I’ve long considered myself far too rational to try something like shamanic healing (or chakra balancing or vaginal steaming or reading “The Secret,” for that matter). After all, I am the daughter of two scientists. (“My problem with psychedelic therapy is the purity and composition is variable and often not tested in controlled clinical trials,” my father recently said to me.) I support my local public radio station. I subscribe to The Washington Post.
However, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become disenchanted with the Western healthcare system. When years of traditional therapy and medication couldn’t alleviate my persistent mood swings and anxiety, I became increasingly willing (read: desperate) to explore nontraditional methods.
That’s how I – like many of my fellow millennials – began dipping my toe into the spiritual (or “woo woo” as the more skeptical, younger version of me might have called it). My quest for healing has taken the form of everything from daily meditation to yoga to an ayahuasca retreat intended to “release heavy energy and start healing ancestral imprints,” as the brochure stated.
My foray into the transcendent eventually led me to Phillia Kim Downs, a Korean-American shamanic healer based in New York City. After I interviewed her for the article I was writing about my ayahuasca experience, Downs offered to gift me a shamanic healing experience. Being in my spiritually curious era, I didn’t say “no.” Instead, I asked, “How?” After all, I was down in Austin, Texas, and she was in Queens, New York.
Turns out, shamanic healing can take place over Zoom. In fact, Downs performs virtual shamanic healing on the reg, she assured me. “The same healing cosmic medicinal transmission as if we were in person,” she promised.
First, What is Shamanic Healing?
Shamans – or “spiritual healers” as they are also called – have been around for centuries, practicing in various forms in various Indigenous cultures around the world, including South America, Korea, and the Arctic.
Modern-day shamanism was reborn in the West by spiritual seekers in the ’60s. In the last decade, the practice has regained popularity via social media, with an explosion in TikTok healers and people turning to shamanic healing to help with physical, emotional, and spiritual concerns. Celebrity shamans like Shaman Durek (who Gwyneth Paltrow called her “light in shining armor” in Vanity Fair) lead the charge.
Downs herself is trained in Q’ero shamanism, a practice originating in the Peruvian Andes. As a Q’ero shaman, she acts as a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms to facilitate healing, she says. “I am simply a vessel for my spirit guides. I help people release heavy or stagnant energies, heal emotional wounds, and reconnect with their inner wisdom and power.”
Downs’ journey to becoming a shaman began more than 15 years ago. Plagued by panic attacks and people-pleasing tendencies, Downs tried a shamanic healing session in her late 20s. A single session stopped her panic attacks and changed her life, she says. “My personal power came back.”
Downs apprenticed for her shaman for years before taking a sacred journey to Peru. There, she was initiated into the Q’ero lineage by shamanic high priests – a chilly process that involved bathing naked in freezing water while shamans cleansed her with herbal branches.
Today, Downs provides in-person shamanic healing sessions to clients in New York and virtual appointments to clients around the world. These are people seeking healing from a variety of issues, from physical pain to toxic relationships to limiting beliefs, she tells me.
Reconnecting with your inner wisdom doesn’t come cheap. My session is a gift, but a typical shamanic healing session can cost between $150 to $500, depending on the shaman and length.
Preparing For My Shamanic Healing Session
Ahead of my scheduled session, I prepared a wish list of intentions, per Downs’ request. (To name a few: “alleviate my screen addiction” and “stop impulse buying expensive cowboy boots.”) Also per Downs’ instructions, I wrote a list of first names for people with whom I wanted to experience “energetic cord cuttings.”
“The cord cuttings are an act of love,” she says. “These aren’t people you will lose or disconnect with; rather, you’ll receive divine assistance to re-shift relationship dynamics for the higher.”
Somewhat confused by these instructions, I started with a list of ex-boyfriends. Then, I’d added a boss, a handful of coworkers, a former improv coach, and my father for good measure.
My Shamanic Healing Session
On a rainy January afternoon, I sign onto Zoom for our scheduled session. Downs is cheerful and cute as a button. She listens patiently as I read off my list of intentions and cord cuttings. Briefly, we discuss logistics. The session will take about two hours and I may experience yawning laughter or a tingling sensation, Downs tells me. Before we start, I lie down on the floor of my apartment and place my laptop on the floor by my head.
From a computer screen across the country, Downs begins.
“We open sacred space today, on Jan. 5, 2025, for my beautiful, dear sister Maria,” Downs says. “We call upon the spirit guides of the highest vibration of unconditional, universal love and divine support, intervention, and grace to uplift, elevate, alchemize, liberate, and empower my beautiful, dear sister Maria for the highest and brightest good.”
Image Source: María Cristina Lalonde
Downs continues like this, rhythmically ringing a bell and shaking a rattle. She switches in and out of English, Spanish, and Quechua, the indigenous language spoken in the Andean region of South America.
For most of the session, Downs performs “soul retrievals,” walking me through various past lives. For example: In one past life, I dreamed of becoming a priestess and was crushed when I was turned down for the job, she tells me. In another, I was a princess, breaking hearts and using power to my advantage. In another life, I was a shaman who gave up my dream of being an artist to try to win approval from my father.
Throughout the session, “Past Lives” by Børns is stuck in my head. We take a bathroom break, then continue with more soul retrievals. Downs’ voice is soothing, and I find the two hours pass by quickly. My hands and feet tingle – though whether this is because of the energetic cords being cut or because I’ve been lying on the floor for two hours, I cannot say.
Once the session is over, Downs tells me to take it easy for the next few weeks. I may feel unsettled, fatigued, and otherwise “off.” “This is a good thing,” Downs assures me. “It means the recalibration of the wonderful new frequencies of your soul parts being reintegrated is happening.”
I will begin to feel the benefits of the healing about a month after my session, according to Downs. “You will feel a breakthrough in new levels of inner strength, personal power, grounded inner calm, clarity, and courage,” Downs says. “This will deepen and settle as the months go by.”
The Aftermath
In the weeks that follow, I am attentive (if skeptical) about any changes I feel. But sure enough: I sleep a lot in the weeks after the session (OK, but everyone feels tired in the winter). I felt less motivated to go out (but this could also be because I’m doing Dry January). I can barely drag myself to the gym (but isn’t it more likely that my reluctance is caused by the post-New Year crowds, not recalibrating frequencies?).
If Downs’ forecast is correct, the true effects of the healing will kick in any day now. I await this transformation with bated breath – and a pinch of salt.
Downs assures me experiencing some skepticism is completely natural. “It’s healthy to question something unfamiliar,” says Downs. “But I’d encourage you to stay open – not to blindly believe, but to explore and experience for yourself what it might offer.”
And you, dear reader – are you curious, but not convinced about the transformative potential of shamanic healing? Give it a try anyway, Downs advises.
“The beauty of shamanic healing is that it doesn’t require you to understand every detail or even fully believe in it for it to work,” says Downs. “Healing is a deeply personal journey, and shamanic practices are simply one of many tools available to help you reconnect, transform, and grow.”
María Cristina Lalonde is a freelance journalist and aspiring kickboxing champion. She has written about sexual health, fitness, and wellness for over a decade. Her articles have appeared in, among other publications, the Houston Chronicle, Everyday Health, Giddy, and U.S. News & World Report.
