Shamanic healing is a set of practices in which a trained practitioner works in a light trance state, usually with a drum or a rattle. The aim is to bring back something that has gone missing from a person’s energy, or to take out something that does not belong there. Soul retrieval, extraction work and power animal retrieval all belong to it. Before anyone lies down for it, the fair question is whether it can hurt.
Is shamanic healing safe?
For most healthy adults, yes. As it is practised across Europe and North America today, there are no substances, no physical manipulation and no medical procedure. You stay dressed, you stay awake, and you can stop at any point. The risks that do exist come from three things: the person running the session, the speed at which old material comes up, and the temptation to use a session instead of medical or psychological care you need.
That third one is where most of the real harm happens. Nobody has ever been hurt by a drum. People have been hurt by putting off a diagnosis because someone told them their symptom was a spiritual problem.
What happens in a session, and why that shapes the risk
You lie on a mat or a couch, fully clothed. The practitioner drums, rattles or sings, then journeys on your behalf while you rest. Afterwards you talk about what came back, and you usually get something to work with at home. Nothing goes into your body. Nobody touches you without asking first.
Because so little is done to your body, the physical risk is close to zero. What works on you is attention, suggestion and your own memory. That is not nothing. If you want the longer version of how the work itself is built, I wrote a full guide to what shamanic healing is.
Who should be careful with shamanic healing?
Some people should talk to their doctor or therapist before they book. Not because a drum is dangerous, but because a session can stir things that need someone trained to hold them.
| Situation | What I would suggest |
|---|---|
| Acute psychosis, mania, or a recent psychotic episode | No session. Trance states and strong imagery can make symptoms worse. Speak to a psychiatrist first. |
| Trauma that is still raw | Either wait, or work with a trauma therapist alongside. A session can open things up faster than you can settle them afterwards. |
| Epilepsy | Steady drumming runs at roughly four to seven beats per second, and that is rhythmic sensory input. Ask your neurologist and mention the drum specifically. |
| Pregnancy | Usually fine and often lovely. Say so beforehand so the practitioner keeps the work gentle. |
| Heavy dissociation | Grounding first. Journeying works best when you can reliably come back. |
| Grief in the first weeks | Not dangerous, just often too early. Grief has its own pace, and it does not need speeding up. |
| Currently on psychiatric medication | Fine in most cases. Do not change your dose because of anything that comes up in a session. |
If you are not sure whether any of these apply to you, say so out loud when you book. If a practitioner cannot handle that question, you have your answer.
What can actually go wrong?
The problems I see are rarely dramatic. They look like this:
- Nothing happens. You lie there, the drum goes, and you feel slightly silly. This is common and harmless, and usually it means the day was wrong, not the method.
- Too much comes up at once. An old memory arrives with its full weight and you drive home shaky. This is the risk worth planning for.
- The practitioner interprets for you. They tell you what your vision means, what happened in your childhood, or who in your family is to blame. You leave with someone else’s version of your life.
- You start outsourcing your decisions. Six sessions in, you are asking the spirits whether to take the job. That is dependency, however good it feels.
- A medical problem gets a spiritual label. Exhaustion gets called soul loss when it is anaemia or a thyroid issue. This is the one that costs people time.
How do you tell a safe practitioner from an unsafe one?
A safe practitioner tells you what they are going to do before they do it, asks before they touch you, and is clear about what they cannot do. An unsafe one is vague about the method and certain about you.
| Green flag | Red flag |
|---|---|
| Explains the method and the aftercare before you book | Keeps the method mysterious so you have to trust them |
| Names their training and who taught them | Claims a lineage that cannot be checked, or none at all |
| Says openly that this does not replace therapy or medicine | Advises you about your medication or your diagnosis |
| Asks about your mental health history | Never asks anything personal before starting |
| Offers what they saw as an image for you to weigh up | Tells you what it means and expects agreement |
| Fixed price, stated beforehand | Prices that climb once you are emotionally involved |
| Comfortable when you say no or stop | Treats hesitation as resistance you need to push through |
| Sends you off with something practical to do | Books you straight into a package of ten |
The pattern in the red column is always the same: step by step, your own judgement stops counting. I have written about how that escalates in spiritual settings, because it very rarely starts with something obviously wrong.
