forces and how disappointing it is to both patients and practitioners. I began to ask Great Spirit: “Please show me another way to be a healer”. That heartfelt appeal did not go unheard.

So in 1996, I began my long apprenticeship into other ways of healing. Great Spirit led me down many paths as I started exploring the world of plants as medicine, learning about both the chemistry of plants that enables them to help us, but also the living spirit of the plant that holds deep healing for us. I sought out some wonderful herbalists/elders who helped me find my way into the plant kingdom.

I explored a wide variety of energy healing modalities: Healing Touch, Acupuncture, Reflexology, Acutonics, finding great teachers and mentors along the way.

By 2002, after the Nisqually earthquake, and the death of my mother, I left the “golden shackles” of reliable employment, good benefits, and a retirement plan. I retired from my physician assistant work and opened a practice as an herbalist and energy healer.

It was also around this time I started exploring the work of the shamanic healer. I studied with several great teachers in the shamanic healing traditions of the tribal peoples of the Peruvian Andes, the Amazon, and the San Pedro river.

I also studied Plant Spirit Medicine, a powerful blend of Five Element Chinese Medicine and plant medicine, which Eliot Cowan brought back to the light.

Most recently I began exploring my own European-American heritage and the healing traditions found within it. I studied Celtic Shamanism with Tom Cowan, and found deep connections to my past, my ancestors, and also a way into my future.

Throughout it all I use these gifts and work with clients, helping them find their own way. The work and the learning continues. It is the path of the healer, and I am deeply grateful and privileged to be able to walk this road.

Professional education & training:
• Two years - Celtic Shamanism with Tom Cowan
• Faery Doctor Healing Traditions of Ireland - Tom Cowan
• Two years - Shamanic Healing School - Mary Blankenship and Wiracocha Institute
• Two years Inka Initiation Program - Jose Luis Herrera and Rainbow Jaguar Traditions
• Two years Healing the Light Body Shamanic Program with Alberto Villoldo - Four Winds
• Two years in the Spirit of the Plants program - Joyce Netishen
• Acutonics - Judy Barnard & Kate Fehsenfeldt
• Reflexology - Jade Shutes
• Healing Touch International - 120 hours of training
• Eleven years of herbal medicine study with KP Khalsa, Michael Tierra, David Hoffman, Tierona Low Dog, Kurt Schnaubelt, and others.
• MPAS in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Nebraska.
• Professional member in the Society of Shamanic Practitioners & American Herbalist Guild.

Janet