A few years back, I teamed up with a psychologist and a yoga instructor to teach children how to release built-up stress. Of course, we didn’t call it that. These were kids who had complaints from their school about being too energetic and “unruly.” Through a series of exercises disguised as games, we helped their built-up energy be released. It was amazing how, within 15 minutes, we’d have a room that went from absolute chaos to almost blissful silence and snoozing toddlers. The most amazing part was that this inner peaceful state was contagious. I’ve noticed this over the years in my private practice. As I receive clients, regardless of how their life is going, within a few minutes, the shift towards relaxation and well-being can be observed.

This is a process of somatization, which means embodying emotional factors into the physical body. Usually, this happens in a negative and unconscious way, but Shamanism uses the same process in a positive and conscious way. We believe that there must always be a balance between what is going on inside and outside the person. Any symptom will be connected in one way or another to some emotional event in the person’s life. From this premise, in a relaxed state, we access the memory that triggered the symptoms, then we localize it in the physical body and replay it over and over again, each time increasing its impact until it is symbolically “yanked” out of the body. Now, we have the opportunity to somatically mend what was out of alignment. This is done by going back to the location where we had decided the trauma was lodged in and symbolically inserting a positive concept that contributes to overall well-being. A phrase with positive connotations will be repeated over and over again, focusing on the same spot in the body, each time more intensely until a crescendo is reached.

As with many Shamanic practices, there are no exact instructions as to how this type of healing is performed. The main components are that the enactment be assertive and that the intentions be clear while performing it. It helps if the client believes in the process, but from my experience, regardless of how the conscious mind sees it, the subconscious mind registers it all as a legitimate and powerful experience. This is where the somatic symptoms are stored anyway, so in the end, that is where the healing will take place.

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