In shamanic tradition, the healer serves as a bridge between the physical world and the spiritual realms. This role demands not only a profound understanding of energy and the spirit world but also a high degree of inner balance and self-awareness. If a healer’s own energetic state is unstable, the quality of healing will be compromised, and the healer may suffer long-term energetic depletion. Therefore, in shamanic healing practice, establishing a systematic set of standards for self-preparation and self-maintenance is essential. This article systematically introduces the 13 key steps that shamanic healers should follow in their practice, covering everything from pre-healing preparation to post-healing recovery, providing practitioners with a comprehensive professional framework.
Pre-Healing Preparation: Purifying the Space and Self-Tuning
Healing does not begin with the first contact between the healer and the client. It begins well before that. In shamanic tradition, the healer must first ensure that both the self and the space are in a pure, safe state before effective healing can be offered.
Step 1: Prepare the Healing Space. The healing space requires purification on both physical and energetic levels. This can be achieved by burning sacred herbs such as sage or eucalyptus to clear low energies through smoke, or by using sound instruments such as singing bowls, Tibetan bowls, or rattles to elevate the space’s energetic frequency through vibrational waves. Calling upon spiritual guardians to establish a protective barrier around the space ensures that only positive spiritual energies may enter. Expressing respect and gratitude to the land before beginning the healing is also an important form of space preparation.
Step 2: Prepare the Healer. Before engaging with the client, the healer must undergo self-tuning. This includes calming the mind through breathwork, establishing a connection with one’s higher self, and energetically attuning to the healing tools that will be used. A healer with a stable energetic state can more sensitively perceive the client’s energetic needs and maintain focus and clarity throughout the healing process.
Step 3: Attune with the Client. Trust between the healer and the client is the foundation upon which deep healing can occur. Before the healing begins, the healer should engage in thorough communication with the client to understand their healing intentions and current state. Through the use of a client intake form, the healer can systematically gather information about the client’s physical condition, emotional state, spiritual needs, and previous healing experiences. This information-gathering process not only helps in selecting the appropriate healing modality and crystals but also makes the client feel valued and heard, establishing a foundation of trust for the subsequent healing work.
Step 4: Ensure Hydration for Both Parties. Water is a critical medium for energy conduction. The human body is approximately 70% water, and crystals also contain water molecules. During healing, the flow of energy is guided and carried by water. Ensuring that both healer and client are well hydrated before and after the healing facilitates the smooth circulation of energy and assists the body in releasing metabolic waste and emotional residues released during the healing.
Step 5: Select and Cleanse Crystals. Crystals are among the most commonly used tools in shamanic healing. However, crystals have the property of storing energy and can easily carry energetic imprints from previous users. Therefore, before each healing session, the healer must ensure that all selected crystals have been thoroughly cleansed and energetically charged. Inviting the client to participate in the crystal selection process—allowing them to choose intuitively the crystals that feel right—can itself be an empowering experience for the client.
Step 6: Place Crystals on the Client’s Body. The placement of crystals is guided by a combination of the healer’s intuition and the client’s energetic state. The healer may place crystals on corresponding chakra points or on areas of the client’s energy field where blockages are sensed. The healer’s intuition plays a critical role in this process—trusting one’s perception of energy flow and allowing the crystal’s energy to guide itself to where it is most needed.
Core Practices During Healing: Energy Guidance and Conscious Support
During the healing process, the healer’s primary role is not that of a “repairer” but rather a “conduit” and “companion.” The healer must maintain a high level of focus and openness while ensuring that the healing is always oriented toward the client’s highest good.
Step 7: Invoke Spiritual Guidance. Before the formal healing begins, the healer must call upon support from the spirit world. This includes invoking one’s own spiritual team—power animals, guides, angels, ancestors, and beings of light—as well as the client’s spiritual team. Additionally, the healer must set a clear intention for the direction of the healing: that this healing is for the client’s highest good and is conducted from the highest form of love possible.
Step 8: Help the Client Relax and Focus on Breathing. Breath is the bridge between body and energy. During the healing, the healer should guide the client in slow, deep abdominal breathing. Deep breathing helps relax the nervous system, open energy channels, and allow crystal energy to more easily penetrate the body and energy field. If signs of emotional release or energetic blockage appear during the healing, the healer can gently encourage the client to continue breathing, allowing energy to be naturally released through the breath.
