The Mentorship Programme
What does it mean to have a Mentor?
Once you join the Medicine Wheel & Healing Tools shamanic practitioner training, you will get all the support that we as a teaching team can give you, and as much support as you need when you join the Mentorship programme.
During your training there will be times when you have questions – about the processes you are learning, about your own journey through the Medicine Wheel, and about your development and progress as you journey with us. In the many years since Chris founded Spirit of the Inca, she realised that it is really really helpful to have someone that you can trust and rely on to be a sounding board for any concerns or worries that you might have. It’s also really great to have someone who is willing to encourage you to take the next steps; to listen, to not just your worries and concerns, but also to hear about your successes and value your good practices. It’s also helpful to have a person who has many years’ experience to give you feedback when you need it, and support and encouragement along the way.
We like to think that, as a teaching team, we all have the time and energy to be available for our students so that you can lean in to our many years’ experience when you need to, and the role of Mentor is to assist you in as many ways as possible to lean into your personal work, helping you to remember that you have the wisdom within you, and assisting you in re-discovering your unique gifts.
Of course you will have lots of questions and challenges along the way, and there will be times when you will find it really useful to be able to speak with us personally.
A Mentor is a member of the Spirit of the Inca teaching team. If you haven’t already done so, please choose who you would like as your Mentor: for the 2025-26 Medicine Wheel training, the Mentors are Alex Greaves, Wendy Sullivan, Barbara Bacon, and Roz Gibbs.
What are the options?
Mentorship means giving you a range of different kinds of support for your journey, from support for your own healing journey (absolutely crucial!) to support for your learning and experience in the skills and techniques that we practice.
What are my Mentorship options?
* Choose a Teaching Team member to be your Mentor.
* Have a Mentoring session: this is a conversation with your Mentor lasting around an hour.
* Have a healing session from your Mentor: receive a session from an experienced practitioner to shift issues that are getting in the way of your progress.
* Attend a Practice Day: these are day-long workshops, online or in person, hosted by Chris or a Mentor, that focus on aspects of our practice.
* Swaps: a supplement your Mentoring; a healing session exchange with a fellow student is a great way to practice, to do your healing work, and also to write up as a case study.
What does a Mentoring session look like?
Each Mentoring session lasts about an hour. It could be on the phone or Zoom (or the medium of your choice), and it gives you the chance to talk through things. You can also get clarity on issues relating to your practice. Your Mentor will discuss with you ways forward or through whatever you are with.
We recommend having at least two Mentoring sessions during the course of each direction. You might find it easier to book them well in advance so that you can be sure of having the time that you want.
How much does a Mentoring session cost?
Mentoring sessions cost £40 for an hour of good listening, sharing and feedback.
What happens at a Practice Day?
Practice Days are in-person or online gatherings for our group, and students from previous years may also be in attendance, so it’s a great way to connect with the wider community too. They are an opportunity to reconnect in between classes, to revise skills and practices, and to ask questions about anything we’re stuck on.
It’s a great way to reconnect with the Archetypes that we work with and what they represent to us.
It’s also a wonderful opportunity to be part of a sharing circle, noticing what’s alive to be dealt with.
It’s also an opportunity for a thorough review of the Healing Tools covered in the most recent class or past directions – questions, challenges, and sharing good practice.
If a demo is required to revisit a healing process, then you will get the chance to participate in this.
Finally, we’ll end the day with a journey: in the South it will be to the Underworld to get to know the landscape, visit with Huascar and get a Power Animal and/or a Soul Part.
Healing sessions with your Mentor
If you have personal issues that arise during your training that you feel would benefit from a healing session with your Mentor, then we also recommend that that you book at least one healing session with them.
What makes these sessions different is that they will include all the Healing Tools that are deemed appropriate for your issue – rather than just the work that you have learned so far – so this may include techniques that you are yet to learn. In this way, you’ll benefit from the greater experience that your Mentor has developed over their many years of practice and study.
How much do healing sessions cost?
Healing sessions with a Mentor are two hours long and cost £80.
Swaps
Swapping sessions with fellow students is a great and really useful way to put into practice what you’ve learned in your Mentorship sessions, and to hone your Healing Tools; it will give you so much more experience in your practice; and you will help each other, giving feedback if needed, so that you improve and practice your skills together on a regular basis. By the way: you can also use these swaps as your case studies, in which case our suggestion is to leave out the name of the person you are working with, so they remain anonymous. The Case Study template will be shared on the WhatsApp group after each class.
The key to your learning journey
Having a Mentor is the best way we know to gain confidence in your abilities, and to learn and discover the real power of these tools. You’ll also feel the support of each other as you make your way around the Wheel together.
And asking for a healing session is not a weakness! We want to clarify this. In our Western culture, we go to a doctor because there is something wrong with us; in this tradition it isn’t like this. We get a session when we feel that we have been triggered by something or someone, when we feel at a loss, when we feel the need to move through something, when we feel ourselves going into a place of victim, rescuer or perpetrator, when we feel stuck, when we feel our relationship within ourselves isn’t working, or when our outside world reflects something back to us.
These are all wonderful growth opportunities, and can bring healing on a whole different level – healing ourselves into wholeness. To us, it shows a real strength, great courage and authenticity because we really do want to live an extraordinary life on all levels and in everything that we do. The more we use these growth opportunities to grow, the more our medicine grows (and our integrity as opposed to our ego!!!!)
