From darkness to light: my shamanic path

“Real love, care for the soul of the other, can involve what seems unloving at the time but will assist that person to awaken.” (Rutherford 2001)

My name is Susanne Boerner, founder of White Owl Shamanism. I am an accredited shamanic practitioner (I.P.H.M.), wellbeing researcher (Assistant Professor, PhD), and spiritual coach. Currently based in Birmingham, I have over 20 years of experience in community-based research, education and practice focusing on emotions, well-being, and mental health. My passion is to support individual, community, and planetary healing by guiding others on their path to release their pain and reclaim joy in a world where so many people experience depression, anxiety, a lack of purpose, and a sense of disconnection from self, others and nature.

Over the past two decades, I have been working with indigenous communities, traditional healers, and interdisciplinary health scientists, especially from Brazil and Mexico, to gain a deeper understanding of wellbeing and healing from an interconnected perspective and to learn from traditional wisdom. The power of traditional shamanic and spiritual healing is still largely unknown, overlooked or discarded in Western society and medicine. There is still a tendency to dismiss the source of ‘dis-ease’ at soul level, focusing purely on the body or the mind, while also treating the human as separate from nature and overlooking the importance of ancestral healing.

In the early days of my journey, at the age of 22 when I moved to Mexico after my mum had passed, little did I know that my own journey through grief, chronic anxiety, and depression would turn into a journey of healing – of myself and others. For many years, I felt like life happened to me instead of for me. Challenging life experiences of multiple loss of family members, childhood bullying, and narcissistic family relations had kept me stuck in complex grief and led me to give my power away in relationships. I struggled with boundaries and toxic relationships and was unable to release past grief to move forward.

Learning from indigenous communities such as the Huichol, Toltec wisdom and curanderas (traditional healers) in Mexico, indigenous communities such as the Yawanawa from the Brazilian Amazon region and Celtic shamanic traditions in the UK, the deep connection with the nature and ancestral wisdom helped me (re-)discover my authentic self and heal my deepest wounds at soul level. Spiritual shamanic healing and practices helped me reclaim my light and joy, guiding me out of the cycle of victimhood and suffering to step into my own courage, freedom, and personal power.

During my own healing journey, I had to release old stories and rewrite the narrative of the past. The healing power of shamanic wisdom has not only guided me into joy and freedom but has also helped me uncover my own unique calling and gift as a healer. It is said that the shaman walks with one foot in the spirit world and one foot in the everyday world and goes through a rigorous preparation before their shamanic initiation - often by illness or through death-related experiences (Rutherford 2001). As a sole survivor of a triplet pregnancy, I was familiar with death before I was even born and have perhaps always felt more at home in the spirit realms than in the human world.

My professional and personal journey of (un-)becoming

In my attempt to raise awareness of more holistic understandings of emotional and psycho-spiritual health and wellbeing, I have always combined my curiosity and passion for learning with other cultures. I spent over six years researching with marginalised children and youth in Mexico and Brazil to understand what shapes their wellbeing and how to promote youth resilience. My personal and work ethics is firmly guided by the understanding that we are all teachers and learners at the same time. The magic happens when we remember the power of healing through community and nature, and recognise our shared humanity.

During my professional career, I have delivered presentations and lectures on emotional wellbeing, human-nature relations, ancestral wisdom, and healing to students at universities in over 15 countries and at over 60 international conferences worldwide. I have engaged with other leading experts and policy-makers in the field of public health, psychology, and social and environmental sciences. However, my deepest learning and healing has not happened in public but in moments of solitude and deep introspection in nature with the guidance of Spirit.

'We rise by lifting others' (R. Ingersoll). After a 20-years of intensive research and walking through the valley of my own healing journey, I have found my purpose and mission in life. My soul mission as a shamanic healer is to guide others on their unique healing journeys into joy, inner freedom and wholeness, from a place of love and compassion. Combining my experience and enthusiasm about wellbeing research with my passion for supporting the healing of individuals, communities, and the land, my vision is to integrate shamanic practices and wisdom into holistic research and practice to remember the interconnectedness of all this, knowing that the future is ancestral (Krenak 2024). I cannot express my gratitude for all the wonderful souls that have taught and guided me on this path, including my ancestors who have walked before me.

Qualifications:

• Accredited shamanic practitioner by the Healing Tree in Cornwall accredited with I.P.H.M.

• International shamanic counselling accreditation by Shamanism Ireland (completion October 2025).

• Assistant Professor in Human Geography at the University of Birmingham, UK, focusing on ancestral wisdom, human-nature relations, healing and wellbeing

• Post-doctoral Marie Curie Global Fellowship in Public Health (University of Sao Paulo) and Human Geography (University of Birmingham) on emotional resilience and wellbeing of youth in times of crises

• PhD in Social Sciences, Goethe University Germany with a focus on environmental psychology and environmental justice, with a visiting research fellowship at the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico (UAEM)

• M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences, Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany, with a focus on community health and determinants of child health

• Over 20 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on wellbeing, climate change, and youth agency.

• International podcast on the intersections between environment and health by Fiocruz Foundation Amazonia Brazil.

• Principal investigator on the international research project ‘Thinking the future creatively from traditional knowledge: participatory pedagogies for urban wellbeing and intergenerational agency’ in collaboration with the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

• Associated researcher on diverse research projects on mental health, environmental change and wellbeing, led by Fiocruz Amazonia and the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

• Supervision of 4 PhD students, including research on trauma and climate change, child mental health, and resilient cities in the global South.