Mystical experiences can be scary – like the ground is being pulled out from under your feet.
Supporting people to benefit from the highs & lows of mystical experiences and dark nights of the soul for personal transformation
groups & private one-on-one sessions
Salut, sunt Andra.
(That’s Romanian for “Hi, I’m Andra.”)
Together, we can integrate:
- spiritual depths: depression, dark nights of the soul, cut-off shadow parts of the self
- spiritual highs from mystical experiences (or altered states of consciousness, spiritual awakening, & spiritual emergence).
Integration brings the two together, so that life becomes exceptional.
Integration is closely intertwined with my own path of embodying my spiritual truths and tethering them to my daily life. So that, I move from my centre in connection to the whole.
My Narrative
I was born in Romania during communist rule, moved to Canada at 9 and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Earth and its wild cyclical nature has always been important to me – my ancestors were land people in Romania, closely in tune with the seasons. I struggled as a child as this connection was quickly shut off by living in cities. I intuitively maintained this connection by meditating with water as a teenager. Meditating with water soothed my inner struggle. This inner struggle continued into my university years, as I faced my own existential thoughts, depressive tendencies, & sadly contemplated ending my life.
I can sit with others’ darkness because I have so often sat with my own. The grief that is such a part of being human is a well-worn shawl that I wrap around myself, taking care to also remove it.
In my early twenties, I moved to Thailand, searching for something I couldn’t name.
Through my travels, I came across spiritual healers. I went through the experiences of healing, yet my mind ignored the spiritual dimension. I was so entrenched in my atheist, materialist beliefs, that I couldn’t entertain anything else.
It was in the Himalayas when I experienced a profound spiritual awakening. My worldview shifted away from one of materialism and atheism.
I began to see the divine as experiential… as a mysterious intelligence that I could connect with & co-create.
After 3 months of absolute bliss, I crashed into a Dark Night of the Soul… hard … grasping for the expansive ecstasy that was slipping through my fingers. Even with daily 2-3 hour meditations, there was a sense of desperation and loss.
It took me years to integrate my new experiences.
I felt alone & scared. I was ashamed of myself because I thought it was my fault that the bliss was slipping away.
My sense of “I” had drastically changed. I felt extremely lost as I tried to integrate my new experiences into who “I” was. I didn’t know who or what “I” was.
I was confused because my whole understanding of ‘truth’ changed.
I thought I was going crazy, and told no one about my experiences at the time. I was experiencing intense visions, dreams, and synchronicities.
I was alone.
Restructuring myself was an extremely confusing process.
This was what ultimately led me to my work around integration.
I don’t want you to be alone in your process.
I honour your path. I would love to walk alongside you for some time…
During this time of aloneness & rapid change, my worldview drastically shifted.
So, I entered a deep search of occult practices, behavioural change, ending friendships, switching careers, changing my hobbies… alongside the deepest transformation of integrating my spiritual experiences into a belief system and an altered sense of “I”.
During this time, my calling emerged as I rebirthed myself, landed in my spiritual home, and felt how connected everything truly is.
I find myself to be deeply grieved by the pain on our planet, and I’m called to be in service to human evolution.
Your transformation is interlinked with my transformation, because everything in interconnected.
I see the transpersonal (aka, spiritual, mystery, mystical, divine, cosmic intelligence, etc.) as missing from most contemporary therapeutic work as behaviour is limited to cognition. I see part of my life’s work integrating the spiritual more into psychological development, to serve collective evolution.
My Guiding Principles
- The insight is only the start of the journey. Integration is the hard work where we embody our insights and act from these places of deep inner knowing within our relationships to self, other, planet, and cosmos.
- Mystical experiences & altered states of consciousness are more accessible than you might think. They are not mysterious and are available to all. They support health and healing when used with careful intention.
- Integration requires bottom-up approaches (i.e., body-based) & top-down approaches (i.e., cognitive). This requires a systemic approach based on multiple ways of knowing: stories & myths, the nervous system, imaginal realms, relational processes, analytical & intellectual understandings, family & cultural systems, values & worldview, etc.
- Transformation happens relationally and is co-created.
