Rob Calcutt
A space for urban misfits
The urban jungle can be a confusing place!
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Relax, unwind and stop the noise.
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Your subconscious has a message for you.
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Lean in for a listen and you might be surprised!
Hey, Iβm Rob. π
Iβm here to help you own your story, connect with your life urge and give your wounded inner child a platform for expression.
Shamanic practitioner
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Gong geek
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Breathworker
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Tarot slinger
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Cat mother
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Shamanic practitioner γ° Gong geek γ° Breathworker γ° Tarot slinger γ° Cat mother γ°
My story
Anyone who raved through the 90s will agree it was a riot! π₯³
However, growing up queer in this era was an isolating experience. π΅βπ«
Homosexuality was classified as a mental illness and teachers were forbidden, by law, to talk about queerness. For my inner child, any attempt at self-love was, by definition, radical, political and anti-establishment.
I formed a belief that my authentic self was unlovable and began to dissociate from everyday reality. Continually distracted, Iβd sometimes retreat so far inwards that my everyday experience was like being inside a fish bowl. π
This βotheringβ led me to bury trauma during key developmental stages. Altered behaviour patterns that would later become the foundation of my adult identity.
Post-30, childhood wounds often come knocking as we begin to deal with the consequences of compensatory behaviours, addictions, co-dependencies and negative self-talk. Sadly, no one wrote the rulebook on how to navigate this. π€·
Maybe youβve experienced a version of the above?
If so, pull up a chair, youβre in the right place!
I put together these offerings for anyone living with the blanket residue of imposter syndrome.
Moments of belonging and clarity, where we tap into something bigger, can be huge. Plus, once we allow these parts of ourselves to take root, we can begin a fresh period of self-assured growth.
The secret is embracing flow, not attaching to states. Diving into the shadows can be fun too!
Free medicine wheel journey
My offerings
Rebirthing breathwork
Gong bathing
Shamanic journeying
Tarot reading
FAQ
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I get asked this a lot!
In general terms, talking therapies are a fantastic way to bring your issues into sharp focus before βdiving downβ to work with raw emotion from the inside-out.
Sound therapy is great for deep relaxation and breathwork is fantastic for working experientially with emotions and linking them back to 'held' narratives in the body. Finally, drum journeys are good for creative visualisation and guidance.
The type of session I'd recommend depends on the issue you're working with. Normally in the first instance, simple is best.
Have a look through my treatments to see if anything draws you in and call me if you need to talk things through.
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The word Shaman, or βSamanβ, comes from the Evenk tribal lineage; covering South Eastern Siberia, Northern China and Russia.
It means: to heat up, or get excited/frenzied; a bit like the boiling of water.
Shamanic traditions exist in particular corners of the globe, each with a unique set of tools and ceremonies to promote survival and sustain the community.
Shamanism is often incorrectly referred to as the root of all organised religion. This is in fact, ANIMISM. So, in order for us to grasp shamanism, we must first understand the meaning of animism. π
Animism is the basic understanding that everything is alive (rocks, plants and inanimate objects included) and in possession of a soul, or spirit.
Animism acknowledges a universal connection with the spirit world.
Shamanism is the act of actually visiting those spirits in a trance state.
No trance? No shamanism.
All shamanic cultures are animistic, however, not all animistic cultures are shamanic.
What is shamanism NOT?
In the Western world, weβre not part of a traditional, shamanic lineage. Despite this, the word, shamanic, is frequently misused; often as a casual adjective tagged onto anything remotely new-age and spiritual.
Imagine for a moment, travelling all the way to Outer Mongolia to get your dry cleaning done. Not the most time efficient way to go about things, right?
So it follows, attempting to build relationships with localised spirits, in far-flung lands, to try and solve problems in North London. Less still, should we assume that these spirits have any interest in us. π
Much as it taints the Western ego, not to be βchosenβ in some way, ours is an entirely different sickness!
