Jeffrey Rich, B.S., LMT #656

2006-11-10T21:42:00.006-06:00

Healing is my second career, my love
Before bodywork, I was a software developer for almost 20 years; I transitioned into the bodywork field while seeking relief from my own aches and pains brought on by my first career. Along the way I found I found Therapeutic Massage and shamanic practice, both of which saved my life and my professional singing career. I've felt your pain, literally. Read more about my journey here ...

What I do and how I work
My healing work is advanced, skilled and layered. I treat you, the individual, and I treat you at the present moment. I don't use "recipes" as so many do, but apply my extensive Orthopedic Massage knowledge, Reiki and shamanic knowledge to what ails you now, knowing why it is ailing you. Read more about my credentials and training and about the methods and modalities that I employ in my work.

My practice is centered at the Clearview Cancer Institute building under the aegis of Orthopedic Massage Associates, LLC of which I am a founder and co-owner with my absolutely amazing friend and business partner, Judy Castrichini, LMT.

Please call today for an appointment! I would love to work with you.
(256)337-1699

You may also book an appointment on-line now!

DragonHeart Acupressure

Toward my goal of receiving my practitionership in Jin Shin Do® style Acupressure in 2011 and to celebrate the incorporation of my business under the new name DragonHeart Enterprises LLC, I am giving away JSD sessions at half price to anyone who asks. Seriously, I need the hours of practice, so call me today to schedule your free sessions!

Click Here to find out more about shamanism, my training, and my shamanic healing sessions .
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Buy my E-Book

2005-11-20T22:45:00.000-06:00

Improve Study Habits, Memory and Recall! E-Book
$19.95

Buy Gift Certificates and Therapeutic Services

2005-11-20T15:54:00.001-06:00

Massage Therapy Gift Certificates make a perfect Holiday gift!

Now you can buy Gift Certificates from me right here. I'm using PayPal to accept payment, the engine that services all eBay transactions.

Simply click the button for the service that you would like to purchase and update the number of the item when you're on the paypal shopping cart page. When you're on the Shopping Cart page, the "continue shopping" button brings you back here.

When you're done, I'll mail the Gift Certificates out on the same day to the address listed as your shipping address. The "To" and "From" fields will be blank; I always think it's better to have that filled in for your gift recipient in your own hand.

Hint: you can buy Gift Certificates for yourself, too!

Gift Certificate for 1.5 Hours of Therapeutic Massage Services
$85.00

Gift Certificate for 1 Hour of Therapeutic Massage Services
$60.00

Gift Certificate for 1/2 Hour of Therapeutic Massage Services
$35.00

Other Interests

2005-11-11T11:53:00.002-06:00

Here's what I'm reading, watching, doing and listening to these days

Reading

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, Matthew Fox
The Body Moveable
Make Magazine the magazine for people who make stuff
Traveling Between the Worlds: Conversations With Contemporary Shamans, Hilary S. Webb
Book Of Shamanic Healing, Kristin Madden
Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives, Joan Halifax

Watching

The Video Atlas of Human Anatomy. This is a fantastic resource and a wonderful look at how our bodies work!
Chocolat
Finding Nemo one of my all-time favorite movies. I can't believe how realistic the water and light
Ashes & Snow
The Secret

Listening to

Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Belle & Sebastian
69 Love Songs, Magnetic Fields
Viola da Gamba duets, Ste. Colombe
The Lute Music of John Dowland, Ronn McFarlane
Dixit Dominus, Georg Frideric Haendel

Doing

Origami, always
learning French
learning to play viola da gamba
Presiding: Massage Education & Development Guild , The Zefiro Series
Webmastering :-), learning to make clever use of sophisticated tools
makin' stuff
studying anatomy
studying acupressure
making clockwork escapement models
singing and preparing for auditions
writing fiction, some of it erotica
writing non-fiction, specifically a monograph on study skills, study tips and time-management strategies for massage therapy students
writing and arranging music
honing my craft of photography

Pondering

the nature of our being; loving the fact that all of the elements that make us up (that are heavier than Hydrogen) came from some previous supernova event.
that energy and matter are the same thing. e=mc² and all that.
about Spirit, about being enspirited, about where sentience comes from, about the nature of the soul.
Horology, the art and science of clockmaking and the study of time. There's really more to it than you might imagine.

