When clients are faced with challenging experiences you can invite them to be curious about the darkness, turn towards it. Invite them to smile, say thank you and express their gratitude to the medicine for showing them these shadows that live within us all.

Without the dark there is no light.

When our clients are struggling with a challenging experience, facing a demon, a dark part of themselves they’ve never met before, offer them your hand to hold or an embrace. Remind them they are not alone in this darkness. We are all connected, sometimes our clients forget this.

Only touch with permission.

Internal Family Systems can be a critical tool to work with in medicine ceremony, especially when people are navigating the shadow sides of themselves. Inviting them to see the dark parts as they are, parts of them, not all of them. Inviting them to be open and curious about these darker parts can lead to tremendous insights and shifts.

Giving dark parts a microphone is encouraged.

Inviting your client to find their breath can be very grounding. Invite them to breathe in the light and exhale out the darkness. Breathing in thtough the nose and out the mouth in synchronicity with your calm breath can help when navigating the dark. They can also be guided to breath light to wherever they feel the darkness isolated to in their body.

Sometimes when clients are in a challenging place and are in significant distress and your inner knowing as a guardian is telling you it’s time to shift, you can ask the client to open their eyes or remove their eye mask. If this doesn’t help, you have have them sit in another room. Changing the music or having a period of silence can also help shift things when needed.

We use the mantra “ I am love, I am light.” If your client has a mantra you can invite them to find it during a challenging time. They can also circle back to their intention if they feel like they have strayed from the goal of the journey. You can remind them of the intention. Remind them that darkness doesn’t bring them to medicine, only the light does that.