Any curiosity is completely justified however. We Westerners are rudderless, with no indigenous link, or direct connection to our own lands. This thread was severed long ago; mainly by organised religions in their crusade for dominance and power.
Meanwhile, Westernised, or βcoreβ, shamanic techniques (heavily diluted though they are), remain a good way to dialogue with spirit. The shamanic drum journey is one such tool.
Celtic traditions are powerful in their own right but no evidence has been found to support a direct Celtic Shamanism lineage (yet). See instead Celtic Paganism, along with the more modern, Celtic Reconstructionism and Neo-druidism movements (equally fascinating but not the same thing).
Shamanism isnβt necessarily all about psychoactive and psychotropic plant medicines either. Despite what you might hear, not all shamanic cultures work with ayahuasca, san pedro, peyote, iboga, cannabis or cacao.
Finally, shamanic trance work has nothing to do with schizophrenia or western spectrum disorders, despite similarities in some of the symptoms.
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Anyone who feels the calling. Especially you!
Mildly curious?
Stressed or fatigued?
Lacking confidence or experiencing body issues?
Need some pampering to help you chill?
Lacking focus and direction in life?
Seeking creative inspiration?
Difficulty processing emotions?
Or perhaps youβre feeling READY and want to do some deep inner work:
Conquering addictions?
Revisiting major life traumas such as separation, shock, abuse or abandonment?
Dealing with long-term illness?
On the cusp of major life changes?
Needing to stand in your power?
Book a free discovery call and youβll know if my approach is a match for you.
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Come as you are, spill the beans over a cuppa and Iβll design a session to suit. This doesnβt have to involve anything too heavy like endless delving or trite ceremonial chanting if that isnβt your bag.
Equally, the experienced or curious among you, who like to work with smudging, guided visualisations, invocations and ritual, are encouraged to go wild! Sage, rapΓ©, tobacco and cacao are great allies to work with when the situation calls, but you have all the inner technology you need, so Iβm a fan of keeping things simple.
Generally sessions last around 90-minutes, including time for sharing and integration. For more information, see my treatments.
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Ask the guy with the doctorate.
This work is a fantastic compliment to any traditional talking therapy (including Medicine Wheel work) as an aid to work with surface thoughts.
Cognitive talking therapies have us believe that dysfunctional thinking leads to dysfunctional emotions or behaviours. Holistic approaches put this theory in reverse, working with abstract felt sensations from the inside out.
Pause for thought: Feeling tones came before the ability to think and analyse (unless you were spouting that doctorate as a foetus).
The English-language shoehorns approximately 3,000 words into sonic shapes to define these states; an evolving art thatβs like catching a butterfly.
How many feelings do we experience without definition?
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Trust the process, sit a little longer and find out whatβs on the other side.
Thereβs no pressure to disclose anything youβre not comfortable with; we can work with the essence of your issue regardless. If relaxation is the goal, you may wish for me to keep things simple, but above all, stay within your comfort zone and try not to prescribe an outcome.
A degree of fear and trepidation is healthy as it signifies the commitment youβve made to yourself. Like excitement, boredom and sleep, fear can be a useful gateway to access the good stuff! Sometimes we need to move through these gateways to shift habits that donβt serve and subconsciously drive our life choices.
Unfortunately, thereβs no shortcut and none of us are exempt, but living a heart-centred existence neednβt necessitate a βgrowth through struggleβ approach. Let go of the need to validate a session through the level of drama and suffering. Sometimes the process can be ecstatic!
Book a free discovery call and Iβll be happy to discuss any concerns.
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Iβve hand picked a few clinical studies here.
Itβs good to keep your feet on the ground, so believe nothing and question everything. The modalities presented here arenβt at odds with modern scientific principles. The idea that earth, air, fire and water make up all matter has been the cornerstone of philosophy, science and medicine for two thousand years.
Creative imagination doesnβt have to be exempt from rational thought. A structured approach gives us a map to navigate inward, creatively reshape our existence and ground our experiences in a meaningful way when we return.
βImagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world.β β Albert Einstein
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Much to my dismay, Fred hates gongs, so the work room is a cat hair free zone.
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No.
Tarot readings for clarity in a crisis
Health studies
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Sound therapy
The juncture between Alpha and Theta brainwaves, reached by sound therapy, is often called the crossover point by neuroscientists. Here, subjects have experienced βseemingly miraculous resolutions of complex psychological problemsβ[3] including a significant reduction in anxiety levels[4].
Sound therapy has also found success in shifting patient anxiety before an operation[5].
Breathwork
Vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork), actually changes the expression of genes associated with stress, immune function, energy metabolism and insulin secretion[27].
βItβs almost like yin and yang,β says Mladen Golubic of the Cleveland Clinicβs Center for Integrative Medicine. βThe vagal response reduces stress. It reduces our heart rate and blood pressure. It changes the function of certain parts of the brain, stimulates digestion, all those things that happen when we are relaxed.β[28]
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Breathwork
Breathwork is extremely effective in treating depression. It has even shown success among those resistant to antidepressant medications.[30]
Neurons in the brainstem are constantly monitoring our breath patterns. Studies show that if these neurons are surgically removed, our natural stress responses are bypassed and we feel much calmer[31]. Changing your breathing rhythm has a similar effect, tricking the brain into shifting your mood.
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Sound therapy
14 out of 15 patients with acute migraines (and 5 out of 6 with chronic migraines) underwent a course of βbrainwave entrainmentβ sound therapy and experienced a complete relief of symptoms in just five minutes! So a single session may be enough.[6]
Breathwork
In a recent study of 40 chronic migraine sufferers, vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork), applied for four hours a day over three months, showed a 50% reduction in persistent headaches[29].
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Breathwork
The part of the brain called the amygdala[32] is strongly linked to emotional processing. Studies show that stimulating the amygdala with a large inhale will allow us to identify fearful objects much quicker[33]. It therefore corresponds that when weβre in a panic state, our breathing naturally becomes faster to help us cope with dangerous situations.
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Sound therapy
When we drift off to sleep on our journey to the unconscious, our brains pass through various brainwave cycles. The act of inducing Theta brainwaves through sound therapy can shortcut this process to achieve deep, altered states; perfect conditions for stress reduction and sleep[7].
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Breathwork
Clinical studies of vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork) have shown to prevent weight gain in response to a high fat diet[39].
The vagus nerve plays an important role in controlling metabolism and a calorie rich diet has been shown to reduce its efficiency.
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Sound therapy
Neuroscientists trained a group of alcoholics to enter Theta brainwave states (a process naturally activated by sound therapy). These participants showed a much greater recovery rate than those in a separate control group[8]. Thirteen months later, the group demonstrated βsustained prevention of relapseβ, these findings were again confirmed after three years[8].
Breathwork
Vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork) may help addicts overcome substance abuse. A groundbreaking study in VNS and cocaine use lead to a significant decrease in drug seeking behaviours among participants[40].
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Breathwork
Breathwork, along with the relaxation response of vagus nerve stimulation, reduces cytokine production[45][46].
Eh? π In English, cytokines are substances secreted by immune system cells, which connect with other cells, in search of assistance, causing buildup and inflammation.
Trials of vagus nerve stimulation (a process, naturally activated by breathwork) were carried out on 14 patients with treatment-resistant fibromyalgia. Five reported pain relief and improved physical function after just three months, twelve reached this point at eleven months and two were pain free![49]
In a separate study, three multiple sclerosis (MS) patients displaying routine symptoms of postural cerebellar tremor (PCT) and dysphagia showed sustained improvements over the course of three months[50].
Contact me
rob@urbanhealer.co.uk
07810 267778
London, N15
βThe secret is embracing flow, not attaching to states. Diving into the shadows can be fun too!β
- Rob Calcutt.