twitter_iconfacebook_iconrss_icon
A Shamanic Cure for Depression

A Shamanic Cure for Depression

by | May 8, 2015 | Community, Depression, Happiness, Shamanism, Support, Uncategorized |

Teray Garchitorena Kunishi, ND

Dr. Teray offers natural and integrative programs for healing anxiety & depression, chronic fatigue, and digestive conditions. She is a licensed naturopathic doctor, wellness coach, author, and creator of the Deeply Happy Expert Series. She serves clients globally via phone and video consultation.
Get in touch at http://www.deeplyhappy.com/contact/

Latest posts by Teray Garchitorena Kunishi, ND (see all)

Leave me alone to complete the business of my life, and know that I will never forget you. This is what author Andrew Solomon was instructed to say, to the spirits that had caused his depression. He did this as part of a Senegalese ritual known as ndeup, which is performed to cure mental illness. While the idea of evil spirits causing depression may seem superstitious to the western mind, there is a certain beauty to the way the Senegalese perceive mental illness, and most especially, it’s cure. Once an individual is understood to have been cursed, it becomes the role of the community to restore balance, and bring her back to herself . This point of view is fairly incompatible with  traditional western psychology. Solomon recounts the words of a Rwandan he met on his travels: “We had a lot of trouble with western mental health workers who came here immediately after the genocide and we had to ask some of them to leave… Their practice did not involve being outside in the sun … which is, after all, where you begin to feel better. There was no music or drumming to get your blood flowing again when you’re depressed, and you’re low, and you need to have your blood flowing. There was no sense that everyone had taken the day off so that the entire community could come together to try to lift you up and bring you back to joy. There was no acknowledgment that the depression is something invasive and external that could actually be cast out of you again. Instead, they would take people one...