About Shamanic Practices
Shamanic practices are found in many forms throughout human history and across cultures around the world. While the word shaman has a particular cultural and linguistic history, today the terms shamanism and shamanic practices are also used more broadly to describe practices that involve entering non-ordinary states of consciousness, connecting with the natural and unseen worlds, seeking guidance and healing, and participating in ceremony and ritual.
At HCH, we use the term shamanic practices intentionally.
We are not teaching the sacred ceremonies or spiritual traditions of any particular Indigenous people, nor do we suggest that completing our program makes someone a traditional Indigenous shaman. We approach the many cultures that have maintained earth-centered, animistic, ceremonial, and shamanic traditions with respect and recognize that particular practices belong within their own cultural contexts.
Our focus is on experiential practices that can help students develop their own relationship with nature, spirit, their ancestors, themselves, and the communities in which they live.
A Practice of Direct Experience
One of the foundations of our work is direct experience.
Rather than asking students to adopt a particular set of spiritual beliefs, we teach practices that invite exploration. Students learn to journey, listen, observe, ask questions, work with imagery and helping spirits, and discover what has meaning for them through their own experience.
Shamanic journeying uses focused attention and an altered or non-ordinary state of consciousness to explore what we often call the unseen world. Repetitive sound, such as drumming or rattling, may be used to support this state.
Within a journey, people may encounter animals, ancestors, teachers, landscapes, symbols, or other forms of guidance. We encourage students to develop relationships with what they encounter rather than relying on predetermined interpretations.
If an animal appears in your journey, for example, your first question does not need to be, “What does this animal symbolize?”
You can ask the animal.
That relationship—curious, respectful, and direct—is central to the way we practice.
Relationship and Reciprocity
Shamanic practice is not only about what happens during a journey.
It can also be a way of paying closer attention to how we live in relationship—with ourselves, other people, our ancestors, the natural world, and the mystery of what we cannot fully know.
An important principle in our teaching is reciprocity: recognizing that relationship involves both receiving and giving.
We practice gratitude. We learn to listen. We explore ceremony. We notice our relationship with the land and the living world around us. We consider what it means to receive guidance or healing and then carry that relationship into the way we live.
What We Explore at HCH
Students in the HCH Shamanic Practitioner program develop a foundation in practices that may include:
Shamanic journeying and working with helping spirits
Developing relationships with the natural and unseen worlds
Ceremony and ritual
Working with ancestors and ancestral healing
Soul loss and soul retrieval
Energetic clearing and extraction
Personal healing and self-exploration
Ethics, boundaries, and responsible practice
Reciprocity, gratitude, and community
Integrating shamanic practices with hypnotherapy and other healing modalities
Some of these practices have parallels in traditions from many parts of the world. When we discuss culturally specific teachings or practices, we strive to identify their sources and understand them within their cultural context rather than presenting them as universal “shamanic” traditions.
Shamanic Practitioner Rather Than Shaman
At HCH, we generally use the term shamanic practitioner rather than teaching students to call themselves shamans.
In many traditional cultures, becoming a healer or ceremonial person involves a particular lineage, community, calling, apprenticeship, or responsibility that cannot be conferred through a Western training program.
Our certification represents training in shamanic practices.
What students do with those practices—and the relationships, wisdom, humility, and responsibility they develop through them—is an ongoing journey.
Learning in Community
Although journeying can be a deeply personal experience, much of this work becomes richer when practiced in community.
We learn from our own experiences, and we also learn by listening to one another. Different people can enter the same journey with the same intention and return with remarkably different experiences. There does not need to be one correct answer.
Our goal at HCH is to create a supportive learning community where people can explore these practices with curiosity, discernment, respect, and an open heart.
We encourage students to remain curious about what they experience, question what they are taught, respect the origins of practices they encounter, and allow their understanding to deepen over time.
Shamanic practice is, after all, a practice—a relationship that continues to grow through experience, attention, reciprocity, and participation.