Step 9: Facilitate the Selected Healing Process. Based on the client’s needs and the healer’s assessment, the most appropriate healing method is implemented—whether crystal healing, soul retrieval, power animal connection, cord cutting, or ancestral trauma healing. The healer must remain fully present and focused on the healing process itself, undisturbed by external distractions, while remaining sensitive to the client’s energetic state and adjusting the pace and direction of the healing as needed.
Post-Healing Closure: Completion, Integration, and Energetic Separation
The end of a healing session is not an abrupt stop. It is a natural and gradual transition. The healer must sensitively perceive when the energetic flow begins to diminish and gently guide the healing toward completion.
Step 10: Complete the Healing. When the healing energy naturally subsides, the healer can guide the client back to ordinary consciousness. Through gentle verbal cues, the healer reminds the client to return to the present moment, to the body, and to slowly open their eyes. Afterward, the healer can help the client process their experience and share what was felt. The healer may share any information received during the healing, but should do so in a non-judgmental, non-interfering manner, always prioritizing the client’s own understanding and reception.
Step 11: Develop an Integration and Self-Care Plan. After healing, the client needs time to integrate the released energy and new insights into daily life. The healer can offer integration suggestions, such as daily meditation, crystal-wearing recommendations, nature walks, yoga, or journaling. Importantly, these suggestions should align with the client’s lifestyle and be practical and flexible. The healer should also help the client understand normal post-healing reactions—such as fatigue, emotional fluctuations, or the emergence of old memories—so that the client does not become anxious due to unfamiliar symptoms.
Step 12: Document the Healing Record. After the healing concludes, the healer should promptly document key information about the session, including the crystals and tools used, the themes and content of the healing, the client’s responses and gains, and the integration and self-care plan. These records are valuable references for subsequent healing sessions and help the healer engage in continuous reflection and improvement of their practice.
Post-Healing Self-Recovery: Maintaining the Healer’s Energetic Health
Step 13: Cleanse Tools and Disconnect Energetic Links. This is the most easily overlooked yet critically important step in the healing process. During a healing session, the healer may inadvertently absorb the client’s emotional energies or residues. If these energies are not cleared after the healing, they can accumulate over time, leading to energetic chaos, exhaustion, and even compassion fatigue or burnout.
Therefore, after each healing session, the healer must thoroughly cleanse all used crystals and tools—through running water, sunlight exposure, moonlight, or sound purification. Simultaneously, the healer must perform personal energetic clearing—through meditation, breathwork, or bathing—to sever energetic connections with the healing and separate their own energy field from the client’s. This step not only protects the healer’s energetic health but also prevents the healer from unintentionally carrying another client’s energy into the next session.
The Healer’s Self-Care: An Ongoing Inner Practice
Shamanic healers are energy workers, continuously exposed to the emotions and energetic fields of others. This nature of the work dictates that the healer’s self-care is not merely a personal need but a professional responsibility. Healers should establish an ongoing self-care plan encompassing four dimensions: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Physical Level: Regular exercise, adequate sleep, a balanced diet, and proper rest.
Mental Level: Reading, learning, writing, or any activity that stimulates the mind and keeps thinking active and open.
Emotional Level: Communicating with trusted friends, undergoing personal healing sessions, and expressing and releasing accumulated emotional stress.
Spiritual Level: Daily meditation, prayer, ritual, or self-healing, as well as maintaining an ongoing connection with one’s spiritual team.
When the healer treats self-care as a daily practice rather than a temporary measure, their own energy remains in a state of balance, clarity, and abundant flow. In this state, the healer can not only serve clients more effectively but also continue to progress on their own spiritual path, avoiding the traps of depletion and emptiness.
References
- Charman, R. (2023). Crystal shamanism: Sacred earth medicine healings. Rockpool Publishing.
- Brennan, B. A. (1988). Hands of light: A guide to healing through the human energy field. Bantam Books.
- Myss, C. (1996). Anatomy of the spirit: The seven stages of power and healing. Harmony Books.
