About
A Step onto the Ancestral Path
When I began training in family constellations, I recognised something that spoke to me. A healing edge of ritual that I felt very familiar with, I knew it intuitively in my bones.
I heard my great-grandmother's voice telling me to go ahead and learn more about this deep work. Only later did I realise that it was a 'first step onto the ancestral path'.
During my constellations training, I began family research. I started by talking with my parents and getting an ancestry test to find out more about my ethnicity and genealogy.
I found a letter that my maternal uncle wrote to my mother in 1979 detailing their ancestry. This first step in tracing my 'roots' back to their great-grandparents was invaluable.
My father revealed that his grandfather was a young boy when slavery ended in Guyana in 1834. He remembered being passed over his grandfather's coffin as a young boy.
I later found that this was an old African ancestral ritual for the dead. So that as they 'transitioned' to the other world, they could pass more easily into the realm of the ancestors.
Travelling Towards the Healer Within
For the past seven years, I have also travelled and researched extensively into indigenous and African traditional healing modalities in the Caribbean, Guyana in South America and West and South Africa.
In 2016 I travelled to Burkina Faso, West Africa on a group 'ancestral healing' study tour'. The trip was led by Malidoma Some, the renowned Dagara Elder, diviner, and author of several books on African ancestral ritual and healing. It turned out to be a life-changing moment reconnecting me to African traditional healing as 'another way of knowing'.
In 2018 I visited Benin and Ghana to find out more about family ancestral traditions. I began to understand that I was responding to the call to help heal my ancestral line. Often one sibling has this task in the family, something that can take time to make peace with from a Western perspective.
In 2019 I visited South Africa to attend a Family Constellations Conference and in 2022 returned to initiate as a Sangoma, a traditional African healer. This calling "Ukutwasa" is a spiritual awakening and responsibility to heal your ancestral line and others. I am feeling my way into this new way of being, the journey continues!
Emotional Wellness and Mental Wealth
From my travels, intensive research and personal experience, I began to understand that in an African context, severe mental health episodes signal the entry of a healer into the world. In the African village diviners, those with deep herbal learning and elders are the therapists and counsellors for the community. My therapeutic work is responding to this deep 'Ancestral call!'
Over the past 10 years, I have integrated Western and African values about emotional well-being and mental wealth. I draw on my learning with Malidoma Some and the African wisdom principles of the Dagara from Burkina Faso. I trained in the family constellations process as developed by Bert Hellinger and honour Zulu ancestral beliefs that are embedded in the method.
I specialise in transgenerational family work following ancestral wisdom principles. My vision is to reconnect those who are seeking to their ancestors. They are calling many of us to do our family work and help to heal our ancestral family tree. My approach seeks to help people 'RE-Member' lost cultural traditions. It can also become a step onto the ancestral path!
Next Steps…
If you would like to find out more about how my services can benefit you get in touch