- Do the work, instead of gathering more knowledge. Consuming endless workshops, teachers, and books does not mean that actual developmental work is being done. Sometimes, integration requires the opposite: slowing down to digest and assimilate. Other times, integration requires that you take your insights into interpersonal dynamics and group work to put into practice.
- Shadow-work is necessary. This requires a dance with the unconscious dynamics that perpetuate our thoughts, behaviours, and the ways we hold and move our bodies.
- This work is creative – for it is the process of rebirthing the Self.
- Resist spiritual bypassing. Using spiritual technologies to escape the pain of life can be addictive coping mechanisms that slow down development.
- Acceptance of self and journey is crucial on the path. It is not only a precious gift to be seen, felt, and heard with compassion, but also a necessity to create the safety we need to transform.
If you are open to these perspectives, we might be a good fit for working together.
I truly believe humans are loving & the universe is a friendly place… and that the pain I see comes down to disconnection (from our selves, other humans, & the cosmos) and from trauma (personal, ancestral, & systemic).
I feel most alive when I am in deep service, birthing creative projects, and walking my talk.
Some Words That Others Have Used to Describe Me
And, I’ve also been called cranky and stubborn!
Programs & Courses I Have Taken
I hold a briefcase of trainings. Most recently, I am a master’s student of Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology doing phenomenological research on spiritual emergence (spiritual awakening or spiritual emergency) and a student of Transpersonal Counseling looking at transformation through systems theory & altered states of consciousness.
I am an avid learner of neuroscience, psychology, Buddhism, occult transformational practices, women’s wisdom, yoga, animism, philosophy, dreamwork, consciousness, amongst others. I list these as being separate systems, and yet they are inter-connected. Everything begins to weave together like separate strands of hair into a braid.
Currently ongoing
Master’s of Science (M.Sc.) in Consciousness, Spirituality, & Transpersonal Psychology, with Alef Trust of Liverpool John Moore’s University (UK; began in 2020)
Transpersonal Counselling Program, with Clearmind International (Canada; began in 2020)
Red Moon Mystery School Priestess/Animist Training, with Nikiah Seeds (Canada, began in 2018)
The Sky and I, with Unfolding Senderos (Laura Cisneros; Canada)
2021
Certificate in Somatic Embodiment and Regulation Strategies, with Linda Thai
Awareness-Based Action Research for Systems Change, with Sabanci University
Innerdance – Principles of Facilitation, with Serena Olsen
Systems Thinking with Tea Medicine, with Melanie Goodchild & The Turtle Island Institute
2020
Channeling Level 1, with Wendy Lang (Canada)
The Awakening Workshop, with Clearmind International (Canada)
2018 – 2019
NLP Master Practitioner and Life Coach Diploma, with Mike Bundrant (USA)
Transformation Medicine, with Serena Olsen (Philippines)
Kundalini Dance Facilitator Training, with Leyolah Antara (Indonesia)
Innerdance Energy School, with Serena Olsen & Pi Villaraza (Thailand & Philippines)
The Science of Medical Intuition Course, with Caroline Myss and Norm Shealy (USA)
Mahayana Buddhism, in Pokhara (Nepal)
Tibetan Bowls Sound Healing Therapy, with Kwan (Nepal)
Usui Reiki 1 & 2, with Happy-ji (Nepal)
Holistic Healing Massage Training, with Happy-ji (Nepal)
Women Who Run With The Wolves, with Maria Souza (Thailand)
2014 – 2017
Hatha 200hr Yoga Teacher Training, with Adrian Cox (Thailand)
Hatha Yoga, Himalayan Yog Ashram (India)
Theravada Buddhism, with Gift Nisanart Dharmageisirattana (Thailand)
Mindfulness Teacher Training, with .b (Thailand)
Mindfulness Teacher Training, with Mindful Schools (online)
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Diploma, with Saki Santorelli and Florence Meleo-Meyer (online)
Mindfulness Meditation, with Zen Master/activist Thich Nhat Hanh’s senior dharma teachers Peggy Rowe Ward and Larry Ward (Thailand)
1:1 services
Integrative Coaching
consultation
Schedule a free consultation to meet me & see about working together.
Women’s Journey
13-week guided online journey to embody the Wild Woman archetype
(Sep 18 – Dec 18, 2022).
