My Teachers: Betsy Bergstrom

I took my first training with Betsy, a workshop on Unravelling Thoughtforms and Curses, in 2005, and since then I’ve been back to Seattle every few years to continue studying with her.

What inspires me most about Betsy is how fully and gracefully she bridges the worlds. She has the capacity to perceive the energetic and spiritual dimensions as clearly and directly as the physical one, and brings a grounded, no-nonsense approach to this more complex reality. I feel at home when I sit in one of Betsy’s circles, because I’m finally in a space where the world I experience is the world we all accept as real.

The name of Betsy’s practice, Heart Centered Shamanic Healing, says everything about her approach. She genuinely sees the world as inhabited by multitudes of people, human and otherwise. Her respect for these diverse beings is inspiring, as is her commitment to finding healing and freedom for all. In contrast to dualistic Western approaches that allow benefit for one at the expense of others, this inclusive approach requires that a healing gesture must benefit, or at least not harm, everyone and everything connected to a situation.

Beyond her family lineage, and her training in a wide variety of shamanic and alternative healing modalities, Betsy has also studied Systemic Constellation work. I’ve learned a lot from her about energetic fields, how energy flows in groups of people, and how to work with that energy to create strong containers for healing and teaching. These practices are both incredibly subtle and incredibly effective, and I use them everyday with my students and clients.

I’m enormously grateful to Betsy for how generously she shares her teachings, and for the impact they continue to have on me.