Article in Healing Hearts Magazine

~ The Beauty of Retreating
About: Kelly (Kilandril) is Co-Director of The Healing Space Cygnet and also works there as a Shamanic practitioner, providing an opportunity for people to experience personalised spirit journeys. Previously, her clients would need to travel into the forest for shamanic sessions, but now The Healing Space Cygnet has made her work more accessible. She has a background in floristry and horticulture, and hopes to create more Healing Spaces and Retreat Centres in other locations, to promote healing and wellbeing.

Where do you retreat?: I retreat to be with the plants because it makes me feel grounded. I take two days a week to be in the garden in between face-to-face client sessions and running a busy healing practice. My home is a sanctuary where I live on the land with another energy medicine practitioner; no-one comes there, so it’s just us and my cats and plants. The views from this Cygnet property are amazing. We look out towards the water, and we’re up high, overlooking native forest and flowers. I can look out the windows from the daybed to the water and the mountain ranges (Hartz Mountain) in the distance. The view is always changing like an oil painting. I used to own the Mongolian Ger (now owned by Helen Rowley – refer Healing Hearts October 2023 edition) and this is where I used to host group spirit journeys, but now I like to keep work and home separate.

Why do you like to retreat: I mostly retreat so that I can maintain my work, and as plants make me feel balanced and provide a way for me to reset, I like to get my hands in the earth – so I retreat from the world that way. There’s 50 acres of forest behind me where I live, so I have trees all around me and I grow flowers and medicinal herbs and plants that I make tinctures from to heal myself and balance my energies. I need to retreat to ground and centre myself in my garden and forest, and that way, I can help other people and serve at a higher level.

Apart from your home sanctuary, do you like to retreat anywhere else in Tasmania?: There’s a place called Kelly’s Basin on the West Coast which calls to me. Apart from the name, it is known for being one of the sites where you can find a rare tektite called Darwin Glass. (There are conservation areas that need to be respected and fossicking zones where you can collect specimens from). These shards of natural glass are composed of part melting rock and part extraterrestrial material from the meteor which hit that part of the earth over 800,000 years ago. I collected a beautiful piece which I had capped in gold and I wear it when I do energy work with clients.

Does your shamanic work and connection to the earth help you to retreat:? I started my shamanic training to overcome the traumatic event of losing my newborn son, Phoenix. I learned a great deal from Robert Moss, who teaches shamanic practices regarding death, dying and the afterlife and he helped me understand better that we are a soul visiting the earth, each with a purpose. I also learned from the world renowned Sandra Ingerman, and her teachings on Earth healing resonated with me a lot. When I’m in the garden, I watch life unfold and see how nature works. You can learn so much about yourself in the garden. You can see seeds sprouting, plants growing, flourishing, blooming, then wilting and dying. It’s a lifecycle that is so completely part of nature. It’s just us humans that make dying something to be afraid of. So when I retreat to the garden I think of Phoenix – he came to visit me and he was perfect. He was a guide and is with me now and always. We were lucky to be together for a while, two souls sharing one body.

How do you help your client’s retreat to promote their wellbeing:? Our nervous system is not built for this amount of interaction. So we have to take care to reset and retreat, otherwise we get overwhelmed. That is why people get closed off because they get overwhelmed. The personalised spirit journey sessions that I do, assist people on many levels, like drawing their energy back into their physical form and energy clearing.
I thought I would serve people on a spiritual path but I am finding I work with a lot of busy, overworked under-appreciated, mainstream people who are looking for other support mechanisms. So I work with doctors, nurses and other professionals who are working really hard to help people but don’t get the support or space to reset. The way I work, I am given information by helping spirits, which helps people unlock or understand the whole picture. It is about making this type of practice available to all types of people. I think shamans traditionally worked in the whole community and they were the advisers. So I can do the best work helping the leaders, people who are at the frontline of defence or service, like paramedics, politicians, teachers, police; people whose lives are stressful and overwhelming. I teach that we are part of the earth, and we need to align ourselves with our true purpose.

How would you like to help people retreat to promote healing and wellbeing in the future:? The Healing Space Cygnet is the first of this type of healing centre that I have been blessed to be part of and I have ideas to create retreat centres working with plants in other parts of the world. I want to run retreat centres where plants help the people to heal, as plants have all the wisdom. I am not just talking about psychedelic plants, but many plants have the capacity to open our hearts and teach us how to heal ourselves and be whole again.
The forests were always known for their healing properties, I would like to bring a part of the forest to the people. All plants have medicine, even if they are just beautiful to look at, because their beauty is medicine for the soul. Plants can communicate with you, and there’s magic, watching seeds sprout, grow and flower. So through my other business The Shaman’s Apothecary I hope to help people reconnect with the plants. During Winter 2024, we aim to run some weekend retreats for people to have a mind, body, spirit experience. We will use Woodlands Retreat in Cygnet which is overlooking the water. The retreat will offer spirit journeys, infra-red heat therapy and dream work.

Where are your future retreat destinations:? I I have a Norwegian bloodline, my family has a cabin in the land of the ‘Midnight Sun’ in a National Park in Norway. So I need to go to Norway to meet up with my relatives and find connections with the Naoidi, Norwegian shamans. If I was living in Norway, I dream that I would have grown up being a member of the community of the reindeer people; that is the type of shaman that I would have learned from. Also my son Phoenix is of aboriginal Wirradjuri ancestry (from Forbes/Parks country in New South Wales). I have been in touch with some of the elders there and his grandmother. So I need to find my way backwards, in order to move forwards. Those doors are closed for now but they will open in time.

Read More Here: Healing Hearts Magazine