Charmaine Whitman, Registered Massage Therapist
Aanii. Hello. I am Healing Hands Woman from the Eagle Clan. A proud member of Beausoleil First Nation (Ojibwe) in Georgian Bay, ON, Canada. I am a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) and have been since 2008.
Much of my life has been lived between two worlds. The world of my colonial ancestry and the world of my Anishnabe (Ojibwe) ancestry. A seed was planted in my late teens, while starting on my own healing journey, that there was something more to life than just the obvious conventional choices. Now I realize that this was my ‘healing gifts’ waking up inside of me and that I would embark on a journey to become a ‘healer’. Like much of my life the path to get here has been challenging and unconventional.
Growing up outside of my Anishnabe community and without the teachings has led me to seek knowledge about healing and being a healer outside of traditional teachings. The thing about healing and healers is that every culture has their own teachings and approach to what that entitles. It was important for me to try to honour my own Anishnabe roots but without any connections to that world it has been difficult. To call yourself a healer in Indigenous communities you need to have studied traditional ways. So, I think of myself as a healer, but without the traditional teachings or a traditional teacher I do not refer to myself as a healer in Indigenous communities.
I have completed 3 college programs and recently completed a bachelor of Allied Health Science degree. I have also been on a healing journey since my late teens and have seen numerous healers and bodyworkers. Plus, completed a dozen alternative therapy certificates, where I have learned about energy healing (Reiki), basics of herbalism, healing properties of crystals and gemstones, aromatherapy, shamanism from a western perspective and so much more.
My journey to become a healer as simultaneously always coincided with healing myself at the same time. I have never stopped learning and will continue to keep working towards learning more traditional Indigenous ways of healing. The journey was sometimes hard but having a deep belief in myself has always kept me going, even when it was just me and I didn’t know where I was going. I always just wanted to keep striving for a better life and to help others along the way.
““Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God (the Creator). Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God (the Creator) that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
”
A note about internet safety:
Privacy online is important, please remember to keep your personal information to yourself.
You are encouraged to comment anonymously with your questions below, and the mentor will reply within the thread.