In Emma's sacred space there is a stillness and depth of wisdom that allows for the truth to be revealed
​
This is the spirit of the Owl
Meet Emma
Emma Howden is a trained and qualified Shamanic Teacher (guide, facilitator practitioner and healer) who embodies shamanic practices in her daily life. Spreading these teachings and holding a safe sacred space for the community to reconnect with their own inner guidance is her life work and an expression of who she is at the heart of her soul.
Emma's path to becoming a Shamanic Teacher came about from her own search for personal healing. In this search she engaged in and studied a range of mainstream and alternative healing modalities and began to learn about healing and how it works. Emma became intrigued about how each modality moulded her inner and outer experience which eventually led her to study Shamanism and Earth based indigenous spiritual practices where she experienced the most powerful methods for life transformation.
After discovering shamanism, Emma received much more than she was looking for, experiencing dramatic life transformation, deep healings and a pathway to a life that resonates richness and depth. Emma is deeply passionate about sharing these transformational teachings and practices with anyone who wishes to experience their benefits.
Currently, she enjoys living a simple life and loves quiet and inner stillness. When she is not working she is often found meditating or meandering in quiet solitude through the bushlands and beaches of the Central Coast in NSW.
Emma's Offering
After finding such a powerful and transformational medicine Emma felt a deep calling to study it, practice it and share it. Emma's offering is to create sacred space and open up the experience of this deeply interconnected spiritual way of being for personal individual exploration by local community members. Her vision is to continue to develop ceremonies, rituals and creative somatic experiences that inspire individuals to ignite the fire of their spirit and enhance their soul earth experience. Listening deeply to truth and working in collaboration with nature and spirit, Emma works to bring forth a new age approach to this ancient way of living.
Emma's Experience
Shamanic studies
Experiencing shamanic practices for the first time in 2015, Emma really delved in in 2017 when she completed the Certificate in Shamanic Studies with the Awareness Institute in Sydney. After completing this course and feeling a deep calling for the teachings she sought a teacher to help develop her knowledge, experience and wisdom. Emma then met Vicki Dean who is a well of spiritual and shamanic wisdom. She completed the Certificate and the Diploma in Shamanism and Transformational Mask and the Teacher Training with Vicki. Many of the shamanic teachings Emma has received come from the Americas and also from other cultures around the world. Her work holds a strong influence through the teachings of the land where she lives, nature spirits, ancestors and sacred sites of Indigenous Australia and the guiding spirits. Emma engages in a Shamanism that is not specific to one lineage but that works through direct revelation and the common threads that run across indigenous cultures. This provides a flexibility to adapt to the modern world and it's constant changes. She continues to study and learn from local and distant teachers in many different areas of nature and spirit realms.
Counselling
Emma completed a diploma in Holistic Counselling in 2016 and has experience working with carers, disability, ageing, anxiety & CBT, depression, trauma, low self esteem and self worth, neurodivergence, women's empowerment, lgbtq+, addictions, sensory processing seeking and avoidance, emotional overwhelm, inner child work, shadow work & health concerns.
Meditation
Emma first engaged with meditation in the early 1990s and has been exploring meditation practices from around the world ever since. Meditation has been a key component for building awareness, consciousness and insight. She has meditated for over 25 years and embodies a hearty daily meditation and spiritual practice.
Reiki
Emma studied and has been practicing Usui Reiki since 2013 and mixes in Reiki energy into her Energy Healings, when it is called into the session.
Community Work
Emma has spent her adult life working in many areas of the community including aged care, disability and early education plus living in Tanzania working in a community school. She has found her own inner turmoil a very humbling experience and has a natural empathy for all people and the situations they find themselves in. Emma has a very caring nature and loves to help and support others in the community.
What is Shamanism?