On the lookout for

cool people, new friends
great music whatever the genre
complexity in all its forms
ways to foster lots more love in the world

My Bodywork Sessions

2005-11-11T00:05:00.005-06:00

Book on-line now!

Possessing a keen intellect and an immense knowledge of musculoskeletal anatomy and love of things mechanical, I love working with biomechanics and assessing postural anomalies.

What I do

I get you moving again
I relieve your pain
I make you feel good once more
I make you laugh! Laughter is the best medicine, it is said
keen, insightful assessment of soft-tissue dysfunction
rehabilitation, orthopedic massage to address and facilitate the healing of injury
provide you highly-skilled, advanced therapeutic massage and bodywork using

my intelligence and experience, my best assets
Myofascial Release techniques (what is this and why is it important?)
Neuromuscular Trigger Point therapy (more about NMT ...)
Deep Tissue massage with discernment
Acupressure in the Jin Shin Do style
Hydrotherapy
Manual Lymphatic Drainage
Orthopedic Massage techniques for lengthening, broadening, differentiating and normalizing muscle and soft tissues

treat the current state of dysfunction of your soft tissue
develop a long-term treatment plan to help you recover quickly and stay recovered
intelligent, powerful bodymind acupressure in the Jin Shin Do tradition
integrative energy work
Shamanic healing in the core shamanism tradition

I begin my sessions with a confidential health intake. I ask questions, take notes, and discuss with you, my client, what the goals are for the session and also discuss the pertinent history of receiving bodywork. I continue by assessing my client's soft-tissue dysfunctions, range of motion issues, pain and sensitivity. I begin working with my client treating the problems layer by layer, opening the body to the idea of change, of a new way to be.

Not all dysfunctions and patterns can be reversed in a single session. Frequently we've spent a lifetime building our own pain; it may take a few sessions to begin to unwind it.

I close each session with more discussion, and with suggestions and plans for future treatment.

I always work professionally and within the scope of practice for therapeutic massage.

I devote select Saturdays to massage, to exploring new bodywork methods, and to practicing acupressure, energy work, and shamanic healing. If you'd be interested in any of these methods, please contact me: (256)337-1699, or click here to book on-line with me.

What I don't and/or can't do, and what I'm not trained in

spa treatments; I'm just not set up for it
fluff 'n buff massage; I have not enough patience for it
purely feel-good "Swedish" massage; I always add some "work" to my great relaxation massage!
hot-stone therapy: not that it's not good, just that I'm not good at it yet.
reflexology
cranial-sacral work; although this is on my list of things to learn

My Shamanic Training and Healing Sessions

2005-11-10T21:49:00.034-06:00

I am a trained shamanic healer, a shamanic practitioner who practices the shamanic healing arts of

Shamanic Extraction: Removing Energetic Intrusions
Soul Retrieval, Soul Restoration
Soul-Guiding, also known as Psychopomp
Shamanic Energy work
Working with Ancestors and Past Life Healing and Information
Power Animal Retrieval
Illuminations in the Peruvian tradition
Initiated Mesa carrier in the Peruvian tradition

About Shamanism, in general

Click here to book a shamanic healing session on-line with me

I have been doing shamanic journey and healing work since the summer of 2005 when I had my first amazing experience with shamanic journeying. It changed me, and re-confirmed for me that healing and bodywork is what I'm here to do. I offer shamanic healing sessions and I teach and facilitate shamanic workshops, both beginning and advanced, in Huntsville, Alabama.

Link to the Shamanic Workshop Schedule

I have also received advanced training in shamanism from the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, studying with Dana Robinson, and have also studied with Joana Shinkara, a Foundation-trained urban shaman who studied closely with Michael Harner of the Foundation. Much of my recent training has been with Betsy Bergstrom and with Ana Larramendi in Wisconsin.

