Shaman Healer Apprenticeship Training
Year Three
How to become a Shaman Apprentice
Ancestral Healing
With the DNA of our foremothers and fathers, we also carry their memories, their life patterns, their strengths and their weaknesses. By learning to use ceremony and ritual, we can become closer to our ancestral lineages. When our ancestors are aligned, they are truly standing behind us as pillars of strength, wisdom and healing. But if there are unresolved issues, these can have a major effect on our own lives. Patterns are replayed as echoes from the past, and these issues, or problems that weren’t fully resolved, can hang over us and create disharmony and blocks. By returning to the ancestors, and cultivating a healthy ancestral spirit, we are able assist in easing earlier troubles, cultivate forgiveness and gratitude, and catalyse healing for the benefit of all our family lineage: to heal the past in order to live more freely in the present.
Death and Psychopomp
In other Shamanic societies, death was fully embraced as one of life’s journeys for which we must prepare. In our society, we struggle to let our loved ones go, and it becomes quite hard for them to navigate their way to the next world. Our ancestors created important places in nature, with stone circles and long barrows to honour the dead and their passing into the afterlife. This work is known as psychopomp meaning guiding of the souls. As shamanic healers, we will learn how to offer rituals and ceremonies to honour the dead and support this transition. Understanding the process can help illuminate a greater understanding of what dying means for us, our loved ones, and our society.
Earth Wisdom
This part of our training marks our understanding of the commitment that it takes to really embody the role of the shaman. Earth wisdom entails working with or dreaming with the land through ritual and ceremony. The earth holds a lot of magic and the potential for healing, despite the ravages wrought by us over centuries. To work as healers is to be in service to the land, and to feel the deep calling of our ancestral dreamers. We visit and dream with ancestral stone sites, sacred springs, the sea and ancient trees. We begin to work closely with the spirits of these places and to build relationships with the healing that these places have to offer.
Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage is a journey undertaken for a spiritual or religious purpose, a way of seeking new meaning about ourselves: of growing and learning; of reflecting and, perhaps, of letting go. Pilgrimages occur in many religious and cultural settings, and this ancient pursuit still has the ability to enable us to step outside time, to walk and journey to a known or unknown destination to seek greater and deeper insight. From Year 1, we undertake small pilgrimages to visit ancient sites on our Kent lands and lay offerings to the spirits.
We also undergo a pilgrimage of initiation on the final weekend of the third year, where we walk all the way to Canterbury, the pilgrimage capital of England. Our purpose is to reflect on three years of learning and healing and to test our courage, will and strength. Our walk offers another opportunity to invite the ancestors of the land to feel our footsteps upon the earth; to feel our commitment to the spirts and to the role of being in service as healers in our communities.
Mentoring Programme
Our mentoring programme lasts throughout the three years, enabling us to share and teach much deeper aspects of the shamanic healing process. Over the course of the programme, you will be able to explore ancient traditions and establish core principles in shamanism, principles that will assist in working with the spirits of our local lands. Here we have time to connect with one another, to listen to the progression of our stories and the moments of insight and healing that have taken place. This is also a nurturing place for us to grow our sense of community.
There are seven modules over the three years where you will receive group mentoring, three between year 1-2, and four between year 2 -3. You will be guided by Andy and his experiences as a dreamer, teacher, mentor, group leader, healer, artist and outdoors-man.
Integration
How we integrate healing and learning is one of the most difficult aspects of the entire apprenticeship process. There are four parts to our learning: Experience, Absorption, Integration and Wisdom.
The most important is Integration. We might have many experiences in life, but with no change to our behaviour and understanding, those experiences have taught us little. There is no denying that the process of integration is so often overlooked because it is the hardest. We might have listened well, we might have absorbed much of the teaching, but unless we also enact the changes within us, we have not integrated our learning and we have not gained wisdom. Shamanic work requires us to go beyond our comfort zone, to integrate our work in order to create the healing we need to bring into our lives and our communities.
