Shelley Tansley - Transpersonal Art Therapy & Shamanic Healing

21/12/2023

Wishing you all a safe and relaxing time as the wheel of the year turns.
Go gently, create space for reflection, celebrate the joyous moments and mourn the difficult ones.
See you in the new year, my doors open for art therapy sessions, supervision , shamanic healing and ritual practice on January 9th 2024.

09/11/2023

Some of you have been asking about where you can study Art Therapy and Counselling , the College of Complementary Medicine - RTO 91396 offer a discovery session.
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BOOK YOUR FREE TICKET VIA THE LINK BELOW
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Get tickets on Humanitix - Discovery Session - Art Therapy & Counselling . Online. Dates from Friday 16th September 2022. Find event information.

06/11/2023

05/11/2023

A beautiful day assisting on a nature immersion day, sitting with mama cacao and diving into water ceremonies on Dharawal land.
Grateful for these healing waters, they call me back time and time again 💙🦋

08/10/2023

Here’s an art therapy activity you can do to explore your own inner Tree of Life.
Let me know in the comments what insights you received?
🌳

05/10/2023

🌿 Embracing Integration 🌟

I’ve just returned from a powerful medicine ceremony and feeling a deep shift within me. I’m aware of the healing that I have been gifted with and I'm reminded of the importance of integration. 🙏🏽✨

🌱 The journey doesn't end when the ceremony does; it's just the beginning. Integration is where the real work happens - integrating the insights, healing, and transformation into our daily lives.

I am reminded of one of my teachers lessons around integration and how if we do not allow these experiences to truly transform our lives by making real change in the everyday, then we are in danger of moving into a space of becoming a mystical tourist, seeking the spiritual high but never allowing these experiences to bring real lasting change into our lives.

💫 It's about finding balance, making conscious choices, and nurturing the seeds of change that were planted within us during the ceremony.

🌄 As the sun rises on this new phase of my journey, I'm committed to honoring the lessons and growth that have come my way. May we all continue to integrate with love and intention🌱

Get in touch if you are experiencing a deeply transformative time within your life and needing assistance to integrate the experience.

“We’re all just walking each other home”
Ram Dass

05/10/2023

A few weeks back I had the privilege of sitting with a baby Raven who had found itself in our backyard unable to master the art of flight yet.
It’s parents circled above, calling out and the young raven flapped it’s wings with all its might but just could not get high enough to fly over our fence.
After some time watching and sitting with the raven I ushered it down our side passage way towards the back gate and opened the gate, so it could get out of our yard and into a more spacious area where it could have more room to practice this new skill.
As always my interactions in nature teach me greatly, and it got me thinking about how sometimes before we prepare to step into something new, to soar on our metaphorical wings we need some time to ground.
After each attempt which took an incredible amount of energy for this young bird, it would sit on the ground and take a moment to collect itself, catch its breath, before it’s next try.
I reflected on my own life and how I’ve been learning some big deep lessons of late, learning to detach from old patterns, building new ways of being, healing from past hurts… this deep work sometimes can leave us feeling really ungrounded and a bit adrift amongst the chaos of change.
Getting grounded in these moments is vital and can come in a variety of ways. You can try grounding meditations, take your shoes off and walk on the earth, you can bury yourself in sand at the beach and one of the most simple things is what is often referred to as “carry wood and chop water” but menial, ordinary tasks like washing up, gardening, take out the rubbish can all help to bring us back into the present moment and help us to feel more grounded.
The good news is that later that day I saw the little raven flapping it’s wings high up in a gum tree next to our house, it’s parents circled over my daughter and I as we walked by.
My daughter said “they might be saying thank you” and I believe they were bud it is I who is thankful for the lesson it taught me.

