P05.02. Non-cognitive Therapy to Alleviate Suffering in Pediatric Palliative Care: Shamanic Journeying

Many children receiving palliative care sufffer from physical, emotional, and spiritual issues that are not adequately relieved by pharmacologic means or cognitive therapies. Children’s hospitals rely upon music, art, and childlife therapies to provide a child-friendly environment that allows them to explore and express feelings in a safe and developmentally appropriate environment. The use of complementary medicine techniques such as massage, Reiki, therapeutic touch, imagery-relaxation, and acupuncture have been used in adult and pediatric palliative care. A technique that has been used less frequently is shamanic journeying in which the patient or the shaman moves into an altered state of awareness and encounters “spirits,” “power animals,” or teachers or guides who can provide information they need to complete their life work. Shamanic journeying may be done as a guided process with the assistance of drumming, rattling, or chanting, helping to propel the person on the journey. The difference between imagery-relaxation techniques/hypnosis and shamanic journeying rests in the presumed source of the information. Conventional medicine assumes that insight comes from the patient’s subconscious mind. Shamans believe that the source of information derives from the energetic-spirit world surrounding us. We have explored the use of shamanic journeying to retrieve “power animals” (guardian totems) on behalf of patients and as a way for patients to access other levels of insight and teaching about their condition. Questions to be pursued for patients include “finding the meaning of the disease” or “what do I need to do to feel better or help myself?” Children may come up with remarkable responses. We believe that shamanic journeying offers an opportunity to explore a patient’s spiritual and subconscious mind through a novel and enjoyable route.