The Unconscious Mind & Shamanic Healing Explained

Most of us try to heal by thinking our way out of pain.

We analyse. We talk. We gain insight. We understand where patterns came from.
And yet… the body still reacts. The same triggers fire. The same emotional loops repeat.

This isn’t because you’re doing healing “wrong.”
It’s because the deepest wounds don’t live in words, they live in image, sensation, and felt experience.

Healing on the imaginative level works because it speaks directly to the unconscious mind; the part of you that actually runs the show.

How the unconscious mind really works in healing

The unconscious mind is not logical or linear. It doesn’t respond to explanations, reasoning, or willpower.

Instead, it communicates through:

• Images and symbols
• Dreams and metaphors
• Sensations in the body
• Emotional tone
• Archetypal stories

This is why you can know you’re safe, loved, or capable and still feel anxious, small, or unworthy.

Many emotional wounds were formed before language; in childhood, attachment experiences, or moments of overwhelm where the nervous system couldn’t fully process what was happening. Those experiences were stored non-verbally.

Which means healing must happen non-verbally too.

Why imagination and visualisation are so powerful

Imagination isn’t fantasy. Neurologically, the brain does not clearly distinguish between a vividly imagined experience and a real one.

When you visualise something with emotional and sensory detail:

• The same neural pathways activate
• The nervous system responds as if the experience is happening now
• New associations and patterns can form

This is why visualisation is used in trauma recovery, sports psychology, and somatic therapies and why a single imagined scenario can instantly calm or dysregulate your body.

Imaginative healing allows us to introduce corrective emotional experiences where none were available at the time.

You are not pretending.
You are rewiring.

The healing power of symbol and archetype

Symbols bypass the thinking mind and go straight to meaning.

A lost child being found
A frozen landscape thawing
An animal protector appearing
A burden being laid down

The unconscious understands these images instantly. No explanation required.

This is why myths, dreams, rituals, and storytelling have always been humanity’s healing language and why purely cognitive approaches often reach a limit.

As Carl Jung understood, the psyche doesn’t heal through insight alone, but through symbolic completion. What was once frozen in image must be met and transformed in image.

How this plays into shamanic healing work

Shamanic healing works directly in the imaginal realm; the meeting place between psyche, body, spirit, and nervous system.

In shamanic traditions:

• Illness is often seen as loss of soul, power, or connection
• Healing happens through journey, symbol and relationship
• Change occurs by restoring wholeness, not fixing what’s “wrong”

Practices such as soul retrieval, power-animal work, and guided journeying don’t rely on belief. They work because they engage the unconscious in experience.

When someone imagines:

• A lost part returning
• An inner protector standing guard
• An ancestral wound being witnessed and released

The nervous system receives a new message:

Something has shifted. You are no longer alone. The danger has passed.

And the body responds accordingly.

Why this kind of healing creates deep, lasting change

Imaginative and shamanic healing works because it:

• Bypasses resistance and overthinking
• Reaches pre-verbal and developmental wounds
• Integrates body, emotion, and meaning at once
• Allows healing without re-traumatisation
• Restores inner authority, safety, and sovereignty

This is not about escaping reality.
It’s about meeting reality at the level where it was first shaped.

You don’t heal by convincing yourself you’re safe.
You heal when the unconscious experiences safety.

A gentle invitation

If you feel like you’ve understood your patterns but still feel stuck in them…
If talk-based healing has taken you as far as it can…
If you sense that something deeper is ready to be reclaimed…

This is the work I guide.

I blend shamanic healing, imaginative journeying, and grounded nervous-system awareness to help you reconnect with lost parts of yourself, restore inner safety, and move forward with clarity and self-trust.

✨ If you’re curious to explore shamanic healing work with me, I invite you to book a free, no-pressure call.
We’ll talk about what you’re experiencing and whether this way of working feels right for you.

👉 SCHEDULE A CALL HERE

You don’t need to force healing.
You need to meet it in the language your soul already speaks.