The shaman is the "hollow bone" through which healing passes from Spirit to the client. As shamanic practitioner, I don't "do" anything to effect a healing. I follow the directives of Spirit in the form of my healing allies - Spirit really does the healing, not me. As far as I have been able to determine via DNA testing, there is virtually no Native American blood in my family and I do not claim that lineage. From the beginning, my shamanic journeys had a distinctly Celtic flavor to them, and continue to do so.

If you would like to know more about my shamanic healing work, please do not hesitate to call or email me. Typically my shamanic sessions take place away from the massage office, either at your home, in nature, or in a conducive healing space. I also do shamanic work via request. Email me or call me for this work if you are interested. I can be reached at 256~337~1699 and also at Jeffrey . Rich @ gmail . com

I am a primary facilitator for the Huntsville Shamanic Drumming Circle, co-organizing and facilitating a monthly healing shamanic drumming circle. Shamanism is an inclusive spiritual healing practice focusing on unity and balance and is not a religion. Its tenets are:

Everything is Alive
Everything is Aware and Conscious
Everything is Dynamic and Changing
Everything is Connected
Everything Responds

To learn more about what shamanism is and is not, and how its healing modalities can help you live, balance and heal, please visit one of these links:

* The Foundation for Shamanic Studies Michael Harner's 501(c)(3) non-profit educational foundation and home to much information about shamanism and shamanic training

* Sandra Ingerman a site about Sandra, about Soul Retrieval and about Earth Healing

* Shaman Tracks Dana Robinson's shamanism web site

* David Lee Lang's article on Dream Weaving, describing a little bit about the nature of the five tenets of shamanism (above), and how they can be used in shamanic healing. David Lang says so much, and says it so well, please visit his site!

A Personal Statement
I believe that we are all part of one human family, and that everything is connected. Nothing exists that is not in connection to the whole, to Source, Great Spirit, the Tao. Touching one thing touches all others; touching the body also touches one's spirit. I hope that my healing philosophy is one that indeed grows corn.

Thanks for reading :-)

Continuing Education

2005-11-10T21:46:00.003-06:00

(reverse chronological order)

Jin Shin Do Module II, Part 3 2009
Jin Shin Do Module II, Part 2 2009
Jin Shin Do Module II, Part 1 2009
Massage for People Living with Cancer, 22 Hrs, Jan 2007
Jin Shin Do Acupressure Advanced, 30 Hrs, Feb 2006
Acupressure Hip and Leg, 13 Hrs, Nov 2005
Reiki III, 15 Hrs, Mar 2005
Jin Shin Do Acupressure Head/Neck, 15 Hrs, Mar 2005
Jin Shin Do Acupressure Intermediate, 55 Hrs, Apr 2004
Jin Shin Do Acupressure Basic, 48 Hrs, Jun 2003
Breath and Bodywork, 7 Hrs, Dec 2002
Indian Head Massage, 7 Hrs, Jan 2002
Jin Shin Do Acupressure Shoulders/Chest, 16 Hrs, Jun 2001
Jin Shin Do Acupressure Head/Neck, 16 Hrs, Mar 2001
Myofascial Therapy II, 16 Hrs, Jan 2001
Reiki II, 7 Hrs, Sep 2000
Orthopedic Massage Certification, 70 Hrs, Jun 2000
Reiki I, 7 Hrs, Dec 1999
Healing Touch, 18 Hrs, Aug 1999
Myofascial Therapy I, 12 Hrs, Jul 1999

Imminent

Certification as Registered Jin Shin Do Acupressurist! (2011!)

