Drumming Out Drugs

Daniel Smith is the program director of the Herman Area District Hospital Alcohol and Drug Unit in St. Louis, Missouri. After years of use of shamanic drumming techniques and training by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Smith introduced drumming into his work as a licensed clinical social worker in a substance abuse rehabilitation program. Using a shamanic approach, he introduced the shamanic techniques of journeying, divination, power animal retrieval, soul retrieval, extraction and shapeshifting as an alternative and complementary therapy for addiction. Shamanic techniques are reinforced through rituals with symbols of flight (e.g., birds and feathers) that help evoke visionary experiences reflecting common themes in recovery--symbolically rising from the depths of despair and soaring through the sky.

In a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Smith states that "drumming and shamanic activities address addiction through reintegrating aspects of the self in rituals for soul retrieval and power animal retrieval. Through these activities, people gain access to traumatic assaults that have driven their abusive relations with drugs. Spirit world journeys provide direct access to these early experiences in a context that reduces barriers to awareness. Ancestor spirits or other helpful spirit guides and allies encountered in rituals and journeys facilitate the resolution of trauma. These experiences are healing, bringing the restorative powers of nature to clinical settings. Shamanic activities bring people efficiently and directly into immediate encounters with spiritual forces, focusing the client on the whole body and integrating healing at physical and spiritual levels." Read more.