Sometimes I feel like I’ve lived many lives during my 34 years on this planet. The one constant that has always hummed in the background is my fascination with the Spirit world. As a kid, I loved ghost stories and hearing about people’s encounters. I was enamored by Psychic-Medium Sylvia Browne and wished more than anything that I could have abilities. I thought in order to be psychic you had to receive information the way she did…and that certainly wasn’t me. Little did I know, I WAS in fact connecting with Spirit. I made most of my decisions based on gut feelings, I could physically feel other people’s emotions, and I could sense if something “bad” had happened at a particular location. Oh yeah, I was also having full conversations with animals…both alive and dead. I just thought that’s what everyone did.
As I grew older I found my abilities grew too and then in 2012 the door to my Spiritual closet was blown off its hinges. I had always read that in order to speak to Spirit you needed to open yourself up but being a child of the “stranger danger” era I just didn’t feel comfortable opening myself up to invisible people that I didn’t consciously know. June of 2012 my grandmother passed away and while staying at her home for the service I found myself talking to her like I would if she were still alive. The amazing thing was, I would hear her respond! At the end of my visit, I told Nanny that I really enjoyed our time together and that I would love it if she would continue to work with me and help me strengthen my abilities so that I could pass on messages and bring comfort to others the way her messages had comforted me. That was all it took. I had officially opened myself up and boy did my grandma deliver! Over the next 5 years I fully emersed myself in anything and everything Spirit and Energy related. One modality led me to the next which helped me to uncover another ability and another. Each with its own special teacher and mentor.
I began my journey by attending The Psyche Institute for Higher Learning in Glastonbury, CT. Over the next year and a half, I learned how to turn my abilities on and off, connect with guides, and develop my system for delivering evidentiary based mediumship readings for others. During this time I was also attending local meetup groups. This was where I met my Intuitive Drawing teacher and Shaman Mentor. Through intuitive drawing, I found I could incorporate my artistic skills into my readings by drawing people’s energy while simultaneously connecting with their loved ones. The most beautiful aspect of this work was the ability to give my clients a work of art that not only reflected their inner beauty but also provided continued healing and support while on their own personal journies!
When I met my Shaman mentor I didn’t even know what a Shaman was, but when I would listen to her talk I could feel a remembrance in my gut, like, ‘I know I can do that…but how?’ Whenever I would ask Sherri where she learned these various techniques of journeying and connecting with Spirit she would always say one of two things:
A) “Spirit taught me.”
B) “Shaman School.”
I had the talking to Spirit down pretty well so I knew I needed to go to Shaman School. In the Fall of 2014, I packed up my bags and headed off to my first class with the Four Winds Light Body School at The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. Over the next two years, I would rediscover my abilities as a medicine woman. I learned the art of Illuminations, Soul Retrieval, Ancestral Healing, and Psychopomp (Spirit Crossing). I was a sponge, soaking up all the wisdom my teachers generously shared. I even worked with and received some of my Rites from the Q’ero Shaman of Peru!
Still, something was missing…ANIMALS! As fate would have it, in the Summer of 2016, I received a course catalog from Omega and saw that there was a weekend workshop in Animal Communication being taught by Daniel MacKinnon. Since I often felt more at ease with animals then people, I knew I had to go! And being the life long learner and animal lover that I am, 2 days with Danielle was not enough for me. That Fall I enrolled in her School for Animal Communication Iearned how to connect with animals on a soul level so as to learn what it is they are here to teach us humans. It was the perfect addition to my Shamanic practice.
My journey has been an extensive one and amongst the “formal” education I received in Animal Communication, Evidentiary Mediumship, and Shamanism, Spirit has provided me with on the job training via once in a lifetime experiences like working on cold cases with Private Investigators and Connecticut State Police. I’ve also been fortunate to work on land clearings and Spirit crossings throughout the East Coast. Most recently I now find myself working with the next generation of Lightworkers who are discovering their abilities. Life is never boring with this work, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.