My work is shaped by the values, beliefs and tools described below.

Ancestral Work

We are strongly influenced by ancestral energies of both recent and distant ancestors. It is not uncommon for people who are working on their personal wounding to realize that some of the sadness and anger they experience is not totally personal. Deeper exploration uncovers the energies of wounded ancestors — for example, a mother, a great grandfather, or an ancestral collective — that have somehow been transmitted or handed down to the one now experiencing the emotions.

It also seems to be true that there are ancestral strengths and wisdom that are passed down to succeeding generations. However, because of ancestral wounding, these are often not easily accessible unless conscious work is done to reclaim them.

It is possible to develop an understanding of, and connection with, ancestral wounds that we carry, in such a way as to alleviate their negative impact in our lives, and to open to and reclaim our ancestral wisdom and strengths.

Ancestral work joins us to our lineage and our heritage in a way that helps us to recognize that our stories are bigger than we think. We see that we are part of a long line of peoples and their experiences. We have the opportunity to utilize those experiences to become agents of change in the ongoing transformation of the world. In this way we can become an ancestor who passes on the wisdom and strengths of our ancestral lineage to future generations.

In the very earliest time,
when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people
and sometimes animals
and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance
might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
and what people wanted to happen could happen —
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody can explain this:
That’s the way it was.

—Eskimo Magic Words