Ancestral Healing
What Is Ancestral Lineage Repair?
Ancestral healing—also known as ancestral lineage repair—is founded on the premise that we all have loving, supportive ancestors. By connecting to and developing with our ancestors in spirit, we can ask for their guidance while also repairing ruptured lineages. Based on the work of Dr. Daniel Foor, the founder of Ancestral Medicine, ancestral lineage repair acknowledges ancestors as deceased blood relatives from whom we descend.
Like Ancestral Medicine, lineage healing “practices in ways that are culturally healing, non-dogmatic, and accessible to people of diverse means, ancestries, and geographies.” In other words, this work is not sourced from any specific spiritual, religious, or cultural tradition. Rather, ancestral lineage repair is based on the concept of animism, or a worldview that considers humans—and their ancestors—as part of a larger web of shared consciousness.
By restoring the connection with an ancestral guide, the deceased family members of one’s lineage can heal their spirits and reconnect with others in the family line. For this reason, ancestral healing is particularly useful for those struggling with unresolved grief, intergenerational trauma, and/or a lingering sense of loss that cannot be placed.
Is Ancestral Lineage Repair Effective?
Despite ancestral healing being relatively unresearched and a burgeoning concept in the Western world, several studies support the concept of trauma being passed down through generations. Some epigenetic studies have been done on certain populations, such as women who were pregnant during 9/11 and descendants of both the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust, demonstrating the impact of intergenerational ancestral wounds. Mental health professionals across the globe are more readily acknowledging the connection between historical, collective, ancestral, and intergenerational traumas.
What To Expect When Working With An Ancestral Guide
Culturally speaking, we make a lot of assumptions about what happens to the dead when they pass to the other side, including that their spirit is fully resolved and that their connection to us has permanently and irrevocably severed. From the perspective of ancestral lineage healing, quite the opposite is true: the dead are not all well; the living and the dead impact one another and can communicate with one another; and the dead can change.
Using a five-step structured process, clients in ancestral healing connect to and develop relationships with their ancestral guide, who works to repair the entire ancestral lineage in spirit. The process works as follows:
Assessing one’s lineage: using experiential exercises, a client’s blood lineages are evaluated. With this information, the clinician and client collaborate to decide which lineage to focus on first.
Connecting to a “well” ancestral guide: the clinician guides the client in connecting with a healthy, vibrant ancestral guide from any given blood lineage. During this time, clients learn additional ways to nurture this connection outside the session and in their everyday life.
Repairing lineage: the client asks their ancestral guide to repair and heal “unwell” deceased family members.
Integrating the deceased: the “well” ancestral guide weaves the recently deceased into the entire lineage.
Extending blessings to the living family: the guide communicates with other ancestors, sending and extending blessings to the entire lineage, including both the living and the dead.
By shifting the client’s perception of what a “family” is, an ancestral guide can restore a sense of peace and belonging in the client’s life. Furthermore, these guides help clients to locate and explore ancestral gifts that will continue to help them on their journey.
[1] Reference for this method - Foor, D. (2017). Ancestral medicine: rituals for personal and family healing. Bear & Company. Rochester: Vermont
An Approach That Broadens The Scope Of Psychotherapy And Trauma-Informed Treatment
Ancestral lineage healing is a transpersonal, holistic practice that allows clients to receive active and ongoing support from their ancestral guide(s). As a relational model, the focus is on the connection between the client and their guide, creating space for shifting larger familial patterns in the unseen world. However, ancestral healing is not therapy—and Western frameworks for psychotherapy simply cannot achieve the kind of connection that is fostered through this work.
Because lineage repair is not a verified therapy, it’s available to any client regardless of location (i.e., clinicians are not licensed for this work specifically and can thus work with clients outside of their clinical jurisdiction). For this reason, I ask my clients to sign a consent form acknowledging that ancestral lineage healing is not an evidence-based technique.
My Experience With Ancestral Healing
Ever since I was a little girl, it was apparent to me that unresolved grief was impacting my family in ways that I could not fully grasp when exploring these feelings in a traditional therapy setting. When I discovered the healing potential of ancestral lineage work, I quickly noticed the positive impact it was having on my life. I became more aware of my ancestral guides and began seeing my clients in therapy responding to their own guides throughout our sessions together.
In 2020, I began Dr. Foor’s online training program, which included a practicum and supervised clinical hours. Upon becoming a certified ancestral lineage healing practitioner in 2021, I shifted the focus of my practice and expanded it to work with clients across the globe. Though I primarily work with ancestral healing clients and in a consulting capacity with other therapists, I still draw from elements of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, especially as these treatments relate to resolving historical, intergenerational, and collective traumas.
In feeling supported by their ancestral guides, my clients have:
Gained confidence in the ancestral gifts they possess and embody
Accessed an ancestral memory that goes beyond words
Reduced anxiety
Resolved painful family dynamics, especially if an untimely or traumatic death has occurred
Clarified their direction and purpose
Maintained a sense of belonging, identity, and cultural pride
Released intergenerational burdens to avoid further perpetuating harmful patterns
Healed attachment wounds via relational connection
I strongly believe this is deeply meaningful and sacred work, generating hope and alternative self-understanding. By answering the questions of Why am I the way I am? and What happened to my family?, my clients have been able to nurture humility, trust, and self-compassion.
You Have The Power To Heal Generations Worth Of Trauma
Ancestral healing through my practice is available to individual clients and in a group format for therapists interested in doing their own lineage repair work. Register here for my next IFS-informed ancestral lineage healing course. To find out more about how I can help, please email me.
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