02/10/2023

Nature is such a beautiful teacher.
Today whilst walking in Dharug country I found this gum tree who was dripping an incredible amount a tree sap and I was reminded of something one of my shamanic teachers taught me about gums “saying that when the tree has a wound, it will cauterise the wound. If it doesn’t the tree will continue to bleed out until it dies.”
Sometimes our wounds in life have this potential also to completely deplete us of our life force.
So my pondering as I wandered through the wild, was what are the things that assist us in the process of cauterising our own wounds, whether they be emotional, spiritual or mental?
How can we release and let go of old wounds before they become a danger to our very existence?
I am grateful for the lesson that the gum teaches and for the area of investigation it has inspired 🌳🌱

28/09/2023

Those fresh face feels when you been sitting in the sauna and then running to throw yourself into the ocean and then repeat!
My body always responds really well to hot and cold exposure, I feel like every cell in my body awakens and my immune system gets a kick start. For someone who navigates auto-immune disease this is a game changer.
Today I’m proud of myself for creating space for rest, space for self care.
What’s your favourite self-care hack?

14/09/2023

Sometimes the answers can only be found within our wanderings in the wild…

05/09/2023

Often when we here the word healer, there is the assumption that they do the healing.
However the reality is that a healer is responsible for holding and distributing the energies, creating safe space and supporting the client to heal their own Self.
In my work as therapist and healer I am privileged to witness the incredible power that all humans possess to make huge change and call in transformation to their lives.

31/08/2023

Time to tend to the altars✨

27/08/2023

20/08/2023

Divination has always been a powerful tool in my art practice and in my quest to bypass the ego and allow the soul to speak.

Recently while taking some time out on booderee country to rest, I pulled one of the Kim Krans animal spirit cards and got “the frog”.

Such a poignant card reminding me of the importance of nourishing our Souls. Just as the frog without the element of water would wither and die so too our souls can become malnourished if we don’t take time and care to feed our souls.

I am in deep pondering at present about what it is that nourishes my soul.
Often our ego has ideas about what this might be but I’m curious at present about what is nourishing that might be a surprise for my conscious mind.

What’s something that deeply nourished your Soul?

28/07/2023

This resonates deeply💜

21/07/2023

Although I work as an art therapist and shamanic healer, I have always been an artist in my personal life. Years ago after studying my Bachelor in Visual Arts I had hopes and dreams of focusing on becoming as exhibiting artist. But life took many twists and turns and I found myself working and studying in design, then going on to retrain to become an art therapist. All the while I continued to create for myself personally, did a few exhibitions, but really neglected to continue cultivating the artist within.
I have recently made some personal commitments to make space for the artist again. And almost like clockwork, opportunities began to present themselves.
I’ve learnt over time that it’s mostly myself who gets in the way of my dreams. So the work of undoing that pattern is vitally important if I am to be cultivating a life of wholeness, a life where the artist in me gets to play as well.
I usually work in ink, watercolour, painting, mixed media, mosaics but recently I began working in clay again.
Prior to joining the studio I am currently working in I had an audio-clairvoyant moment where I hear the words “I’m going to love myself into being” and there truly is an aspect of love for me in this process.
Loving myself by making space for my own expression, loving myself by allowing time to invest in my own interests, loving myself by exploring what wants to be created from within the clay and not creating art for a commercial outcome but purely because I’m loving it.
What I am finding curious is that the only things that are feeling really good to make at the moment are these masks, pictured here are two, still in their infant stages.
Masks have been something I’ve worked a lot with, for their primal ability to assist us to embody spirit, archetypal energy and positively possess ourselves.
These two have been created with a potent mythology in mind, stories emerging as I work, about these creatures, this deity. I am servant to the clay, I listen and I obey. Through my hands it shows me what to make, how to mould it.
There is healing in this space for me, and this is how art becomes therapy for me also 💜

06/07/2023

When you hear the words “self care” what comes to mind?
Do you find that a lot of “should” statements get activated within you.
I should drink more water, I should do more meditation, I should make sure I get more sleep etc…
But lately I’ve been thinking about how “self care” can not be approached from a “should” place, we cannot bully ourselves into wellbeing. And often the pressure to do all the things comes with a price also.
The expectation, the sense of failing when we haven’t ticked all the “self care” boxes, is an indication that our approach to self care is coming from a place of “doing” rather than “being”
Radical “self care” has to start from a place of “care”. Gently accepting where we are at, asking ourselves “what do I need right now?”
Self care is not a natural thing for me, in fact if I’m completely honest my default coping mechanisms are often aligned more with self-sabotage. Those default settings within have been created to keep me safe over the years, but I’m learning to re-write those patterns, step out of my comfort zone, pushing myself to my own edges, where I create more space for deep care within. Sometimes that begins by trying to be my own ally, to be kind to myself and focusing on my own internal self talk. Am I treating myself the way that I would a friend? Am I extending as much patience, care and love to myself as I would others?
Am I truly seeing myself and what I need?
I’d love to hear the comments what your experience of “self care” is like, how do you engage with it and what is your favourite thing at the moment that sends a big message of love and care to yourself.
And remember go gently, you need not do anything but just rest and lean into being 💜

