Welcome! If you’re interested to be an apprentice, and you haven’t yet read Jai’s article, “Why I’m Not a Shaman and Neither are You”, please go read that to get a sense of our foundational approach to learning and doing shamanic work in the 21st century.
The first year of the apprenticeship is focused on students learning to practice shamanic tools for their own wellness and self-healing. This is accomplished in our Healing the Wounded Healer (HWH) program, which is a stand-alone year for students of any calling. By the end of that year, students will have clarity about their true work in the world. If that is to do shamanic work with clients, they are eligible to continue into apprenticeship with us, if we assess they have a true calling to the path and our particular Way.
In the second year of their Shamanic Apprenticeship, students who learned for their own healing become apprentices who practice for a vocation of healing others. These apprentices will be initiated into the Balanzu Way healing tradition, and will begin working more deeply with and learning directly from the spirits and higher beings who guide and shape this mystery tradition, as well as their own spirits and allies.
While HWH is very cohesive, designed by nature to help bond the cohort and provide the basic foundation that all healers need, the path diversifies at apprenticeship. If apprentices follow the laid out course, they will complete the remaining work of their apprenticeship in two years. However, each course is whole unto itself, so students can take up to a decade to complete the curriculum necessary to graduate.
Apprenticeship in the Balanzu Way is set up like a non-accredited Master’s degree. It is longer and more rigorous than any other shamanic training program in the world. It features unique factors that are the first of its kind, like the world’s only Shamanic Healing Student Clinic. We are also the only shamanic school that requires apprentices to have actual practice hours, working with real people under supervision. This is accomplished through shadowing sessions of a Balanzu Way practitioner, watching videos of sessions, working in the student clinic under supervision, and doing full sessions in their third year, as students are supported to set up their own private practice.
Apprentices must log 250 hours of practice on clients in order to graduate, which is akin to the number of hours needed for a Master’s degree in Counseling in Oregon state. Apprentices will be able to meet this requirement in two years if they’re doing 1-2 practice sessions a week, and are in full attendance at the following classes:
Second Year Classes
Shamanic Arts
Intuitive Counseling
Peer Supervision
Student Clinic (Half sessions)
Third Year Classes
Supervision & Entrepreneurship (2 sections)
Ancestral Arts Mystery Bundle
Student Clinic (Full sessions)
Each of these classes meets once a month, and will generally fall in the same timeframe as the HWH cohort’s previous class time. That means that if you want to do the full program, it will look like continuing to meet every week at the same time for the next two years.
Earned Credit
We recognize our students are unique beings, who come to us in varying stages of learning and growth, with different gifts and challenges. They also come with their own spirit guides and ancestral paths that are calling them, and with previous knowledge and learning that may be similar to some parts of our training. Students can apply to have previous training recognized; for instance, someone with a Master’s degree in Psychology may be exempt from our Intuitive Counseling class and may have reduced client contact hours needed.
Individuality
Trying to create a standardized Way across such individual journeys with spirit is a challenge, to say the least, but this is why we offer a checklist of skills and hours all apprentices must show competency in to graduate. The way apprentices gain that competency is up to them; they may do it working solely in private sessions with Jai; they may take classes one at a time over many years, or do third-year class work before second year. They may leave for awhile to work with another teacher of their ancestral path, or just because they need to take a break. As long as apprentices complete their competencies in all areas, no matter how and when they do it, they will graduate as shamanic practitioners of the Balanzu Way.
Relationship
After students graduate, they are expected to stay in good standing and right relationship with the school and community. Staying in right relationship is akin to being licensed to practice. Graduates who wish to use their training must follow a code of ethics and stay up to date with new core teachings. If graduates are found to have violated any of our code of ethics, their permission to practice the Way may be suspended or revoked. We hope never to have to exercise this, but it’s a failsafe to ensure everyone who practices the Balanzu Way is doing so in a good way.
Next Steps
If you’re interested to know more about apprenticeship, please send a text to our teacher, Jai Medina at 503-683-3085, share your interest, and give a little information about yourself. They or one of the current apprentices will get back to you when they’re able; please be patient and give us space to work on Indian time in responding.
Balanzu Way School of Shamanic Arts 