Credentials, Training and Experience

2005-11-10T21:22:00.002-06:00

The Technical Stuff

B.S. Computer Science, Duke University, 1984
Software developer, 1982 - 1999, UNIX administrator and general software wizard-in-training

The Bodywork Stuff

Massage Diploma, Healing Arts School of Massage, 1999
Alabama Massage Therapy License granted May, 1999
Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork
Student teacher and administrator, Healing Arts School of Massage, 1999 - 2001
Orthopedic Massage Certification from OMERI, Spring 2000
Massage Therapy Instructor, Madison School of Massage Therapy, 2004-2005. Wrote and taught the basic massage therapy curriculum, including Musculoskeletal Anatomy (Anatomy and Kinesiology) and Massage Theory and Practice I courses.
Currently working towards a Jin Shin Do Acupressure Practitioner certification (290+ hours so far and counting ...)

I graduated from the Healing Arts School of Massage, oblivious to the absolutely wonderful massage education that I had just been given. When I began taking continuing education courses and interacting with my colleagues in the wider massage world, I soon realized the magnitude of the gift I had been given, and also began to deeply understand how privileged I was to have gone to that particular school.

The Healing Arts School of Massage was unique in my experience in that for the first half year it presented the basic massage theory and practice curriculum. For the second half-year it then focused on teaching us injury assessment and rehabilitation and driving home our anatomy lessons, drawing on the extensive training and experience of its two main instructors. Most schools teach only the basics of Swedish massage, assuming that each therapist will augment his/her training with pertinent continuing education. We were fortunate to get a huge chunk of advanced work under the tutellage of two excellent clinicians right off the bat.

Our school focused on anatomy, on knowing the structure and the physiology, as well as on the physiological processes of injury and healing. This gives me the ability to precisely tailor my work so that it matches the current physiological processes of my client's dysfunction. This is knowledge and skill that not many massage therapists possess, and I am very luck and grateful to have it ad my disposal.

I was a teaching assistant in the Anatomy and Kinesiology portions of the curriculum at Healing Arts School of Massage for two years following my own graduation. During those years I edited course materials for the entire curriculum, lectured and assisted in the classroom, tutored, and helped make curriculum changes for the coming years. For those two years I also co-created and ran the Continuing Education department along with my friend and business partner Judy Castrichini.

In 2003 and 2004 I had the opportunity to create a curriculum from scratch for a new school, the Madison School of Massage Therapy. I taught Theory and Practice I and Anatomy and Kinesiology courses, as well as designed and taught the Hydrotherapy course and the National Exam Review course. I had the wonderful good fortune to have twelve of the best students a person could ask for in his very first solo class. All but one of those students passed the National Exam on their first try, and the twelfth student missed hers by literally less than a handful of points. I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity and experience of seeing the school take shape and of watching as a whole roomful of people blossomed over the course of a year!

I have been a featured speaker at Continuing Education seminars for nurses, have spoken to Physicians and healthcare providers at two local hospitals, and have given presentations at the local AIDS clinic, to nursing homes and to one of my local Hospice organizations. I am also currently preparing a series of lectures for the general public about the benefits and uses of massage therapy, and on the variations and types of massage therapy.

Jeffrey's Bio

2005-11-10T21:09:00.004-06:00

Please read on; I'm not your typical massage therapist:

I graduated from Duke University in 1984 with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, one semester shy of an Electrical Engineering degree. I worked as a software developer from 1982 until 1999 when I left my job as a software developer at Sirsi to become a massage school administrator and to begin my private massage therapy practice.

I sing professionally, recently appearing in the North American debut of Francesco Cavalli's La Didone in the Washington D.C. Baroque Festival, and will be appearing with Apollo's Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra during their 2006-2007 season of concerts and recordings. I also sing here in Huntsville with Vox Angelica, a five-voice a capella ensemble (Christmas Concert coming up Dec 15th and 16th!), and with the Zefiro Series, a non-profit Baroque production company dedicated to bringing quality Baroque music to the Huntsville area.

For bodywork, I am a Licensed Massage Therapist and a Licensed Massage Therapy Instructor in the state of Alabama and have taught at two massage schools where I have authored and edited massage texts and have created massgae therapy curricula. I love teaching, and specialize in the teaching of musculoskeletal anatomy. I am working on a small book of study methods for students and professionals in the massage field.