Is shamanic healing safe alongside therapy or medication?
Yes, and alongside is exactly the right word. Shamanic work goes alongside medical and psychological care. It does not replace either of them, and a practitioner who suggests otherwise has just given you a reason to leave.
Psychiatry has more room for this than people assume. In 1994 the DSM added a diagnostic category for religious or spiritual problems, coded V62.89. A clinician can therefore acknowledge that someone is in a spiritual crisis without treating them as ill. That is useful for both sides. It also means you can tell your therapist you are going to a shamanic session without bracing for a fight. Most will just want to know what came up afterwards.
If the ground has already started moving under you and you are not sure whether you are in an opening or a crisis, read what a spiritual emergency looks like before you book anything else.
Michael Harner’s book The Way of the Shaman shaped most of what is taught as core shamanism in the West. He trained practitioners to work with helping spirits, not to diagnose, and his Foundation for Shamanic Studies still holds that line. Mircea Eliade, writing about initiation in Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, described the shaman’s own crisis as something the community held and interpreted. Being held mattered as much as the crisis did. A session with no aftercare and no one to call is missing half the practice.
What I watch for in my own sessions
I live in Portugal, and most people who come to me arrive tired rather than in crisis. Tired is easy to overlook. So I ask three questions before anyone lies down: are you sleeping? Are you in therapy now, or have you been? Has a doctor looked at this? If the answer to the last one is no and the symptom is physical, I send them to a doctor first and we book afterwards. I have lost bookings this way. It has never once been the wrong call.
The other thing I watch is the end of the session. The first twenty minutes after someone sits up decide how much the session will be worth. If someone is floaty, we sit together with food and water and ordinary conversation until their voice comes back down. Nobody leaves my door still half in the other world.
And I say what I saw as an image, never as a verdict. “There was a small girl standing at the edge of a field, she would not come closer” is something you can sit with. “Your mother abandoned you at six” is something I have no right to hand anyone.
A short checklist before you book
- Write down what you actually want help with. One sentence.
- Check whether anything in the table above applies to you, and mention it when you enquire.
- Ask the practitioner how long the session is, what they will do, what it costs, and what happens afterwards. Four questions, and you will know most of what matters.
- Keep the evening after the session free. No dinner plans, no difficult calls.
- Tell one person you are going, and tell them how it went.
If you would like to know how I hold a session and what comes with it, the details are on my page for shamanic healing sessions. And if you read it and think you would rather talk first, that is a good instinct. Use it.
Frequently asked questions
For most healthy adults, no. There are no substances, no physical procedure and nothing that enters your body. The danger, where it exists, comes from an untrained practitioner, from old emotional material surfacing faster than you can settle it, or from using a session in place of medical care you need.
It can, for a few days. People sometimes feel tired, tearful or unusually raw afterwards while things settle. That usually passes within three or four days. If it does not, or if you feel unable to function, contact the practitioner and speak to your doctor or therapist.
It depends on which one and how stable you are. If you live with depression or anxiety and you are stable, a session is usually fine. If you have a history of psychosis, mania or heavy dissociation, speak to your psychiatrist first and be honest with the practitioner about your history.
Yes. Shamanic work does not interact with medication. The one rule is that you never adjust or stop a prescription because of something that came up in a session. That decision belongs to the doctor who prescribed it.
As safe as in person, and in one way safer, because you are at home in your own bed and nobody is in the room with you. The same questions about training, method and aftercare apply. Ask them anyway.
Ask who trained them, what exactly happens in a session, what it costs, and what they do not treat. A trustworthy practitioner answers all four plainly and says clearly that this does not replace medicine or therapy. If they are vague about the method and certain about you, that is the warning sign.
About the author
Carolin Mallmann is a shamanic practitioner and coach based in Portugal. She trained in core shamanism and NLP, runs sessions and online training through One Shamanism, and writes here about the parts of this work that people rarely say out loud.
Shamanic work goes alongside medical and psychological care. It never replaces it. If you are unwell, please see a doctor.
