Where Insight becomes embodiment
Licensed Professional Counseling & Shamanic Counseling
Professional Counseling
When I began my work as a therapist more than 25 years ago, I believed what I had been taught—that healing began by understanding our thoughts and changing the patterns that no longer served us.
I still believe that's true.
But over the years, both through my clients and my own life, I came to understand that insight alone isn't always enough. We can know why we feel anxious, stuck, or disconnected and still find ourselves repeating the same patterns.
Real healing asks more of us.
It asks us to slow down. To listen to the wisdom of the body. To reconnect with ourselves, our relationships, and the natural world. It asks us to move beyond simply understanding our lives and begin living them differently.
My counseling practice is grounded in evidence-based psychotherapy, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and mind-body approaches. Together, we'll create practical tools for change while honoring the whole person—not just the thinking mind.
Shamanic Counseling @ The River Runs Through
Shamanic Counseling at The River Runs Through is a nature-based, experiential approach to healing informed by my own training, experience, and integration of professional counseling, mindfulness, ceremony, creativity, embodied awareness, and shamanic practices. While influenced by various shamanic traditions and teachers, this work is uniquely shaped by an integrative approach that brings together the psychological, spiritual, embodied, and natural worlds.
Shamanic Counseling can be integrated into psychotherapy, offering additional ways to explore emotional patterns, life transitions, spirituality, personal meaning, and embodied experience. For some, we may begin here, weaving shamanic practices into the counseling process from the start. For others, it may become a next step after traditional psychotherapy—a deeper, more experiential way of continuing their healing journey.
Depending on your needs, our work may include guided journeys, ceremony, mindfulness, creative expression, ritual, energy work, or simply creating space to listen more deeply to what is asking for your attention. This work honors the mind, body, heart, spirit, and our relationship with the living world.
Professional & Shamanic Counseling @ The River Runs Through
If you are covered by insurance, please use the link below to make an appointment. Note: I am not a provider for Medicaid (e.g. Maine Health) or Medicare.
If you trying to make an appointment & do not find a day/time available, please email: crystal@theriverrunsthrough.com let’s see what’s possible.
Unsure if this approach is for you? Come for a workshop & learn more:
Over four weeks, explore the Eight Sacred Directions and deepen your relationship with the natural world through the Celtic Spirit Wheel.
Connect with the wisdom of Father Sun, Grandmother Moon, Mother Earth, and Grandfather Fire, while exploring powerful archetypes such as the Wise Salmon, Great Bear, Eagle, and Stag as guides for healing and transformation.
Together, we will explore what it means to be In the Thick of Things—to meet yourself honestly in the middle of life's challenges, shed what no longer serves you, discover your own personal guides, and begin becoming who you have yet to become.
Frequently Asked Questions:
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Shamanic Counseling is an approach to healing and personal growth that bridges modern psychology and ancient wisdom traditions. It differs from traditional talk therapy by engaging not only the mind and emotions, but also the body, imagination, intuition, relationship with nature, and what many people call spirit.
The goal is not simply to understand your problems, but to support healing, wholeness, and transformation.
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Traditional therapy often focuses on thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and coping skills. Shamanic Counseling includes these elements while also exploring symbolism, imagination, ceremony, nature, dreams, intuition, and personal meaning.
Rather than asking only, "What happened to you?" Shamanic Counseling also asks, "What is trying to emerge through you?"
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Shamanic Counseling begins with a story—a healing story about yourself.
Much like expressive arts therapies use imagination to access the unconscious mind, Shamanic Counseling uses imagination not only to access the unconscious, but also to explore our relationship with the unseen world. This often-overlooked layer of experience is sometimes called spirit, soul, intuition, or a deeper way of knowing.
Through conversation, guided imagery, storytelling, mindfulness, nature-based practices, ceremony, and other experiential approaches, we begin to uncover the story that wants to emerge and support the healing that is asking to happen.
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Yes and no.
My role is not to provide answers or tell you how to live your life. However, I will guide you through practices and experiences designed to help you access your own wisdom, clarity, and inner knowing.
At times, I may offer observations, perspectives, tools, or suggestions for exploration. But the goal is not for you to follow my answers—it is for you to discover your own.
I believe each person carries an inner wisdom that knows what is needed for healing and growth. Sometimes we simply need support in learning how to listen. Shamanic Counseling provides practices that help strengthen that connection.
Our work together is collaborative and grounded in respect for your autonomy, lived experience, and unique path.
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No.
No particular spiritual beliefs are required. You do not need to identify as spiritual, religious, or even believe in shamanism.
The only requirement is curiosity and an openness to exploring your experience in a new way.
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People use different words to describe experiences that cannot easily be measured or explained. Some call it spirit, others call it soul, intuition, inner wisdom, imagination, or a connection to something larger than themselves.
Shamanic Counseling does not require a specific definition. You are free to interpret these experiences through your own beliefs and worldview.
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I spent much of my life wondering, "What's wrong with me?"
As an empath, or Highly Sensitive Person, I had learned that who I was and how I experienced the world was somehow wrong. Being "wrong" in your natural state is a difficult thing to overcome—in reality, it's impossible.
Many highly sensitive people spend years trying to fit into a world that often rewards different ways of being. When that doesn't work, we frequently conclude that we have failed.
I have been a traditionally trained psychotherapist using evidence-based practices for more than 25 years. Along the way, I also trained as a meditation teacher and Kripalu yoga instructor. These practices helped me personally and professionally, but I still felt there was something more.
I was eventually called to shamanic work. The call was subtle, as spirit often is—a quiet nudge that seemed to come out of nowhere. Yet it changed everything.
Not only did it offer a different way of seeing the world, it offered a different way of being in the world. Many of the traits that had once left me feeling different or out of place suddenly made sense. Rather than something to overcome, they became something to understand, honor, and trust.
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Many Highly Sensitive People find this work particularly meaningful.
Rather than viewing sensitivity as a problem to be fixed, Shamanic Counseling helps people understand their sensitivity, develop healthy boundaries, cultivate grounding practices, and recognize the strengths that often accompany heightened awareness.
Many people discover that what they once viewed as a weakness is actually one of their greatest gifts.
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People often seek Shamanic Counseling when they are experiencing:
Anxiety and overwhelm
Life transitions
Burnout
Grief and loss
Feeling stuck
Spiritual awakening
A loss of meaning or purpose
Relationship challenges
A desire for deeper self-understanding
A longing for greater connection with themselves, others, or the natural world
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Shamanic Counseling draws from my background as a licensed psychotherapist while incorporating approaches not typically found in traditional Western therapy.
Depending on your needs and preferences, we may work from a psychotherapy framework, a shamanic counseling framework, or a combination of both. During our consultation, we can discuss which approach may be the best fit for your goals.
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Shamanic Counseling may be a good fit if you feel called to something deeper than traditional talk therapy, are open to exploring the connection between mind, body, spirit, and nature, and are seeking meaningful change rather than simply symptom management.
If you're curious, an initial consultation is a good place to begin.