Click here to experience the magic that is Jeffrey Rich, LMT

As you see, I'm an eclectic guy. Being a true Gemini, I love everything, and I have a shallow knowledge of it all. My truest and most abiding love is finding out how things work and troubleshooting problems. This served me well in the engineering and software worlds (did I say I was only one semester shy of an Electrical Engineering degree? No? Well, the course, Physics of Semiconductors did me in, alas, and I transferred into the Arts and Sciences school to ultimately get that CS degree), and serves me equally well in the field of massage. I always want to know why. I think that is what's behind my total love of anatomy and Kinesiology, the way that our bodies move. Bodies are wondrously complex things, and I never tire of working with them and divining their secrets.

My summer jobs have been just as varied as my interests:

in 1979 I was a research assistant at Florida State University working with an electron accelerator (an ancient 2 MeV Van de Graaf thing complete with cool-o control panels), for which project we were working to optimize electrostatic precipitators that are now routinely used in coal-burning power plants to reduce H2SOx particulate emissions. And it was fun, too!
in 1980 I worked in the pharmacy I had worked in during High School as a pharmacy tech
in 1982 I was on the installation crew of our church's new tracker pipe organ, since I was just hanging around taking pictures of the install ...
in 1983 the same company hired me to work on the installation crew of the largest tracker pipe organ at that time in the US at the University of Texas at Austin in the Bates Recital Hall. That was a dream summer! I mitered pipes, got to make some of the pipes from scratch, rolling out the lead and forming the pipes; I had a hand in installing every facet of the instrument, did the voicing for the Ruekpositiv, and did the entire rough tuning myself. What a blast!
1984 saw me as a singing waiter at the now-defunct Farm House Restaurant. I was the first (and possibly only) second-generation Farm House waiter, my Father having worked for them in the summers when he was in college. Oy. What a job. Worked like a dog. Gave me good incentive to stay in college.

My work-work has seen me assisting an EPA contracting company in setting wood-stove emissions, ridding the world of toxic drycleaning fluids, tracking Dioxin levels, and setting the standards for ground-water leakage of gasoline.

As a big boy, my summers have consisted of musical instruction at the Baroque Performance Institute, and most recently at the Vancouver Baroque Festival in breathtakingly beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia.

I speak basic German and broken Dutch and Spanish, am learning French, can pronounce Italian, and I know a few words of Japanese and Chinese. I'm a fantastic mimic; when I travel abroad, I can pick up the sound and inflection of a language so well that when I speak, people think I'm native.

I've gotten good reviews for my singing from the Cleveland Plain Dealer for my work as Evangelist and soloist in the Baroque Performance Institute's production of J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

I'm a student and enthusiast of Origami, the art of paper-folding. If you come to my office, you'll see my handiwork.

I love cool lamps and also love inventing new ways of bringing light to a room. I've got an eight-foot tall lamp with Origami shades on it in my living room that I made from an idea.

Just like Black Elk, I believe that the circle is the most perfect shape. I believe that it is one of the most holy shapes, too. To me the circle reaffirms that we're all connected; that all things are part of a whole.

Five is my favorite number.

Any prime number is my second-favorite number. My last two addresses (before my present one) were both semi-prime, being products of two primes.

I possess slight synesthesia: I hear light when it is extreme or changes rapidly, and I feel the shapes of things such as weeks, calendars and phone numbers. I've always suspected that I might have autistic tendencies ...

I'm co-owner of one company and sit on the board of two non-profit corporations of which I am also co-founder.

My IQ is in the neighborhood of 138. I have a friend who has an IQ of 152 which puts me in awe of her.

