When I look back, my whole life can be seen as propelling me toward the flowering of my current work.  However as is so

often the case with moving toward one’s destiny, my interest in learning about the interplay of body and mind, quantum

healing and eventually shamanism took hold after going through the most difficult time of my life.  I had two young children

and one on the way when I began to notice health issues in my oldest daughter, who was three.  When she was finally

properly diagnosed, we were told that she had a rare children’s disease of the immune system and that it was terminal.  We were told there was nothing they could do.

 

Not wanting to accept that prognosis, my husband and I did a massive search for information, doctors and healers all over

the world.  Over the next few weeks, my daughter's health quickly deteriorated.  At one point, I flew with her from Massachusetts to Chicago to see a healer, Rosita Rodriguez.  Rosita worked with people using hypnotic programming with positive suggestions for healing that offered hope and clear guidelines.  Unfortunately, Rosita felt that my daughter wasn’t

open to receiving help from anyone except maybe me.  She said my daughter was committed to dying young as a way to progress spiritually and karmically.  So Rosita taught me how to do the basic programming and we went home.

 

Every time my daughter was falling asleep, when she was in what they call a receptive hypnagogic state, I would go into her room and tell her she was getting better every day and give her positive suggestions about her platelet count, etc.  My

daughter did not respond to the programming and she continued to rapidly decline until she was no longer communicating

or taking food and unable to get out of bed.

 

At this point I came to the awareness that despite the agony of considering her death, I had to accept that my daughter’s

soul or spirit or whatever might not want to live.  But at the same time, I continued to hold hope and the belief that she

could get well.  It is hard to explain, but I felt fully open to both possibilities, hope and acceptance, in a place inside me that

goes far beyond cognition.  And at that moment holding those two possibilities, I heard a voice in my head…

 

As a practicing psychotherapist now, I understand how we look at people who say they hear voices.  However, I can tell you

this was a numinous experience and not a psychotic symptom.  The voice gave me instructions on other things to say to my daughter, other programming suggestions.  I was told to tell her that for all intents and purposes she had suffered enough

and did not need to physically die to progress spiritually.  I was told to tell her that she could be reborn in this same body to these parents who loved her and live the life of a good and caring person.  I was told to tell her that it was her choice, and

that I understood and accepted that.

 

However weird it may seem, I was willing to do anything and I immediately began to use the suggestions.  I could see from

the start that my daughter was energetically open and receptive to this new programming.  I began to feel the possibility

that she might have turned a corner.  Due to her fragile state, I called Boston Children’s Hospital to arrange for her to be admitted and receive life support to help her.  Miraculously, we were connected to a doctor who had recently developed an

experimental drug for dealing with this disease.  For all our searching, we had not heard of him before.  He advised us to

bring her in that day and we did.

 

Upon seeing her, the doctor told us that he had treated nine children and seven of them got well.  The two that didn’t were unable to take the medication because they had an allergic reaction to it.  He said that my daughter was extremely ill and

would need to be on life support before she could be strong enough to endure the biopsies required to prove that she had

this disease—given that the medication was experimental.  He wasn’t sure she could make it, but they began the life support procedures.

 

I continued to offer the programming suggestions to my daughter and within a week she was strong enough for the

biopsies.  They proved she had the disease and they administered the first dosage.  We were told she would need to be on

the medication for two years.  Shockingly however, my daughter had an allergic reaction to the medication!

 

I was devastated and confused.  The doctors told us there was nothing else they could do for her.  They could try

chemotherapy, but they said that had never worked.  I asked them to hold off on chemo and went into my daughter’s room. 

As I was sitting there crying, I said out loud that I thought she wanted to live and I asked her why she developed an allergic reaction.  After not speaking for three weeks, my three year old daughter responded “because I don’t need it.” 

 

From then on I knew she was going to become well again and I continued the programming.   One of the doctors told me “I

don’t know what you are doing, and I don’t want to know, but keep doing it.”  That’s where western medicine was in those

days forty years ago.  Within a few weeks my daughter was released and continued to get better every day.  I am forever

grateful to spirit for the guidance I received.

 

The whole experience stimulated my need to gain a greater understanding of death and the healing process.  I was led to discovering the works of many of the pioneers in the field of mind/body medicine including Dr. Andrew Weil.  In his book, Quantum Healing, he refers to the unique opportunity for healing when hope and acceptance come together.  The magic

of that moment and the guidance I received eventually brought me to Shamanism.

 

I began by having some work done by a local practitioner who brought me to a level of understanding and healing beyond

all my knowledge and work utilizing talk therapy.  From there I started gobbling up books on Shamanism.  I loved and

continue to love learning about the similarities in Shamanic practices all over the world, dating back far before there was

any known connection between these cultures.  Dr. Alberto Villoldo’s books held particular interest for me, especially two of

his early books, Dance of The Four Winds, and Island of the Sun.  These books chronicle Alberto’s story working with his

mentor and other Shamans in Peru, and the development of his own skills and wisdom.  I was so moved and inspired, I read these books over and over. 

 

Eventually, for all my uncertainties, I took up the calling and signed up for Alberto’s, The Four Winds Healing the Light Body School.  After completing my amazing training there, I traveled several times to Peru to work with and receive initiations

from Shamans in the Andes and the rain forest of the Amazon.  I also received training from a Hawaiian Kahu.

 

For the past twelve years, I have continued to develop my Shamanic Energy Medicine practice blending my skills as a psychotherapist of thirty years and offering classes to share the medicine ways and the wisdom teachings as they come. 

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We are standing on the brink of a most propitious time for change and for achieving wholeness.  Every day affords initiation

opportunities for growth, healing and understanding.  I love working with the Sacred and sharing the beauty of that work with everyone I touch.

 

May/2018