This is a topic I have discussed previously, but I want to return to it as clients often ask me in advance how they will feel after a session, and during the session they often ask me if what they are experiencing is normal?

 My answer to the former is I don’t know. I will return to this in a minute. My answer to the latter is that I really dislike the word normal. I hope we can all aspire to something beyond normal, as that is perceived in the Western world!

Abraham Maslow wrote about the innate drive to self-actualize and return to an essential human core that he saw as obstructed by Western culture. He stated that what socially defines a person as normal is, in reality, “psychopathology of the average,” a widespread sickness of inauthenticity, illusion, and fear.

Jiddu Krishnamurti famously said “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

And in his fantastic book, The Myth of Normal, Gabor Mate goes through many of the leading ‘industries’ in our society, such as health, education, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, and many more. He remarks how far what we have come to accept as normal in all these areas deviates from that which makes us and our societies and our planet, healthy and happy. Instead the Western mindset is driven by egotism (power and control) and the profit motive.

So, in my sessions I definitely intend that people will experience something beyond their normal, everyday consciousness. Whatever happens is welcome. As my husband George likes to say, in our space the ‘weird bar’ is pretty high!

That takes us back to what you might expect in a session. As each session is different, depending on people’s history/story, knowledge and experience, there is no standardised answer to how you might feel after. Some people leave feeling elated, lighter, as if they have released some deep fears or binding cords or repeating patterns. They may have received insights into their core wounds or what they have been carrying for ancestors. They want to go dancing or swimming in the sea. Others leave feeling exhausted, as if they have done 20 sessions of talking therapy or run a marathon rather than ‘just’ 90 minutes of shamanic work. They want to go home and sleep for the next 12 hours, then be gentle with themselves for several days afterwards.

So how will you feel if you come to see me? I don’t know. But what I do know is that the sessions instigate deep change by addressing core causes of dis-ease, not just symptoms (physical or mental). And even if the sessions are difficult at the time, leaving you feeling exhausted, that is often the nature of deep work and healing. The key is to allow time for integration and completion of the rituals that may have presented themselves during the session. I almost always suggest ‘homework’ and this is to embed what we have done in the session, or give ongoing tools to use to live more consciously each day, stepping out of victimhood into personal responsibility and autonomy.

As with many other practices, integration is key. The sessions are just the start of a new way of being. And so may it be.