Helping professional or shaman?

Abstract

Here, the reader is taken through the history of shamanistic beliefs and practices to highlight its parallels with the contemporary helping professions. Seeking their power to heal, exorcise evil spirits, and commune with the dead, some consider shamans offer a mystical means of dealing with the vicissitudes of life. As can be said of people undergoing psychoanalytic treatment, altered states of consciousness are a fundamental element of this experience. Each pursue the mutual objective of ascertaining their clients’ resistances and helping them to develop a greater sense of agency, often via guided visualizations. Although, shamanism places emphasis on how the world of nature impacts a person&s;s bodily functioning and spirituality—seeing issues such as mental illness as an indicator of disruption in the community, family, or natural world, not just in the client—both professions recognize the importance of relational dynamics in the context of mental health. Shamanism and psychotherapy work to heal trauma by helping an individual reconnect with lost or fragmented parts of themselves. Considering these, and other similarities and differences, the question is asked if, by drawing on the strengths of both traditions, contemporary helping professionals can arrive at a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional approach to healing.