A Client-Led Journey Through Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit
Somatic Shamanism is a holistic healing approach that works with the whole person, mind, body, soul and spirit. It brings together somatic awareness, inner parts work and shamanic healing, because the mind only knows so much. Real, lasting change happens when we work at the level where patterns are actually held, not just where we think about them.
You don’t need to believe in anything or identify as spiritual to benefit from this work.
Self-Energy
At the heart of this work is the concept of Self, not a constructed or improved version of you, but something that was always there. Beneath all the parts, beneath the noise and the patterns and the protection strategies, there is a core to your being that is calm, curious and compassionate. It doesn’t judge, it doesn’t panic, and it doesn’t need anything to be different from how it is right now.
For many of us, years of survival, coping and protecting have taken us further and further from that centre. One of the deepest gifts of this work is that it helps you reconnect with it, and from that place, you can begin to turn toward your parts with genuine care, hear what they’ve been carrying, and support them to heal.
Self was never lost. It was only covered, like the sun behind the clouds.
When we are disconnected from Self, we are often at the mercy of our parts, pulled between polarities, like the part that pushes you to keep going no matter what and the part that just wants to give up entirely, or the part that people-pleases and the part that secretly resents it. From inside those polarities, finding a middle ground feels exhausting and impossible.
When you are in Self, something different becomes possible. You’re not choosing between the parts, you’re holding them both with understanding. From that grounded centre, decisions feel clearer, responses feel more considered, and life feels less like being tossed between competing forces and more like being at the helm of your own ship.
The more you do this work, the more you live from Self, not perfectly, not all the time, but increasingly as your default.
The Three Elements
Somatic Work
We begin with your body. The actual sensations, feelings and felt sense that live in your physical experience, not just what your mind thinks is happening.
Trauma and emotional patterns don’t just live in our minds, they’re stored in the body. That tightness in your chest when you feel anxious. The heaviness in your limbs when you’re depressed. The knot in your stomach before a difficult conversation. These aren’t just symptoms. They are doorways to deeper understanding.
By attending to these sensations with curiosity rather than judgement, we create space for the body to speak, not only in words, but in images, memories, emotions, or simply shifts in sensation.
This is where healing that talk therapy alone can’t always reach begins.
Parts Work
We all have different parts of ourselves. Many of them are protectors, the inner critic who tells you you’re not good enough, the part that keeps you from taking risks, the people-pleaser who can’t say no, the angry part you try to hide. Beneath them lie the more vulnerable, wounded parts, the parts that still carry old pain, fear, or grief from experiences that were too much to fully process at the time.
Protectors developed for good reasons. They were trying to help you survive, cope, or stay safe. Many formed their strategies during difficult moments, often in childhood, and haven’t yet realised that you’ve grown, that circumstances have changed.
These protectors are shielding you from the wounded parts beneath, afraid that if those deeper feelings surfaced you’d be overwhelmed. They aren’t wrong to protect. But often their strategies have become extreme or rigid over time, driven by fear rather than necessity. They don’t always need to change what they do, sometimes they simply need to relax, to trust that you can handle what lies beneath. And as they do, the way gradually opens to reach the wounded parts they’ve been guarding so fiercely.
Rather than fighting against or trying to eliminate any of these parts, we work with them, approaching each one with compassion and curiosity. We listen to what they’re trying to protect. We honour their intention. And gradually, with the support of Self energy, we help them find more ease, and the healing that becomes possible when they do.
Once the protectors feel safe enough to relax, we can begin to connect with the wounded parts beneath, the exiles who have been waiting, often for a very long time, to be heard. These parts frequently want to share their story, to have their experience witnessed and acknowledged. When they feel truly seen and held, in the compassion of Self, supported by whatever shamanic presence feels right, something shifts. From that place of safety and trust, we can gently invite them into the unburdening process, where what has been carried for so long can finally be released. That process of release is explored more fully in the Shamanic Practice section.
Together, your parts form a kind of inner landscape, a living world within you that is rich, complex, and deeply worth knowing.
