The Shamanic Approach to Therapy (ACT)

Supraquantum Medicine of the Living

Liliane van der Velde and Dr Olivier Chambon

The Soul and Soul Retrieval

The soul is the fundamental element for and with which we work in shamanic practice. It is the intrinsic nature of our being that animates, gives meaning to, and guides our life. It is a form of natural instinct that we have lost in our culture.

As in all ancient traditions, the soul holds a central place in shamanism. It is a concrete notion that is not taught through theoretical texts, but through direct observation and experience.

Our soul wants us to become the best human being we can be: happy and fully alive, connected with others and with the Great Whole, in our rightful place in the world.

What the soul and the Allied spirits of the invisible wish is to fulfill our natural needs. Our needs are fundamental; they are the path that reconnects us with our soul and a means of expression for it and for the spirits that wish to collaborate in its realization.Our fundamental needs are the voice, the spokespersons of our soul….

The goal of the Shamanic Approach to Therapy is to prepare the garden in which our soul, the allied spirits or fields, and our small self can come together so that we may finally grow beautiful trees there, fruits to share that will help beautify the world...To find our rightful place in the world, we must first become part of it again by repairing the forgotten links with the Earth, with life, and with our soul.

Love is the active concern for the life
and growth of those we love.
Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving.

At the center of every soul lies the concern to fulfill what it came to Earth for and to contribute to the Whole through the expression of its unique talents.

Our soul wants us to grow while being happy and fully alive. Embodiment in the body and earthly life is one of the greatest manifestations of love by consciousness. The body is an instrument of consciousness and manifestation for the soul, and even if the small self does not always feel equal to the opportunities and challenges that arise in life, our soul and the universe are always ready.

The good news is that when facing these challenges, we do not need to carry within ourselves all the means and solutions, but simply cultivate the ability to connect with allied fields and spirits in order to develop the qualities and potentials we need. All that is asked of us is to open ourselves and connect with other fields in order to grow with them. This connection is a form of love. It is the very meaning of growth and life.

Repairing the House of the Soul with the Shamanic Approach to Therapy

Listening to the soul is essential, but we must also offer it a good home to live in. This is what it seeks through you and through your life... It is truly necessary to commit ourselves to giving the proper conditions and form to the garden of our soul so that it may inhabit and express itself there.

This is why, with ACT, we first repair this garden within the different fields that make us up. In this way, we create a new matrix for the soul with the help of Allied spirits. Through the different bodies they heal and enrich with their qualities, our field becomes an appropriate place of reunification where disconnected parts of ourselves can be welcomed and lived experiences integrated.

During an ACT session, the therapist looks at the person through all the fields that constitute them, listening to that something seeking to manifest through their request. What is the person seeking through this symptom? What is trying to reach them? The soul has an appointment with a resource spirit, a quality, as if it were going shopping in the universal field to meet its destiny.

The therapist calls in the healing spirit for the session. This spirit restores missing links within the person’s field. This benevolent resource field comes to reveal and fulfill their deepest needs; it lifts the patterns that need transformation and infuses its qualities into all the levels involved. The integration of these resources recreates a supportive framework and a new form more suited to the soul.

The therapist also gradually invites the person’s soul into each body, down to the physical body, which then becomes the best place for it. In this way, the loop of diagram 1 can be restored: bringing and integrating new qualities and capacities to enrich consciousness.

ACT is intended to support the evolution of consciousness so that the being may realize and express itself. To do this, it first seeks to provide a solid foundation in all the bodies. The soul does not want unintegrated spiritual experiences… the soul wants to be here, grounded in the body, happy in life and in matter. For this, it needs a solid container in which to settle.

The person receiving the treatment then practices specific grounding activities in order to integrate the new resources and invite the soul into everyday life.

Some Key Concepts in Working with Spirits

I gradually perceived a logic revealing itself through this way of working.It is not enough to bring an intention or new information into a body or system; one must also change its forms and boundaries. Otherwise, these containing structures continue to act by default in order to preserve the old balance.

The boundary and the form influence perception and reactions to external and internal stimuli.

The necessary resource for change must be brought into all layers of consciousness — meaning all the bodies and fields involved — because they support one another. This is necessary to stabilize the system as a whole.

Therapy that approaches care and the person in a fragmented way, treating only what is wrong in one area, maintains a dynamic of dissociation. On a broader level, it is this very dynamic that generated and maintains the symptom. When working on only one dimension of the being, without taking into account the others and everything connecting the person to the world, identification and separation become crystallized; we remain acting within the same limited sphere, repeatedly activating the same neural circuits according to reflex habits.

When spirits bring missing links and resources through their intelligence, this awakens consciousness even in the densest layers, creating connections between dissociated and inaccessible areas. In this way, they recreate a broader and more supportive framework in which the different bodies and systems harmonize with one another, aware that they form a whole. The person reunifies, reconnects with themselves, and can safely flourish within this coherent framework.

