ANCESTRAL LINEAGE HEALING

CONNECT WITH YOUR WELL ANCESTORS to support PERSONAL, LINEAGE, AND FAMILY HEALING.

All of us have loving and wise ancestors who long to connect and relate with us in a supportive way. This approach to ancestral work is a relational and healing lineage based approach and was founded by Dr. Daniel Foor, who describes having a healthy and ongoing relationship with our ancestors as "one of the most inherently human things we could do". I am certified as an Ancestral Practitioner in this approach to ancestral lineage healing. This work is based on the following four concepts:

• Consciousness continues after death

• Not all of the dead are equally well

• The living and the dead can communicate

• The living and the dead can strongly affect one another

I first encountered ancestral lineage healing during a personal and spiritual crisis. I had been practicing my spirituality in a way that leaned heavily on other culture’s spiritual traditions without having any meaningful understanding of my own culture and the traditions of my blood ancestors. I realized how disconnected I felt from my roots and remembered years back hearing about a teacher, Daniel Foor, who specialized in ancestral connection. As I began to read his teachings on ancestral lineage healing, I deeply resonated with the process of building relationship with and relating to my ancestors. Connecting on such a personal and intimate level with these ancestors felt like coming home for the first time. I continued to build and dive further into these ancestral relationships and made this practice a part of my everyday life. I continue to benefit and be supported by my ancestors and this deep sense of belonging. This connection also generated a greater sense of community, which before engaging in this work, I didn’t have a rich concept of. Because this approach so deeply impacted my own personal journey and how I show up in the world, I applied for the practitioner training to be able to guide this work for others as well, holding space as they connected with their own well ancestors.

The approach involves:

• Connecting to well ancestral guides

• Assessing lineage health and supporting the well ancestors in the lineage healing repair work

• Understanding the burdens and blessings that we inherit from our lineages

• Discovering ways to embody our ancestral blessings and healed states of our lineages 

  
  

A foundational part of this work for me is receiving guidance from my ancestors about what it means to show up in a good and resourced way as a human living in this time and place. The wisdom they have shared has and continues to fundamentally shift the way I think, the way I move, the way I act, the way I navigate my environment, the way I engage with my own and others’ big feelings and emotions, the way I show up for relationships with humans and other-than-human kin, and so much more. Since coming into relationship with my ancestors, there has been such a radical shift and deepening in the way that I meet myself and everything else around me. It is in humble gratitude and enduring praise for this continuous wisdom and companionship that they give to me, that I offer and bring this work forward into the world.

Benefits of this work can include:

• Connecting to the presence of supportive ancestors.

• Developing practices for coming into deeper and more meaningful relationships with our ancestors.

• Gaining a better understanding of what is inherited from your lineages (both blessings and burdens) and how this informs not only who you are, but also how this shapes the family dynamics of all that are living.

• Discovering ways to embody the gifts and blessings of your lineages in a way that both honors them and supports you in fulfilling your destiny as the living face of your lineages.

• Developing deeper understandings of larger cultural and collective wounds. This can include the ancestors sharing guidance around how to fully embody the gifts that you inherit from your lineages in a way that contributes to not only personal & family healing, but also cultural and collective healing.

As mentioned above, working with your ancestors carries with it the potential to shift your living family’s dynamics. As certain burdens and troubles are worked through, tended, and brought into wellness for ancestors on certain lineages, it is not uncommon for living family members to begin to experience some level of healing. Of course engaging with this work isn’t a cure-all for your family troubles. But healing within the living family is sometimes a welcome benefit and may be one result of doing this work as you build your own relationship with your ancestors. This was something I had the opportunity to experience for myself and with my own living family when I first began engaging with this work. Certain strained relationships experienced a great deal of relief, healing, and ease that wasn’t present before and one of my relatives, who had been out of touch for over a decade, came back into our family fold.

It is an incredibly humbling and cherished honor to witness my clients come into relationship with their loving ancestors. Witnessing these living humans who are devoted to seeing that their people come into a healed and well state, and holding space as their well ancestors reciprocate their desire to connect is inspiring. It is beautiful to see the differences between various lineages, the landscapes and diversity of the gifts that each lineage brings forward. Even when working with the same client, a beautiful variance between lineages is present. This work has taught me so much about valuing sacred difference, in a way that praises diverse expressions. This work uplifts the unique gifts each of our lineages brings forward to us, so that we are then able to carry these gifts into the world as the living face of our lineages.

This approach is animist-informed and a fundamental part of this work involves earth healing. Our ancestors can teach us how to come into meaningful relationships with the land and the 0ther-than-human kin that we share it with. This is how we can learn what belonging really means: relating in respectful and loving ways with all those beings who also belong to the land we are living with. This is a way to learn about the ancient magic of the land itself, and how this magic extends into all those beings who inhabit it. Another principal foundation of this work involves cultural healing. By connecting with our ancestors we can learn how to individually and collectively bring accountability, understanding, and healing to both past and ongoing inherited cultural traumas and harms.

This approach does not involve me channeling or speaking for your ancestors, but rather it involves you connecting personally with your own ancestors in a way that promotes individual empowerment. This work lays the foundation for you to continue building and deepening your relationship with your own personal ancestors. The work is done in 1:1 sessions, via Zoom, or over the phone if needed. My experience is that whenever possible, Zoom is an especially conducive platform for hosting the work. All initial sessions are 90 minutes and follow-up sessions are typically 60 minutes. Notes are taken during the session, which are always kept confidential and are sent to you at the end of each session for your own personal reference. I also host online monthly ancestor healing circles that are open to existing clients who have had one or more sessions with me. Ancestor healing circles are 2 hours in length and include 2 drop-in spaces for participants to connect in with their own ancestors. These drop-ins with the ancestors typically consist of participants seeking guidance and/or continuing their own personal healing work with them and may also occasionally be themed in a collective inquiry or celebration. There are opportunities for participants to share about their experience with their ancestors in community so that we can collectively support and learn from each other and each other’s people. The cost is donation-based and typically ranges from $20-$40.

 As a practitioner I adhere to the Ancestral Healing Practitioner Code of Ethics which can be found at: Ancestral Healing Practitioner Code of Ethics - Ancestral Medicine. For pricing information & to schedule your first Ancestral Lineage Healing session, please visit the Schedule page & email Jessica Headley: Jessica@sacredthresholds.org