Collective Spotlight: Susan McNamara
Meet Susan McNamara, a Journeydance Guide and Shamanic Practitioner.
Why did you want to become a Journeydance Guide and Shamanic Practitioner?
I never set out to become either. For many years I had been pursuing a very traditional education at the Masters and Doctoral level in Counseling and Clinical Psychology. I was one month away from defending my dissertation and graduating from a doctoral program when I ran head first into the reality that the doctoral chase had been undermining my deeply held values around how I most wanted to be living.
Once this became clear to me, I took years of papers, books and information, made a bonfire in the back yard with my husband and two small children, and burned it all. This was the biggest line in the sand of my own life I had ever drawn. Afterwards I vowed I would only pursue trainings that really lit me up and prepared me for what I was most interested in: Holistic and Alternative approaches to health and healing. And that’s what set my feet on the path of eventually training in Shamanism and Journeydance.
What have you gained from this work?
My very life. How I live. Who I know myself to be. And so much more. Breaking from the conventional ideas in higher education opened me up to ancient traditions that stand the test of time, that are in alignment with Nature and that include the totality of who we are. There is nothing more engaging for me than to discover perspectives and approaches that include all aspects of who we are; physical, mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual.
I have gained such strength and empowerment from walking this path because it has taught me to keep my own counsel. Meaning, I am less subject to the passing trends and mixed agendas around what we are told we need to do in order to be healthy. It has also given me access to a level of sovereignty that allows me to trust my own body, instincts and intuition.
What do you hope your clients feel after working with you?
I hope that they feel themselves. I hope that they feel more connected to the truth of who and what they are. I hope that they feel a greater sense of self-trust. And I hope that they know they have choices about how to meet the world, what they believe and how to live.
How does your healing work inform your activism or understanding of the world?
The work I do is not separate from how I live or what it is that I contribute to the world. I believe that our greatest contribution to the world, ever, will always be who we are and how we live. I believe the highest form of activism is to know yourself and to understand how your choices impact those around you, as well as the planet.
This is not an outward display or an affiliation with any particular cause, but is instead a deep commitment you make to Life itself that says I will do my best to value all Life, beginning with my own.
What's your favorite season of the year and why?
I love Winter best of all. I yearn for the quiet and stillness that comes with this season. And I resonate with the starkness and honesty of a tree with no foliage. The internal nature of the winter season brings me more deeply within myself where I find all that it is I am looking for by way of guidance and understanding. It is such a deeply contemplative season and I find it to be the antidote to all the noise and busyness of the world.
And of course, there is nothing better than being curled up on the couch with the wood stove going.
What has made you smile recently that you feel the need to share?
Being in the fields with all the spring medicinals coming up and then gathering them in a jar that I fill with water to drink. I especially feel that way about the beautiful purple of violet and the way it looks woven in the grass, and then in the water I’m drinking.
