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 Dr Susanne Boerner, founder of White Owl Shamanism. I am an accredited shamanic practitioner, social sciences expert, counsellor, and Assistant Professor with 20 years of experience in research, policy, and education on emotions and mental health. I have a particular interest in human wellbeing, deep self-discovery, and healing. My passion is to explore how we can build resilience in today’s world of environmental and social challenges where many people experience depression, anxiety, a lack of purpose, as well as 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 trauma from an interconnected perspective and to learn from traditional wisdom. The power of traditional shamanic 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 the past to move forward.

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

The healing power of shamanic wisdom has not only set me free 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 psycho-spiritual health and wellbeing, I have always combined my curiosity, passion for other cultures, and my sense of purpose in helping others. I spent over six years researching with marginalised children and youth in Mexico and Brazil to understand socio-environmental determinants of health and to promote youth resilience. My research is firmly guided by the understanding that we are all teachers and learners at the same time. The magic happens when we remember and recognise our shared humanity.

During my professional career, I have delivered hundreds of presentations and lectures on wellbeing to students at universities in over 15 countries as well as to leading experts 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. My experience in research, teaching, and policy has given me an in-depth understanding of trauma, adaptive practices, human-nature relations, and urban wellbeing. However, my deepest learning and healing has not happened in the public but in moments of solitude and deep introspection in nature with the guidance of Spirit. After a 20-years intensive research and walking through the valley of my own healing journey, I have finally found my purpose and mission in life, combining my work experience and enthusiasm about wellbeing research with my passion for helping others. 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.

'We rise by lifting others' (R. Ingersoll). I have walked my own healing journey releasing old stories and rewriting the narrative of the past. Now, my soul mission is to help people discover their own light and step fully into their lives, bringing back their strengths, power and energies, so that they can achieve their personal goals and live a fulfilled life. My vision is to integrate shamanic practices and wisdom into holistic approaches that help us rethink our relationship with self and everything around us. As a shamanic healer, I my passion is to guide others on their unique journeys to wholeness from within, from a place of love and compassion.

Qualifications:

• Training as accredited shamanic practitioner by the Healing Tree in Cornwall accredited with I.P.H.M., International shamanic counselling accreditation by Shamanism Ireland (completion 2025).

• Assistant Professor in Human Geography at the University of Birmingham, UK, and theme lead for the research theme ‘Sustainable, Resilient and Liveable Cities, Centre for Urban 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. Susanne also features on an international podcast on the intersections between environment and health by Fiocruz Foundation Amazonia Brazil. She leads 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. She is also associated researcher on research diverse projects on mental health, environmental change and wellbeing, led by Fiocruz Amazonia and the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. She currently supervises 4 PhD students, including research on trauma and climate change, child mental health, and liveable cities in the global South.