I'm very verbal and also extremely visual; I have eidetic memory for certain things, especially strings of numbers. The VIN number of my 1990 Honda CRX was JHMED8357LSO11116 (I loved that car! Drove it 278,000 miles on its original clutch), which I just typed from memory. Go ahead ... Google it or look it up in CarFax. I can remember telephone numbers, credit card numbers, addresses, and useless trivia like this with ease. But dates? Composers of music? History? What I ate for breakfast yesterday? Where I put my glasses? No way. *sigh*

The visual thing helps me when it comes to visualizing muscles and underlying structures as I'm doing massage. I can see in my mind's eye precisely what's underneath my fingers and what may be going on to cause a specific problem.

I write fiction (not for the public), and also draw and am learning to paint in watercolor. I'm pretty awful at the painting, but really, really love it. My drawing ability is decent.

I have sung songs in every imaginable clef: Soprano, Alto, Mezzo-Soprano, French Violin Clef, Tenor, Baritone, Bass, and I can sing in neumes. I was born to chant; must have been a monk in a former lifetime.

I have two series of twenty-five or so black and white photographs in the archives at the Duke University Perkins Library.

I'm a mediocre keyboard player. I was a really good oboe player. I'm a decent recorder player. I'm learning to play the viola da gamba. I still take voice lessons, both from my mother, and from Ellen Hargis.

For a period of ten years I lived without running hot water, indoor plumbing, or central air and heat (but I had dial-up internet and a state-of-the art computer!). I heated with wood. And heated my water on a wood stove. My bedroom in that place was a lean-to, an old rabbit-hutch that had a Lexan ceiling where I could see the stars at night but no heat, so I slept with longjohns, a hat, and underneath two down comforters. The coldest it ever got in my bedroom was in the low single-digits. I loved every minute of it. If I can live there, I can live anywhere.

I've hiked portions of the Appalachian trail, taken multiple-day overnight bike trips, and have SCUBA dived in the Florida Keys and in her fresh-water Springs. At one time I could free-dive to about 45 feet and hold my breath underwater for about two minutes.

I approach life with the attitude that everyone is my friend. Sometimes I have to reassess. But not usually.

I'm an avid reader and love movies, especially funny ones. Violence, confrontation and jump-out-and-go-BOO makes me ill.

I've travelled in Germany, Czech Republic, France, and England, and have spent a month in Austria when I was twelve and just learning German. I've shopped at Caron's chic boutique in Paris for perfume. And was amazed at the subtleties of scent! And they really do pour it out of that urn for you.

I've done a lot of applications programming in my day. I've built large-scale SQL database applications. I think SQL is pretty cool as a mathematical abstraction and tool, but rather unpredictable in terms of server resource requirements. I feel the same way about Ethernet: it works fine until it doesn't. Indeterminate, unpredictable throughput. Token-ring, now there's a fabulous, predictable, graciously-degrading network architecture! Except when the token falls out.

I've designed and installed very large scale token-ring networks that interface with SNA mainframe networks. On very, very young PC hardware. Where I had to hard-wire interrupts and memory locations for the software drivers. For 150+, differently-configured machines. Yehah.

I TCP/IP. I was once a Novell CNE. I grok communications.

In my massage room, I've talked to clients about rocket engineering, laser-sighting (yo, Bev), CMOS settings for computers, acoustic vibration/damage problems to high-pressure pumps on orbital vehicles, satellites, telemetry, architecture, glass-blowing, art, language, and travel. I am a shamanic practitioner.

I'm not your typical massage therapist.

Click here to experience the magic.

Shamanic Extraction

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What is Shamanism?

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What is Shamanism?

"Shamanism is about being connected with nature, understanding that we are earth-based, the real and living knowledge which is then used for balance, health, relationship as well as success in all that is that we do. "

Shamanism is not a religion, but rather a spiritual practice which can comfortably go hand-in-hand with any religion. It is based on the animistic idea that everything is alive, everything is responsive. It is based on the supposition that if indeed those two things are the case, then we can be in dialog with everything, that everything is connected, and that what is changed anywhere is felt in the entire web of life. For a lengthier description, please use this link to read more on my shamanism web site.