27/06/2023

Listening, watching, sensing, feeling on Dharug country 🌿💜

26/06/2023

I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude lately and how it can change our state of consciousness. It really feels like a choice to shift my consciousness from a suffering mindset to a thriving mindset.
Recently whilst at the nan tiem temple in Wollongong, I walked up the hill to the gratitude bell and as I walked I reflected on the times where I choose to sit in the suffering.
That might look like indulging in negative thoughts, focusing on the aspects of my life that are difficult, operating from a place of lack and the list goes on, as there is no limit to the depths of suffering. In the very same way that gratitude is vast and endless.
But as I walked towards that gratitude bell I began to think of all that I had to be grateful for, my beautiful daughter, my family, my partner, my friends, a rich an expressive life, clean water to drink, access to food, a warm bed to sleep in at night (this list too goes on and on)
Then as I struck the gratitude bell I could feel it reverberate out over the landscape I thought about how what we focus on, in this case either suffering or gratitude, also has a reverberating quality within our lives.
One thing to add is that gratitude is not an avoidance of suffering or a spiritual bypassing of those harder, tougher experiences but rather an acknowledgment of what is whilst also holding that balance of what is present within our lives that is to be celebrated and enjoyed.
I’d encourage you today if you are reading this to take a moment and acknowledge just one thing that you are grateful for.
Focus on this as you take a deep breath in.
Pay attention, notice if anything changes with you or your consciousness? Are there any somatic responses (as in bodily reactions) ?

14/06/2023

This workshop looks fantastic, facilitated by the wonderful duo Renee and Bronwen!

Creative Minds workshop for Adults ✨
During this winter solstice ignite your inner spark by making time for you. Join us on a journey inwards as we reflect and explore self expression through creative art materials, voice, guided visualisation and movement.
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Earlybird promo code: SPARK
Valid until 13 June
Book now: odonata.com.au/courses-workshops

30/05/2023

The signs are always there, we just need to open our eyes 😂
But in all seriousness, I saw this sign the other day out walking and it kind of struck me, my mind started racing as the words “road ahead” began to form connections and viewing it through a mythopoetic lense gave it great meaning.
I’ve had a lot going on personally professionally over the last few years, health stuff, interpersonal stuff and lots of deep work which has required a lot of energy.
At times I make good choices that support me to be the best I can and other times I fall into old default patterns. Such is the human experience and what a gift it is to be able to participate in it.
But one thing is for sure, that there is always a road ahead, we never fully arrive at a “destination”, the road continues and new pathways emerge.
Often I see within myself and my clients the desire to have “arrived”, to have completed the journey to find themselves at the “destination” point.
Building the inner resources to keep travelling those roads with grace, love and compassion for self and others is vital.

29/05/2023

Here’s some little fact sheets on Mugwort that I created for the “Working with magical plants” workshop that I facilitated last year with Natalie Rachel Moss If you are interested in plant medicine, lucid dreaming and in creating right relationship to plant spirits and allies, take a look 🌿💜

29/05/2023

The mugwort in my garden has flowered, mugwort can be used in a tea, dried to burn as a cleansing smoke and these little delicate flowers when placed under your pillow when you sleep, have the potency to induce lucid dreaming.
I’ve dried a bunch but like to leave some on the plant for the bees and insects who enjoy it.
If you are having dreams that feel overwhelming, confusing or frightening, mugwort can be an incredible aid to assist in navigating the subconscious landscape that we travel to within our dreams.