Here at The Shamans Art, the bridging weekends and the mentoring programme are ways in which we offer support and assistance in this vital stage of learning.
Case Studies
Through years two and three, you will be asked to practise what you have learnt with home study work in the form of consultations. These give you the opportunity to practise, cultivate confidence and experience in safe surroundings, one stage at a time.
Certification
When you have completed the three-year apprenticeship and all your case studies you will be awarded a Certificate in Shamanic Healing. This three-year training will give you over 350 hours of shamanic work undertaken, and you will be able to get professional insurance with Insync Insurance.
What Happens After The Three Years?
The end of the training is not the end of the journey. As you take your first steps out into the shamanic healing world, we offer ongoing guidance and support however needed.
We also invite apprentices to come back and help with the newer trainees to support our growing community of shamanic healers. You have the opportunity to step into your teacher role and deepen your relationship with your own inner mentor and gain more confidence in your ability to live from your own wisdom and become a more confident healer.
To come back into the woods, is like a quickening, a re-membering, and a deepening relationship with all that you now know.
How to apply to become a Shamanic Healer Apprentice?
Applying to become a shamanic apprentice will involve a telephone/zoom call interview to see you suitability for the commitment needed for the three years. We would also recommend anyone interested in becoming an apprentice to join one of our intro days or visit us for a one to one healing session.
Embarking on the shamanic practitioner training with Andy has been a life changing and life affirming experience. There is a wonderful mix of personal growth and challenge alongside learning a new craft and skill set. Andy is a down to earth and humble teacher and I liked the way he held space for us, being in his authority as a teacher, support, healer, guide and space holder with the upmost integrity and humility.
The woods where the training takes place have become a special place for me and a spiritual home alongside the group and Andy. You are looked after well by the wonderful cook and the sense of community that becomes a part of this training is a wonderful element to it.
Andy is so down to earth and humble, and I found this comforting and reassuring throughout the entire training. He really brings himself as a person to the group and all that the training involves and you feel he is by your side cheering you on.
I’ve had a wonderful time over the course of this training, full of shamanic dreaming, healing, love, personal challenge, spiritual growth and learning. I’m very glad to have done my training with The Shamans Art. It has given me life-long beautiful memories and played a huge part in my spiritual journey.
I felt lucky to have been a participant of this course. To get such personal and focused attention is a rarity these days. The content was rich and covered a wide range of subject matter. Ididn’t feel we rushed through anything, the pacing was great. So much opportunity to get practical experience of what w were learning about made this special.I enjoyed the way Andy imparts the wisdom he has gained throughout his years of experience. Laughter is never far away which is a very good thing in this sort of work! I felt Andy held the teaching space with consistent ease and Itrusted his abilities.The yurt was a safe container for our dreamingto develop and we were given time and space to reflect upon what we were learning as we went.
I have completed the shamanic practitioner’s course which has been life-changing. Having the opportunity to work with Andy, with the fellow students, the guiding spirits and being in the woods has been profound and deeply transformative. It is so precious to be able to work with the elements, with nature and ourselves in a synchronised unfolding of reality and of our consciousness. Andy leads the group with intelligence, experience and a loving open heart. This work is incredibly sacred and precious and is a privilege to be part of this growing school. The healing process of the medicine wheel is transformative bringing strength, maturity and insight. We have all made wonderful bonds as brothers and sisters and we can’t wait to be back in the woods to enjoy the deep conversations, the warmth of the fire and to learn more about shamanism and ourselves.
Year 3
Year three works through the autumn/winter and spring months with four months of group mentoring. We meet again for two long weekends in the woodland during the summer and a third and final weekend which is a 5 day retreat for our pilgrimage to complete this stage of your learning.
The cost for Year 3 of the Shamanic Healer Apprenticeship Training is £1895.00
TO BECOME A FULLY QUALIFIED SHAMANIC HEALER YOU WILL NEED TO COMPLETE ALL THREE YEARS TO RECEIVE YOUR CERTIFICATE.