The word "shaman" is a loanword, a word from the Tungus region which means roughly "one who sees" and "one who knows". To be a shaman is to see that which others do not see, to come to know that which others do not know. It is speculated by many that the abilities of a shaman are inherent in all humans, and that the practice of shamanism is millenia old.

How does a shamanic journey work?

The shaman uses some method to enter an altered state of consciousness, the "shamanic state of consciousness", or SSC to interact with the spirits of all that is alive. In my personal practice, this is done with the help of drumming; the repetitive drum beat is my "horse" that I ride into the Lower and Upper Worlds to interact with spirits in the form of my Power Animals and Upper World Teachers and Guides. In other societies, other methods may be used to enter the SSC; either via Peyote, Ayahuasca, Sufi dancing, or via some other entheogenic substance. I prefer drumming or rattling, as it is portable and quick, and I have a particular relationship with my drum and my rattles now after several years of mutual work together!

Once in the SSC, I commune with my spirit allies, those representations of all-that-is-alive who have chosen to work with me, and with whom I have a good relationship. I ask them for clarification about my client's problem or issue, and they give me information in a form that is meaningful for my client. Generally this comes to me in the form of images, words, smells, feelings, or in some other sensate form, and may mean little to me. I have learned over the years and through hundreds of journeys to pay attention to even the slightest detail of my journey, as everything in SSC has meaning for my client, though not necessarily for me.

The shaman is the hollow bone, the messenger who brings information back from the world of the spirits to our Ordinary State of Consciousness, the OSC. S/He is the spirits' eyes and hands when doing healing work here in OSC.

A software developer's analogy is that being inside a shamanic journey is like working in a debugger: you have access to an immense amount of information about your current environment that you may not ordinarily have when accessing information via the standard interface. Shamanism is sort of like life's back door.

A Typical Shamanic Healing Session

A typical session goes something like this: I prepare sacred space before my client arrives. This is done with songs and "smudging" using the smoke of white sage to clear and purify myself, the space, and the tools that I may use during the session. If I am in a place where smudging is inappropriate, I use "Florida Spirits", an infusion of sage, tobacco, sweetgrass and other sacred herbs. My drum and my rattles are some of the tools that I use. During the preparation, I ask my spirit allies to come and be of help, and to be of help to all beings for the highest good. When my client arrives, I smudge him or her, and we discuss the issue at hand. I then embark on an informational journey, where I ask my healing allies about clarifications of the client's issue, necessary healing steps, and for any other pertinent information that might be applicable to the situation. I return and discuss what I've been shown and told, and ask the client's permission to do the actual work.

At this point, my client may either give consent to continue, or may not wish some or all of the healing work to be attempted or completed. Being a trained massage therapist, I operate from a model of "informed consent": that is, I always tell the client what is indicated, explaining what and why I think the work is needed. If my client assents, I resume the healing steps indicated by the allies using as many or as few journeys as are needed to complete the work. If my client does not wish the work to be done, we are complete.

Sometimes the allies give "homework" or "after-care" instructions to me and/or to my client. I explain what these are, to the best of my abilities. Sometimes I don't know why a particular suggestion is given; being the messenger, the hollow bone, I merely pass them along. Usually the suggestion has meaning to my client. In the case of Soul Restoration, sometimes known as Soul Retrieval, there may be a time of integration of new energies that might last for some days or weeks after a healing session. If soul energy has been returned and re-integrated, I let my client know what this might entail.

After we are complete, I drum and release my spirit allies, thanking them for assisting me and answering my client's needs at this time. There may or may not be indications for future healing sessions.

A typical healing session may involve one or more shamanic healing modalities.

Shamanic Workshops Schedule

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Held in Huntsville, Alabama

March 20,21 2010		Workshop: Basic Shamanism Joana Shinkara Morris
April 3,4 2010		Advanced Workshop: TBA Joana Shinkara Morris
TBA 2010		Advanced Workshop: "Soul Retrieval" Val Nunnely Sandra Ingerman-authorized instructor

If you would like to attend one of these workshops, please contact me at 256~337~1699 or

via email at jeffrey . rich @ gmail . com.