28/05/2023

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” Carl Jung

24/05/2023

At first I wasn’t sure about how I would take my work into the online space, but now I’m feeling super grateful for all that has opened up since launching the private practice in 2021.
I get to work in my own healing space at home, supporting clients whilst also being a full time mama.
I worked in organisations as an art therapist for years before launching my practice and my daughters birth became the catalyst for all this juicy change I get to enjoy now and it’s only the beginning 💜💜💜

22/05/2023

Couldn’t agree more! Gardening, connecting with plant medicine and plant wisdom. Has been a constant source of mindfulness bliss for me.
The days where my mind races and their are too many thoughts I pull weeds, visualising that I am re-organising those thoughts that are not serving me in that moment.
When I plant seedlings, I think about the things I am wanting to cultivate in my life and breathe life into them as I bring my attention to them.
When I fertilise the soil and water the plants I muse on what I need to make my heart and soul feel nurtured.
I love my garden and all it’s plants and creatures and in turn it loves me back.
It teaches me much and with mutual respect we are both growing together 💜🌿

18/05/2023

Pretty excited to share this with you xx

I wrote this Dream Work Journal during the Covid lockdowns, just after my daughter was born.
It was a really fulfilling passion project and I found myself writing in the limited amount of spare time I had but found that the content just poured out of me.

Dream work has been an incredible tool for me to better understand myself, develop a relationship with my own inner symbolic landscape and if your are wanting to dive deep into exploring dreamwork, this journal is packed full of activities, embodied processes and journaling pages to get you started on your journey with dreaming.

Grab your copy on Amazon worldwide...

Dreamwork allows us to explore and discover the rich tapestry of symbolism that dreams reveal to us. By observing your dreams and exploring personal meaning for each aspect or component of the dream, you can begin to decipher hidden messages or codes that are there for you. Throughout history dre...

09/05/2023

Can’t help it! Keep making art everyone! Visit Lunarbaboon https://loom.ly/PwEhkcQ ❤️

Buy art with us https://loom.ly/iXAOj0U

03/05/2023

Hello Beautiful Community ✨

In a week's time we gather for our final community drum journey, visioning session to connect with an aspects of Self:

*** Spirit ***

Within a shamanic drum journey we can seek insight, communicate with our own inner spirit or spirit allies and retrieve information.
When we listen to the beat of the frame drum at 120-130 beats per minute, our brain waves enter a theta state of consciousness. It is within this altered state that we can then enter a waking dream or light trance similar to lucid dreaming, in which we can set intentions, seek visions and answers.

The term “Shamanic” is used by way of honouring ancestral practices and the origins of ancient practices that all cultures have a connection to in the practice of “Shamanism” and “Animism” The term shamanism comes from the Manchu-tungus word šaman. The noun is formed from the verb ša- ‘to know’; thus, a shaman is literally “one who knows.”

This is the 4th and final session of this series:
Session 4 – Spirit -
Thursday 11th of May – 7:30pm - 9pm

In preparation, begin musing on whether you would like to choose to seek visions on behalf of yourself or on behalf of the collective or your community, around what might be needed at this time for the spirit to experience a greater sense of wellbeing.
Other ways to connect to your intention for the visioning session might be to begin thinking about spirit.
What is spirit?
Do I relate to the idea of having a spirit within my physical form?
What is my spirit longing for?
Does my spirit feel light or heavy?
Do I feel connected or disconnected to my spirit?
How can I connect with spirit both my own and the great source of "Spirit" ?

***** Have with you a notebook for drawing or journaling to capture what visions or insights you may receive during the journey and a bottle of water *****

DM for the zoom link details
THIS IS A FREE EVENT

Looking forward to gathering with you all x

02/05/2023

Welcoming in all aspects of self, embracing with compassion and integrating those once rejected parts of ourselves so that we can live in all of our fullness is the healing benefit of shadowwork. You are perfectly imperfect just as you are!
💜✨
&light

01/05/2023

As the veil thins we honour those that went before. But I also want to draw attention to all the many ancestors over the vastness of time who lived and acted in all the ways they did to make my very existence possible.

I would like to honour in particular my great great grandmother who I never met, who was a Scottish midwife who died after falling down the stairs.
As a result my great granny (who I did meet, a beautiful flamboyant individual with a thick Scottish accent who gifted me the love of dress ups and who I still have some costume jewellery she gave to me on the times we visited her in the blue mountains as children) was sent to go work for a wealthy family as a maid.

