work with me

Sound is profoundly important for us. Looking at life from the perspective of the quantum universe, all things are made up of vibrations of waves of electromagnetic energy- effectively we are made up of waves at a slow enough vibration to aggregate into material that appears to be solid. It’s just as well, although when considering sound healing and how this works, it is a useful thought experiment to see ourselves and the bodies we inhabit from a quantum perspective.

Sound is made up of waves set in motion that travel through air and can impact on anything that they come into contact with. For millennia natural healers have known the profound influence of sound upon the physical and energetic layers of the body, and these sessions tap into that technology.

In these sound healing sessions I will be focussing on the seven main chakras in the body, some of the organs of the body, and also the energetic, emotional and spiritual aspects. I use mainly my voice, making either toned sounds tuning into you and according to your body and what I feel intuitively that you need, and also whispered sounds that relate to different parts of your body. Sometimes I will also use tuning forks a gentle use of a drum and other subtle instruments to help you to shift energy in your body and to bring joy and relaxation.

With your permission I will do some hands-on healing during the sound healing as this proves to be an effective way of transmitting the healing energy and intention, although it is perfectly possible to receive the sound healing without this if it would feel more comfortable for you. We start the session with a conversation to give you a chance to speak about any particular issues you would like to bring to healing, or areas of the body specifically that you would like me to focus on.

You will be lying on a massage table for the sound healing part of the session, which lasts maybe 75 minutes or a little more.

Sound healing sessions are usually received as being deeply relaxing, sometimes to the point of entering sleep or a deeply meditative yet aware state of mind; sometimes the sound healing may be felt physically in the body as it helps you to shift and release energy that no longer serves you. When the session is complete you will have a chance to feel grounded and come back into your body and share a little about your experience with me if you want to.

The session as a whole takes approximately two hours, although I suggest that you allow a few hours of your day for this process, so that you may relax and have some time to yourself after the sound healing session itself has finished. Your investment for the session is £90.

Please contact me if you would like to book a session.

A private cacao ceremony is an opportunity for you to experience the magic of connection to cacao in your own time and space. It means that I will be able to make the ceremony to fit your needs and the intention that you have set for your healing for the ceremony. I would usually invite you to have a brief consultation with me via phone before making a booking so that you are sure that it will be the right thing for you and also that you may give me an idea in advance what it is you would like to work on for yourself.

I will prepare the cacao in advance before you arrive for the ceremony. There is time for you to speak about what you wish to bring to healing, or your intention for the ceremony. This is a chance for you to be witnessed and heard in what may be troubling you, and also for me to tune into your intention so that I may weave this into the way the guided visualisation part of the ceremony is presented.

I may also invite you to pick a tarot card to help with your intuition/ guidance for your journey with the cacao. For the main part of the ceremony you will be lying down on a massage table (or on the floor if you prefer) and I will take you on a guided visualisation to meet with the spirit of the cacao plant. This space most people experience as being deeply relaxing and they may receive profound insights into their inquiry. There will be guidance for you so that you may have enough mental imagery for the shamanic journey, but there will also be periods of silence so that you may meditate and deepen into your experience. I may also use instruments and occasionally my voice if appropriate to add a layer of sound healing to the journey.

When I feel that the journey is completed I will gently bring you back to the present day within the guided journey and you will have plenty of time to ground, come back into your body, write in a journal and talk with me about your journey if you wish to. You may wish to have a cup of herbal tea or a small snack like a piece of fruit to help you ground before going back into the every day. It is beneficial to have time to yourself after a ceremony as the messages will keep coming through from the cacao and you may feel in a more emotionally open and receptive, but also vulnerable space.

I ask guests to allow a whole afternoon or morning for these ceremonies as it is good not to be working to a time schedule. Usually they take about three hours, maybe a little more, and to get the most from your experience it’s good to have some time on your own afterwards to walk in nature, have a warm bath or whatever feels nurturing for you. Your investment for a private cacao ceremony is £120, and this includes the consultation via phone afterwards, the ceremony and an aftercare call if you need to reflect further on your experience with the cacao. Please contact me or arrange a free consultation.

I also run private group cacao ceremonies if you would like to arrange one for a group of friends or work colleagues, up to a maximum of 9 people. Please contact me to arrange.

I also run public group cacao ceremonies, which are advertised on my Bristol Cacao Ceremonies website.

Working with the master plant teachers has become more prevalent within the last twenty to thirty years and with good reason. These deeply intelligent plant spirits can help us to access the depths of what is in our soul and bring to the surface what needs to come into consciousness for our deepest healing. They can cut through laters of subconscious conditioning and ego defences in a way that many other therapies and healing modalities are not able to do. This means that the experience of journeying with them can be paradigm shifting for many people and it is important to have some idea of the territory that is to be entered into. It may be helpful to learn some techniques and tools to help navigate the experiences and to get the best from them.

It also maybe useful have some help in place with integrating the experiences afterwards if necessary. Sometimes traumatic memories may surface from childhood that have been suppressed by the body for decades as a way of defending against the pain and confusion and overwhelm that events caused at the time. Or it may be simply that the medicines may completely turn upside down our entire perspective on life in a very short period of time. This may be fascinating, amazing, releasing, joyful and the catalyst for being able to see one’s self and life from a totally different and more helpful perspective. However it may be disorientating or even disturbing for some people, particularly if the memories of trauma are difficult to come to terms with or have come seemingly out of the blue. It may be helpful to have a container for this experience, someone to speak to about it, beyond what may be offered as after-care from the plant spirit ceremony facilitators.

The process of integration after ceremonies is very important. It can take a few weeks to feel that one has fully arrived back in the body, during which time it is important to practice good self care and diet, and this includes everything that is consumed, including news media, social time, what happens at work, and other things that all impact upon the conscious and unconscious mind.

It is also important to understand how to use the insights that we receive from the ceremony work. The insights themselves won’t bring us to healing of what they have uncovered about our lives, although in the afterglow of the ceremony it may feel liberating to have gained these insights. If there are not integrated they can ultimately lead to feeling worse if then one continues the work with the plants and the issues are thrown into sharper relief but without the work that needs to happen on a daily basis that really allows us to change our habits and thought patterns.

In the work I offer I would use the analogy of a guide or a Sherpa. Working with the master plant medicines has been a passion for more than fifteen years, and it most certainly changed my life for the better. I will not know how any one person will experience the plant medicines as we are all different and our body-minds have been formed by our own individual experiences. However, I offer my experience as a psychospiritual counsellor in combination with my experience of master plant teachers for whatever you feel you may need, whether this is a preparation counselling/coaching session, or a listening and witnessing space to help you to integrate and make sense of your experiences after ceremony work.

Please contact me to book a free consultation.

I also offer psycho-spiritual counselling for common mental health issues and challenging life events. For more information, please see my listing in the Counselling Directory.

Contact me if you want to arrange a free consultation.