Shamanism is the authentic experience of life and consciousness in deep connection with nature and the spirits. It is a term to describe an ancient tradition lived and embodied by indigenous cultures across the earth for thousands of years. The tradition is simply a deep presence and relationship with life that engages in the natural cycles and energies of the universe. It involves entering into trance and spirit embodied states to work with spirit beings for the purposes of survival, protection, healing and guidance. It is important to respectfully note here that there are traditional shamans and shamanic practices that are exclusive to certain indigenous cultures. There is also a more generalised use of these practices, outside of their traditional roots, which is evolving and organic and derives from direct revelation with the spirit world. Shamanism is not an organised religion and has no official texts. It reaches realms much more expansive than just the physical word and recognises there is spirit in all things and that everything in nature is a living animate being of consciousness to be respected and cared for.
​
When I use the term 'shamanism' I refer to the practices and consciousness that has been taught to me by my teachers. This involves navigation in altered states, spirit embodiment and developing nature and spirit relationships to heal and evolve towards oneness. My teachers have been taught by various teachers and shamans from around the world and have passed these practices onto me with the permission to be taught and shared with others. My experience is that these practices are highly effective, which is recognisable by the dramatic life transformation they have created in my own life and the many others I have worked with. Shamanic practices are ultimately experiential and are best experienced and explored by each individual.
What is a Shaman?
A shaman is the member of an indigenous community that is responsible for the overall health and survival of the community. They have the ability to enter into and navigate trance states, embody spirit beings and work with the spirits and the spirit world to create change for the benefit of individuals and the whole community. A shaman works with other community members and enlists specific skills of other tribe members to facilitate a holistic approach to healing, harmony and balance. They also have other vocations and skills such as a story teller, herbalist, teacher, artist, actor, social activist, tomato factory worker and takes on many other roles. A shaman is recognised and appointed the role by the tribal and shaman elders and spirit world based on their natural ability to do the work, respect for life and desire to serve their community. Their training for the role starts in childhood and can run for over 40 years.
I am not a shaman, as this is an indigenous title appointed by an indigenous community. I have been trained in shamanic practices and have embodied the practice in my daily life. I feel a calling to this work and to share it by listening deeply and working in collaboration with nature and spirit to bring forth a new age approach to this ancient way of living.
What makes the Shamanic path so powerful?
Shamanism holds a key to an ancient way of living that was known by indigenous cultures before modern technology. A powerful, interconnected, balanced and healed Earth-Cosmos based culture that lived in and through the body (instead of the mind). This way of embodying life was the outcome of thousands of years of lived wisdom in deep connection with nature and spirit. In situations where sharing of knowledge and wisdom was not possible due to the boundaries of mountains, deserts and oceans, the same healing and survival conclusions were found in indigenous tribes across the planet. These conclusions were the same because it is the natural way to heal, maintain balance and be in deep connection with life. Shamanism works with the natural universal energetic field (spirit world) which exists outside of the limitations of time and space. This provides access to the root cause of all physical manifestations. While most current therapies require an individual to process their troubles through the mind, Shamanic practices engage all of an individuals life and guides them out of the mind and into experience - which is where the magic happens.​
Is Shamanism safe?
During a shamanic session, in groups or individual sessions, the practitioner comes into a space that is highly conscious and aware. A trained practitioner should be able to divide their attention between the spirit world and physical world, ensuring that the person engaged in the process is comfortable and protected on both the physical and spiritual planes. Shamanic sessions, held with integrity, provide a very safe and protected spiritual container.
What are the benefits of a Shamanism in our modern world?
In today's world, connection with our true self is needed most as humans have become more disconnected than ever, evident by the poor state of the planet's resources, human discomfort and disease, nature destruction, rapidly changing weather conditions and animal extinction rates. Shamanic healing expands your consciousness, reconnects your interconnectivity with the cosmos, unravels discomfort and provides valuable insights into individual life circumstances. People report rapid change in the issue they have come to heal and gain peace, hope and clarity for the next steps in their life.
Shamanism isn't about the past, living in a cave and foraging for food, it is evolving and organic and provides current guidance and support in today's world for today's imbalances on the Earth and within our being.