As a shamanism teacher, one of the questions I get asked a lot is, “how is shamanism different that energy work like Reiki or IET?” It’s a good question as, from the outside, all healing modalities work with mind, body, and spirit.

I cannot speak for the many healing modalities out there, but I can talk about shamanism.

I find it useful to think about humans as an intersection of many dimensions, like a stack of clear overhead projector sheets overlaid to create a single picture. On the gross level, we have a physical body. The physical body alone consists of a very complex arrangement of systems. You have cells, organs, muscles, and bones, a nervous and digestive system. Each of these systems can be broken down into different parts - ad infinitum.

You also have other bodies - energetic, spiritual, and soul bodies, energetic bodies, etc. Each of these is just as complex.

In general, shamans are not purely energy healing. Shamanic healing generally works on the level of the spirit and soul - not strictly the energetic body. The healing work that shamans do works at subtle yet powerful human levels that can affect many bodies at once. So there may, in fact, be energetic healing - but not always.

An example of a shamanic healing ceremony that works with the energy body is extraction. A shaman, with a helping spirit, removes energetic intrusions in the energy body in an extraction ceremony.

Other types of shamanic healing methods may work with soul essences, ancestral healings, curse removal, etc. These ceremonies tend to work on multiple levels.

For example, spirit might direct me to perform a soul retrieval ceremony on someone—the soul essence returning works at a profound level. The person might feel emotional changes immediately followed by physical changes. The healing has rippled through the overlapping systems.

In general, those who consider themselves strictly energy healers work primarily with different “levels” of the human system than shamans do. This does not make one modality any better than another. They’re like different specialties in medicine.

If you went to a doctor for chronic pain, for example, they might refer you to a neurologist or a physical therapist, depending on the source of the issue.

Some shamanic practitioners mix modalities. An individual healer might have also training in reiki or other energy healing modalities. A healer might perform a healing ceremony in trance, then perform some other energy healing work. This is, of course, OK as long as it’s in the interest of the client. My personal preference is to separate any shamanic work from anything else I might do.