Finding a qualified shaman

I’m going to be upfront with you. Working with a shaman comes with risks. It’s the Wild West out there, as there are no legally defined rules and standards. In the end, the responsibility falls to the individual to choose carefully whom they work with. That said, if you find a solid practitioner, the payoff is unparalleled.

Trade Off

I know part-time practitioners who charge little and are masters at their craft. I’ve also seen well-known shamans who perform subpar sessions and demand high prices. In fact, there are a few you couldn’t pay me to see as a client.

When working with a shaman, there are going to be trade-offs. Maybe it’s their schedule, price, professionalism, availability, or bedside manner. Shamans are masters of Spirit, but are often comically bad at material details.

Psychedelics vs Non-Psychedelics

You can divide the shamanic path into practitioners who use psychedelics and those who don’t. While I used psychedelics at the beginning of my journey, I haven’t used them in years. Rather than turn this article into a dissertation on why I stopped using them, I want to emphasize that their use carries the highest risk-to-reward ratio.

It’s exceedingly difficult for the average person to vet the work of a shaman who uses plant medicines. When you’re under the influence, you’re consumed by your experience. Unless you’re a professional, it’s hard to know what the shaman is up to in the background.

In comparison, it’s much easier to get a feel for a practitioner who doesn’t use psychedelics. You can tell a lot about a person after an hour of working with them, especially when your judgment is intact! In fact, in my work, I help my clients sharpen their discernment, which is difficult on the psychedelic path.

Trained or Not

There are countless shamanic training programs. As you can imagine, their quality varies widely. Unfortunately, even the best ones suffer from grade inflation, and nearly everyone who pays for the programs graduates with a ‘certification’.

That said, I would rather work with someone who trained at a well-known program than with someone who didn’t. There are excellent self-taught practitioners who are not part of a shamanic lineage. However, they are few and far between. More often than not, people without training are seriously unqualified.

Psychic Surgery

Without fail, the best practitioners I’ve seen have a poor bedside manner. They are single-mindedly focused on the quality of their work, and it shows. They can be slightly cold and unemphatic toward their clients’ emotions.

At first, that seems counterintuitive. At the start of my journey, I assumed their energetic abilities produced a spiritual and moral clarity that led to a shaman becoming an all-loving saint. That couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Eventually, I realized that most shamans are actually psychic surgeons. In their view, their job isn’t to talk about how you feel but to break an ancestral curse or remove an entity from your energy field. Their focus is on realities deeper than your passing emotions.

You can imagine the conflict that creates with clients. Many people seek out a shaman to feel better. They are seeking someone akin to a priest or therapist, and instead are getting a surgeon! The surgeon doesn’t expect you to leave their office in a peaceful place. However, you will go home mended. Plus, a few weeks down the road, a sense of peace will grow as you realize how much better you actually are.

Fixing Bad Energy Work

What should you do if you’ve received bad energy work? Maybe, you’re not even sure if you have, but something just feels off. It can be daunting to take another risk and work with someone else. And yet, that’s exactly what my advice would be.

You don’t have to. You can allow time to run its course. With enough time and persistence, life typically works itself out. That said, the fastest way to address it is for a practitioner to return to the invisible world to sort it out.

What’s the upside?!

Given the risks involved, why would anyone want to receive energy work? Shamans deal with ghosts, curses, cords to toxic relationships, soul loss, and more. Their work reaches into realities that other professions can’t address. Sometimes, they’re the only person for the job.

When you work with a qualified practitioner, you’ll notice thematic shifts in your life. You may not leave each session feeling incredible, but you’ll feel more anchored in who you are. Six months down the road, you’ll likely have stepped into a new chapter of your life. The upside is depth, freedom, and clarity.