Shamanic Practice
This is the element that sometimes feels most unfamiliar.
You don’t need to believe in shamanism or identify as spiritual. There’s no performance or ritual, and you’ll never be asked to do anything that feels uncomfortable or foreign to you.
At its heart, shamanic practice here is about inviting in the spirit of animals, plants, stones, trees and ancestors, receiving their spirit medicine and healing energy to support the inner work.
These connections arise organically, never forced or manufactured. A spirit guide, a power animal, a plant or elemental presence may be invited in, or may arise spontaneously, offering exactly what is needed in that moment.
A helpful way to understand this: imagine a child who has been neglected or hurt by the adults in their life. Asking them to immediately trust another adult would be too much, too soon. But offer them an animal, something unconditionally loving, non-threatening, instinctively safe, and watch how naturally that connection forms. Something in them knows it is ok to open.
The same can be true internally. A part that has been exiled for a long time, buried beneath layers of protection, may not yet be ready to trust even the Self. In those moments, inviting in an animal guide or other shamanic presence can offer a gentler first point of contact, a bridge toward safety, connection and ultimately healing. The shamanic realm doesn’t replace the inner work. It deepens it, meeting each part exactly where it is.
What many people don’t realise is that shamanic experience is already woven through the process from the very beginning, without being named as such. When we invite a frightened part to sit beside a river, or ask what it needs and an animal appears, or release an old burden to the flame, these are shamanic experiences. Simple, natural, arising from within your own process rather than performed upon you.
Shamanism in this context isn’t something exotic or frightening. It is simply the language of the inner landscape, symbolic, elemental, alive. Most clients find that it feels completely natural once they are in it, even if the idea of it felt strange beforehand.
The unburdening process, the moment when a wounded part finally releases what it has been carrying for so long, is itself at its heart a shamanic act. It might happen through releasing to an element, offering pain to fire, letting grief flow into water, grounding heaviness into the earth. The body might feel called to release through breath, sound or movement.
Deeper Shamanic Work
Alongside the organic shamanic experiences woven through every session, some clients also choose to explore more intentional shamanic work – shamanic journeying and ancestral healing.
Shamanic Journeying
In a lower world journey, we begin by finding an opening in the earth, a cave, the roots of a tree, a gap in the rocks. Through this opening, you descend into the lower world.
The lower world is a place of beautiful landscapes, beaches, forests, mountains, lakes. It is the home of the spirits of animals, plants, trees and crystals, and of ancestral helpers who carry healing across time, a place of deep connection with the natural world.
From here, you are guided to meet your power animal or other helpers, to ask for healing or guidance, or to bring support to a part of yourself that needs it. The experience unfolds in its own way, through sensation, imagery, or simply a felt sense of presence and knowing. When the journey is complete, you return the way you came, bringing back whatever you received.
Ancestral Healing
Sometimes the wounds we carry are not entirely our own. Patterns of pain, fear, shame or loss can be passed down through generations, held in the family lineage long before we were born, yet showing up in our lives as if they were ours alone.
In shamanic work, we are not bound by linear time. It becomes possible to journey back through the lineage, to bring healing, compassion and resolution to the places where these wounds originated. When healing happens there, its effects ripple forward through time, touching not only you but those who came before and those who will come after.
This is some of the deepest work available in this practice. It doesn’t require you to know your family history in detail, the process finds its own way to what needs healing.
How It Actually Works in Practice
Because this work is entirely client-led and responsive to what emerges, no two sessions look exactly the same. But here’s a general sense of how we work together:
We start where you are You might come to the session with something specific you want to explore – a situation causing stress, a pattern you notice repeating, a physical symptom. Or you might simply arrive open to whatever needs support that day. Both approaches work beautifully.
We drop into the body After a brief conversation, I guide you through a gentle relaxation to help you ground and begin tuning into your physical sensations.
We follow what arises From here, the session unfolds organically. Sometimes we stay with a body sensation and let it reveal what it’s holding. Sometimes a part of you emerges that wants to be heard. Sometimes an image or memory surfaces. Sometimes you naturally drop into a deeper state where healing happens on its own.
