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approach may be compounding the problem, however another way forward is re-awakening. When I look at a

person in such a crisis, I see a future potential mentor for others. The more we can assist people in passing

through their dark night of the soul, the more guides we will have with lived experience to help others come

through in the future.”

This is a fairly positive view of the mental health journey in the western world. Davis makes a very valid point

that mental illness is practically demonized and that most people want nothing to do with those who

experience these states of psychosis simply because it is unfamiliar. While in indigenous, shamanic cultures, it

only makes sense for a community to gather around someone, perform a ritual, and address the issue. Of

course, this is two different worlds where one side is attempting to change brain chemicals while the other

side is attempting to find peace within the spirit world. Either way, both sides have the same goal; to help the

person struggling to cure whatever illness is present.

Because of this similarity, we are able to see ways that people can truly combine these practices. A

psychotherapist named Lissa Rankin learned that the way that she conducted her therapy sessions were

actually very shamanic. She did not even realize that she was doing this but after assessing, saw how much

shamanic influence was in her work. In her article, When Shamanism Meets Western Medicine, Rankin

describes one of her sessions like this; “Before she came, I blessed the space with sage, lit a candle, asked God

and the angels to be with me and to protect the sacred space, and did a clearing meditation to get my own ego

out of the way so the Divine could use me as a healing channel.” After experiencing strong senses of energy

and interacting with her patient in a personal way she explains the end of the session by saying, “then I guided

her back into her body, turned the music off, rang chimes, and invited her back into the chair, where we

processed together what had just happened.”

Lissa Rankin is a medical doctor with years of training in psychotherapy. The fact that she is able to use these

spiritual practices while simultaneously using her knowledge in mental illness and diagnosis is a prime

example of what these two practices would look like combined. After learning how similar her practices were

to shamanic culture, Rankin decided to meet with real shamans to understand how to better her practice and

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