My approach to alchemical healing

In the following subsections, I provide an overview of my approach to alchemical healing. On other areas of my website, you can also learn more about:

the overarching philosophy I bring to my coaching, healing, and guidance work;
what alchemical healing is, more generally; and,
how alchemical healing compares to psychotherapy.

Initial consultation

I meet with all potential clients for a free initial consultation (via Zoom, about 20 minute in length).

This first meeting provides a prospective client and I with the opportunity to feel out our connection and see if mutual alignment is felt. Typically, during the initial consultation, a potential client will share what (consciously) brought them to seek out my services. They often also have questions for me (that I try to adequately answer).

If I receive consent from a prospective client, I might share my early intuitive observations about them and their situation. I also state whether I believe working together will be wise. Good ‘fit’ is so important. If mutual alignment is not experienced, I may refer the potential client to a colleague.

Assuming a prospective client and I agree to work together, I forward them two consent forms to read, sign, and return to me prior to embarking on the healing journey together. We schedule a first session together and agree to an initial cadence of meetings.

The work

The healing work I do with each client is utterly unique—tailored to their individual nature, needs, and context.

That said, I do approach my client work with a firm orientation (as noted on my philosophy page): growing deep roots (in soul) and fledging wide wings (in spirit).

Alchemical healing seeks to catalyze soul-informed identity shifts, transmute psychological wounds, and spur spiritual expansion.

At our first session, a client and I (and Spirit) co-create an initial direction for our work together. I ask a client to reiterate why they (consciously) sought out help. What brought you here? What are your goals for our work together? How do you know when you’re done?

From here, I typically ask a client to share a bit about their life history (e.g., family of origin dynamics, potential traumatic experiences, any intuitive senses about why they are ‘stuck.’) This history gathering provides me with (some) cognitive scaffolding on which to hang energetic insight.

Next, a client and I will engage with a variety of processes, practices, and tools to help them reclaim their inner nature, alchemize their psychological wounds, and awaken (into) their spiritual gifts. I also equip clients with tools to take with them so they can continue the work on their own.

The transformation begins (well, it had already started…but, you know, linearity).

Processes, practices, and tools

In the following subsections I list and describe several of the processes, practices, and tools that I employ with clients in my healing work. This list is not exhaustive, but will give you a sense of what to expect in working with me (and my spirit team).

Presence

Presence is foundational to alchemical healing: (my) being fully open, attuned, and receptive to a client, my guides, and the relational field, though subtle, is incredibly powerful. It serves as the sacred vessel—the athanor—in which deep transmutation occurs.

Presence catalyzes transformation without the use of force. It facilitates healing through resonance rather than intervention.

Intention

Intention is a guiding and driving force in alchemical healing. A well-formed intention (held by both me and a client) refines energy and directs transformation on all levels in a client: the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

In alchemical language, intention acts as both the fire (calcinatio) that initiates change and the philosopher’s stone that brings the process to completion.

(Conscious) intention powerfully shapes our reality in ways that most Westerners have forgotten.

Ancient Spiritual wisdom

There are several threads of ancient spiritual wisdom that I draw on in my client work. This knowledge is often rooted in deep connection with nature, the cosmos, and the ‘unseen’ realms. Common threads include:

Alchemy: I apply alchemical concepts to transformation at all levels (e.g., physical, psychological, energetic, and spiritual). This includes the fundamental principle that old patterns, structures, and beliefs need to break down (solve) before they can be rebuilt in a more integrated, purified form (coagula). Put differently, healing and growth require disintegration before reintegration—letting go of what no longer serves in order to embody a more whole, authentic, and spiritual self. This is reflected in the 7 stages of alchemy as outlined on another page of my website.

Hermeticism: I adopt the hermetic principle which states that inner transformation reflects outward reality (and vice versa: as above, so below). Healing at an energetic level ripples out through body, mind, emotions, soul, spirit, relationship(s), and life circumstances. The microcosm (self) and macrocosm (universe) are deeply interconnected. The inner and out are not truly two. Hermeticism also influences my work through the principles of polarity (tension of opposites, healing as union) and rhythm (the cyclical nature of healing: expansion, contraction, and integration)

Shamanism: focuses on healing by connecting to the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, energy work, and earth-based spiritual practices. My client work includes interfacing directly with spirit (guides, power animals, nature spirits) shamanic journeys (lower-, middle-, upper-worlds), soul retrieval, and the incorporation of nature-based wisdom (e.g., principles of balance, cycles, right relationship, etc.). I conduct outdoor sessions with clients who are interested and able.

Energy work (or healing or medicine)

Energy work involves me (and my spirit team) engaging with a client’s energy system (e.g., their chakras, aura) to catalyze healing, transformation, and balance at all levels of their being (e.g., cognitive, emotional, physical, spiritual).

Through energy work, I clear and/or transmute ‘denser’ energy within a client. This releases blockages, allowing energy to move more freely through their system. Coherence is cultivated. Multi-level healing transpires.

Over time, engaging in energy work techniques with a client (and teaching them to practice on their own) roots them in the nourishing soil of their soul (deep roots in soul) and allows them to more easily integrate higher spiritual frequencies into their energy body (wide wings in spirit).

My training in energy work has come primarily by way of apprenticeship (5 years and counting) with a master energy healer.

Intuitive guidance

Intuition plays a central role in my client work, bridging the seen and unseen, the conscious and unconscious, the material and spiritual.

Intuitive guidance is the process of receiving insight, wisdom, or direction from a ‘knowing’ beyond reason. This guidance can come from, for example, bodily sensations, dreams, archetypal patterns, symbolic imagery, energetic experiences, spirit guides, and ‘deeper’ or ‘higher’ spiritual knowing.

Intuitive guidance—emerging in/for both me and a client—helps direct a client’s healing process and connects them to their ‘own’ knowing, wisdom (thus fostering personal power and self-sovereignty, which are vital elements in alchemical healing).

Each client session is fresh, intuitively led adventure of discovery.

(Depth) psychological insight

As mentioned elsewhere, I was a counsellor and psychotherapist for 10 years prior to transitioning to my current work as a coach, healer, and guide (I no longer practice psychotherapy). I have a Masters degree in Spiritual Care & Psychotherapy, and a PhD focussed on the field of Ecopsychology. I’m passionate about depth psychology, particularly the Jungian flavour.

Psychological insight identifies the underlying patterns, motivations, and unconscious influences that shape a person’s experiences and actions. Using insights from (depth) psychology, I coach¹ a client to help them gain a better understanding and awareness of their (or others’) thoughts, emotions, and behaviours.

I ask A LOT of (intuitively-led) questions in my healing work to help a client unlock their unconscious knowing. Somewhat socratic, actually. In my coaching work with clients, I also regularly explore: synchronicities, dreams, archetypes (the Self, personas, shadow, anima/animus, etc.), and psychological typology.

The International Coaching Federation describes coaching as a creative and thought-provoking process that helps clients maximize their potential in their personal and professional lives. Coaching conversations are often: listening-centric, question-driven, and future-focused. ↩︎