The Shamanic Approach to Therapy Responds to Therapists’ Needs

Throughout my years of practice, I observed in myself and in other therapists the fatigue that eventually arises when working on human issues using only the usual vision and tools. This is normal, since in this way we interact within a limited system, as if in a closed container. Another intelligence is needed, a different vision, to support the person’s healing in its depth and in its connection to the whole (this is further developed in the following chapter: Working with Spirits in ACT).

The model of the Shamanic Approach to Therapy truly began to take shape when other therapists became interested in my work and wished to integrate collaboration with invisible fields into their own therapeutic practice. This way of working frees the therapist from having to know what would or would not be good for the client and from the responsibility that comes with it. In addition, ACT is a living method that places more emphasis on resources than on problems.

At first, transforming this astonishing, intangible, and unpredictable therapeutic approach into a structured and teachable training seemed like a delicate task. How can one teach the multidimensional intelligence of the invisible, constantly evolving, to professionals practicing different approaches?

At the same time, this approach gives deeper meaning to known therapies by reconnecting them to the common, ancestral, and quantum sources of healing. But the Allied spirits wish, just as much as we do, to collaborate in collective healing through this way of caring. This is why they guided and taught me many practical tools as well as an overall methodology, like a handrail to hold onto during sessions, even when we do not know where the process will lead!

In training, I transmit this general framework of work and my field experience with relatively little theory. The Allied spirits and Nature themselves complete the teaching for students through the various practices and shamanic journeys. In this way, each person can perceive it in their own way and experience it from within, then adapt it to their own medicine. We also build bridges between our visions and understandings, and trainees must immediately apply this to concrete cases…

ACT: a Living Adventure

Like a living organism, ACT is evolutionary; this is part of its foundational principles.Everyone can include their usual tools within it; I myself often recommend other therapies alongside ACT sessions, depending on what is indicated for the client’s needs. What matters is using all available resources in the best possible way for the person and their intention. It is an experimental method, not an imposed truth. It constantly evolves and also develops the therapist’s creativity. It is a collaborative work that highlights Nature and each person’s talents. It also enhances the effects of the tools used by applying them in the right place within a global systemic vision.

At first, it seems like work we are doing only for ourselves and our patient, but because it is done while connected to a broader framework, it also touches collective notions and collective consciousness. The spirits and healing fields associated with it become increasingly vast and impressive.

“I found this training rich and effective. I felt supported both in the safety of the journeys between the worlds and in the understanding of the process. I feel that the path is clearly marked.I feel immense gratitude for what I received. Our times invite us to return to what is essential, to heal all that is wounded or suffering…if you wish to participate in the healing of Nature, of the planet, and of its inhabitants with love, clarity, and joy, this training is for you!”
Marthe, psychotherapist, energy practitioner.

Skills Developed by Therapists Practicing ACT

• Building bridges between the visible and invisible dimensions through body-based practices in order to bring or awaken consciousness within the body.

• Connecting with and activating the resources and fields of Nature, thereby relearning an interconnected natural intelligence.

• Relying on stable foundational fields (the Immutable, the Matrix) that allow integrated change for themselves and their patients.

• Entering a Shamanic State of Consciousness (SSC), journeying through invisible realities in a structured way to communicate with the intelligence of spirit-fields.

• Establishing a strong connection with the Healing Referent: through it, developing a systemic overall vision that allows essential points to be identified and missing informational fields to be accessed.

• Deepening presence and attention in order to accompany the fields called to settle within the areas being observed.

• Prior to this, ACT therapists have themselves explored the necessary paths for working with spirits in connection with their soul. They have experienced transformational work within the Alchemical Forge and the soul retrieval journey in order to open themselves to an expanded vision of healing.

• All the capacities therapists develop within their own field can later resonate with the field of their patients.

Table of Contents (of the ACT french book)

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction: The Shamanic Approach to Therapy, A Natural Continuation of My Journey, by Dr. Olivier Chambon 9

Consciousness and Shamanism

When Magic Began

The Ancestral Shamanic Vision or the Art of Being Connected

Consciousness and Its Role in the Healing Process

Spirits and Fields

The Foundational Principles of the Shamanic Approach to Therapy

The Soul and Soul Retrieval

Birth of the Shamanic Approach to Therapy

Working with Spirits in ACT

The Different Bodies as Supports of Consciousness in ACT

The Shamanic Approach to Therapy in Practice

Preparing the Therapist

The ACT Healing Process

Healing the Etheric Body with ACT

Healing the Emotional Body with ACT

Healing the Mental Body with ACT

Healing the Essential Body with ACT

Working on Identity and the Field of Personal Consciousness in ACT

Distance Work with ACT

Pilot Evaluation Study of ACT

The Systemic Shamanic Approach Applied to Groups,
Organizations, and Projects

The ACT Shamanic Approach to Therapy and Other Therapies

ACT Among Other Therapies

Integrating ACT into Other Therapeutic Practices

Conclusion: Healing Forgetfulness and Revealing the Great Dream