My role is to guide you, hold safe space, and help you navigate whatever comes up – without pushing you towards any particular experience or outcome.
We integrate together Sessions often involve altered states of consciousness (not unlike deep meditation), so we always take time at the end to come back gently, talk through what happened, and help you make sense of the experience.
What Makes This Different from Traditional Therapy?
It goes beyond talking and cognitive understanding – you’re working directly with your body and felt sense, at the level where trauma and tension is actually stored.
It includes the spiritual dimension – if that’s meaningful to you. If it’s not, the work is still profoundly effective through the somatic and parts work alone.
It’s slower and deeper – sessions are 1.5 hours, not 50 minutes, because this work needs space to unfold.
You’re the expert on your own experience – I’m a guide and facilitator, but you access your own wisdom and healing capacity.
Is This Right for Me?
This work is for you if:
- You’re ready to commit to long-term healing, not quick fixes
- You’re willing to feel uncomfortable as part of the process
- You’re open to working with your body, not just your mind
- You sense there’s something deeper than what traditional therapy might reach
This work may not be right for you (at least not yet) if:
- You’re looking for advice or someone to tell you what to do
- You want symptom management without addressing root causes
- You’re not ready to feel what you’ve been avoiding
- You need crisis intervention (this is deep work, not emergency support)
Testimonial
“Working with Emma has accelerated my self-understanding and healing process faster than any other therapeutic approach I’ve tried. She is exceptionally skilled at holding safe space for me to explore my inner landscape, and her expertise in somatic IFS and shamanic practices has given me profound insights into my subconscious. I’ve learnt many things about myself that purely cognitive approaches hadn’t revealed.
The meditative component keeps me grounded and present while allowing me to access a state where imagination and intuition reveal deeper truths. Each session is unique and a pleasant surprise where we organically explore what arises in the moment. Sometimes deeper elements are discussed, other times she intuitively recognises when I need extended silence to fully be with a part of myself. Her ability to read what I need and guide me through both the verbal processing and the shamanic elements of the work shows her deep understanding of the healing process.
Over time, these sessions have helped me build a foundation of compassionate awareness, self-trust, and confidence within myself that I can access in daily life. Emma’s gift is creating a space where deep healing unfolds organically. I’m so grateful to have found her!”
Common Questions
Do I need to be able to visualise or journey? No. I used to think I couldn’t journey because I don’t have strong visual capacity, and I’ve learned that’s not necessary. Journeying can happen through sensation, knowing, emotion, or subtle felt sense.
What if the shamanic stuff feels too “out there” for me? That’s completely fine. We’ll work with what feels right for you. Some clients work primarily with somatic and parts work and find it deeply transformative.
What if I feel scared or resistant? Is this work safe? That’s completely normal and welcome. Often parts of you will arise that feel uncertain, protective, or scared of going deeper. We always meet these parts where they are – there’s no forcing or coercing. These protective parts usually have good reasons for their caution, and honouring them is part of the healing process. We work at your pace, within your window of tolerance. You’re always leading – if something feels too much, we slow down or shift approach.
How long does this process take? Healing isn’t linear, and there’s no fixed timeline. I recommend fortnightly sessions, and most clients work with me for months to years, not weeks. This is about lasting transformation, not quick fixes.
Can I do this online? Does it work as well as in-person? Yes – all my sessions are currently conducted via Zoom, and the work is just as effective online as in-person. In fact, being in your own safe, comfortable space (many clients work from their bed!) often supports the depth of this work. You’re in familiar surroundings where you can fully relax, and there’s no need to “pull yourself together” to drive home afterwards. The somatic and shamanic elements translate beautifully to online sessions – your body is still your body, wherever you are.
Ready to Explore Further?
If this resonates and you’re curious whether Somatic Shamanism might be right for you, I offer a free 30-minute consultation where we can talk about what you’re experiencing and whether this approach feels like a good fit.
[Email me to Book Your Free Consultation]
Or if you have questions, feel free to email me at emma@soundoursouls.co.uk.