It was here that she met my great great grandfather, a butler in service also to this wealthy family. They married and gave birth to my grandmother Constance who has passed now too.

Each of those women and their stories paved the way through time, joys, struggle, genetics etc… it is a truly mind boggling thing to comprehend sometimes.

I honour them all and for what they have passed down to me through this lineage.

23/04/2023

Just returned from an incredible A Sacred Round on Stolen Ground - Weekend Intensive held and taught so beautifully by Raphael Lavallee and Dawn Whitten
Such a wonderful opportunity to further decolonize my magical and professional practice.
Gratitude for our teachers, for the Dharug country that we spent the weekend sleeping on, learning on. For the group that gathered of like minded souls committed to showing up for this work.
I’ve come home with much to marinate in, to ruminate over and to transform within my practice.

19/04/2023

Proud of my mate David Eccles for the work he is doing!🙌💜

An award-winning men's mental health program, co-founded by a former Sydney Swan, is trying to get men into exercise at the beach as a way of improving their...

18/04/2023

This quote comes from a dear friend who wrote it within some messages recently.
It held the potency of what a lot of my personal and professional work often contains.
Here when the word “die” is used, it is intended in a metaphorical sense, an ego death often occurs when we are awakening to new truths about ourselves or the world around us.
Those ego-deaths can be gut wrenching, dark nights of the soul but each time we travel that pathway we gather new resources to aid and assist us on the next personal descent.
We cannot control when or how ego deaths occurs but we can get better at sitting in the dark places, navigating our way through the underworld of the psyche and begin to relish those moments for the promise of the new way of being that we are gifted with.
Once the ego has re-integrated the new understanding, we can step out into the world carrying our new truths like a flame to light our way 🔥

13/04/2023

Creating altar and sacred space at our full moon gatherings.
Usually my altars consist of objects that will be used during ceremony or ritual and also items that connect me to my resources and to my allies.
It represents a holding space of protection for our deep dives or sacred explorations. It holds a energetic presence of guardians and allies to help hold the space while healing or clearing is done.
This altar featured in the images has branches from a tree that my grandmother planted which I used for saining our group that gathered, there is the jar of floral waters that I brew that day for clearing and cleansing the end of that astrological year, a vessel to hold our waters, cards, stones to represent the 7 directions and a clearing broom.
What sort of things might you have on your altar at the moment?
What are you working with symbolically?

13/04/2023

Hello Beautiful Community ✨
Tonight we gather for our community drum journey, visioning session to connect with an aspects of Self:

❤️❤️❤️ Heart ❤️ ❤️❤️

Within a shamanic drum journey we can seek insight, communicate with our own inner spirit or spirit allies and retrieve information.

When we listen to the beat of the frame drum at 120-130 beats per minute, our brain waves enter a theta state of consciousness. It is within this altered state that we can then enter a waking dream or light trance similar to lucid dreaming, in which we can set intentions, seek visions and answers.

The term “Shamanic” is used by way of honouring ancestral practices and the origins of ancient practices that all cultures have a connection to in the practice of “Shamanism” and “Animism” The term shamanism comes from the Manchu-tungus word šaman. The noun is formed from the verb ša- ‘to know’; thus, a shaman is literally “one who knows.”

**Join in for all 4 sessions or drop in when it suits **

Session 2 – Heart - Emotional

Thursday 13th of April – 7:30pm - 9pm

In preparation, begin musing on whether you would like to choose to seek visions on behalf of yourself or on behalf of the collective or your community, around what might be needed at this time for the heart to experience a greater sense of wellbeing.

Other ways to connect to your intention for the visioning session might be to begin thinking about the heart.

What is the heart?

Where do I feel it resides in my body?

How does my physical heart feel?

What do I carry in my heart?

What is in my heart today?

What is my heart longing for?

Have with you a notebook for drawing or journaling to capture what visions or insights you may receive during the journey and bottle of water.

DM for details on how to join Empowered Community and get access to the zoom link for tonights FREE session 🦋✨

Please read the empowered community group rules set out by the admins prior to joining this zoom meeting

Looking forward to seeing you xx