This training is for those who already have a ritual healing practice who wish to broaden or deepen their scope of practice to include the forms of spirit-mediated healing work described below. Participants will grow their skills in the areas of ritual containment, psychopomp work, soul-part retrieval, energy body clearing, energy bind unraveling, and compassionate depossession. These methods comprise a core set of methods that support personal sovereignty, freedom, connection to the True Self, and creative resourcing.

Participants will be introduced to these practices in a progressive series developing technique, relationships with the healing spirits who facilitate the work, relational cosmologies, and confidence while working within the cohort. Each technique will be introduced in a three-day core training followed by a variable number of intervening practicums.

Module 1: Ritual Container Development and Self-Care

The External Container – A practitioner’s ritual container includes ritual boundaries, relationship with protective spirits, energetic resources, as well as functional elements that enable the work to happen with more ease and efficiency. The strength of your ritual container determines your capacity as a practitioner. In this module participants will work with refining and expanding their ritual healing containers in preparation for the work ahead.

The Internal Container – Ritual healing can be a path of spiritual initiation for clients as well as practitioners. Who we are has direct bearing on what we can do. Over the course of this training we will explore how the practitioner’s relationship with the work, personal cosmology, and state of consciousness influences what happens in the ritual healing context. Participants will be introduced to ways to increase core strength, clarity of perception, and personal and ancestral alignment.

Self Care – For a practice to be healthy and sustainable practitioners need to maintain boundaries with the work and have a regimen of self-care. This training will offer perspectives and methods for practical boundaries and self-care including tending patterns of overextension and dynamics derived from common archetypes expressed in the healing professions like the Rescuer and Martyr.

Module 2: Psychopomp Facilitation

The term “psychpomp” is a Greek term meaning a “conductor of souls”. The term is used more broadly in ritual healing practices to refer to any situation in which a spirit transitions to another place or dimension of consciousness by crossing a threshold. This applies to deceased humans or other formerly corporeal beings who have not crossed the threshold of death, as well as non-corporeal spirits who need assistance relocating to their home dimension or location. Psychopomp work is the foundation of compassionate depossession and a common element of curse unraveling and soul-part retrieval. Practitioners will form relationships with the spirits who specialize in the psychopomp role and will be inducted into the practice of facilitating this sacred threshold work.

Module 3: Soul-Part Retrieval, Energy Body Work, and Sound Healing

Sometimes in the course of life we can become dissociated from aspects of ourselves often due to factors such as trauma, family of origin issues, accidents, and substance abuse. This state is called soul-part loss as those aspects of ourselves, in this context called soul parts, are experienced as missing from present life. Symptoms of soul-part loss include lack of vitality, creativity, personal empowerment, and sense of self. Soul-part loss can also contribute to patterns of addiction and some illnesses. The soul-part retrieval process helps re-associate the client with these aspects of self, making the qualities of the soul parts available for reintegration. Practitioners will learn how to return a client’s essential energy to them and clear non-self energy from the physical and energetic bodies. Practitioners will also be introduced to methods of using sound for these purposes.

Module 4: Energy Bind Unraveling: Curses, Soul Contracts, Thought-forms, and Ancestral Themes

Energy binds are persistent energy constructs that can have positive or negative effects on our lives depending on their intended effects and match with current circumstances. Energy binds act as curses when they generate negative conditions. Energy binds in the mental body lead to repeated thought patterns called thought-forms. Curses and thought-forms are common factors contributing to limiting conditions in life such as bad luck, illnesses, dysfunctional and recurring family patterns, and lack of personal power. Past life or ancestral vows, oaths, contracts, and beliefs can also be factors that limit personal freedom, well-being, and abundance. Participants will learn a process for unraveling such patterns.

Module 5: Compassionate Depossession

Possession, or overshadowing, is a state in which a person’s experience is influenced by another conscious being who is sharing their physical and energetic space. Possession can be intentional or unintentional and can be the result of trauma, soul-part loss, soul history karma, insufficient boundaries with our ancestral dead, and incidental circumstances. Possession is a natural, if often undesirable, occurrence that can lead to or be a factor in a number of issues including some chronic illnesses and physical pain, addictions, obsessions, depression, anxiety, identity confusion, and suicidal tendencies. Depossession, when indicated, can be the most effective component of a treatment, helping to resolve issues that are resistant to other forms of healing work. Participants will learn the method of compassionate depossession developed by Betsy Bergstrom. This method is a humane therapy that benefits both the clients and possessing spirits, working in harmony with the structure and principles of natural order.