Humanist adventures in my college years
During college I was fortunate to take several Psychology classes and I very much enjoyed them. Among my favorite subjects were the humanist psychologists. They embodied a lot of what I thought and felt. It was like learning something which made so much sense to me I could barely believe it was “a thing.” I remember studying the hierarchy of needs and how powerfully that spoke to me.
The humanists and Plant Spirit Medicine
Now as a Plant Spirit Medicine healer I am always aware of the hierarchy of needs. This pyramid is an interesting reality for all of us healers to consider. It goes kind of like this. As human beings we have different types of needs and they can be expressed or thought of in the shape of a pyramid or hierarchy. At the very base of the pyramid are basic needs. Things like food, shelter, nourishment. They are basic to us as humans. Without these our safety teeters, our survival is threatened. As we move up on the pyramid we have other needs until we get to the very top of the pyramid where we encounter needs such as being witnessed, making a difference, doing good for others … and up to the tippy top which is referred to self-actualization.
Why respecting needs is important when healing
As a healer I am very aware that until our people’s basic needs (food, safety, shelter, a ground to stand on) are met … it can be very difficult, if not impossible, for them to receive spiritual healing. It’s similar to encountering someone who needs a dollar to be able to complete their grocery checkout and, instead of handing them a dollar,we ask them about their life purpose.
Sometimes we like to fly before we can walk
In the era of massive comparison, photoshopping and social media we often forget that we need to tend to our basic needs first before being able to heal, visualize, buy stuff, travel and make some of our dreams come true. Those basic needs are the base, the support of that pyramid, the ground of our lives.
In Plant Spirit Medicine we have a wonderful vehicle for healing those needs. The needs of the body, those of the mind and the needs of the spirit. It is spirit which animates all of it. Spirit makes all of it possible. But without safety, food or shelter it is very difficult to contemplate spiritual matters, matters of purpose or life balance. I mean if you don’t have food or a safe place to live how can we talk about your work- life balance?
Healing based on your needs
When you come for a PSM session, with the help of the wisdom and generosity of the plants, we begin working at the physical level, we then move to the mental level and we also address the spiritual to the extent that your body, mind and spirit require. One of the most beautiful gifts of this medicine is that of witnessing you, seeing you where you are and celebrating, honoring that. Whatever the starting point your needs are witnessed and held in confidence and trust. Then with the help of the plant spirits we begin the work of clearing, centering, returning and uplifting … you … in body, mind and spirit. It is a process that over time delivers to you your own radiant joy, your own radiant Self.
