About Fiona ⋆ Breathe Dragon

Fiona Marchant-Smith

I started off my adult working life training to be a nurse at the North Middlesex Hospital in 1981. Soon after qualifying I left nursing to have my baby daughter Jemima and I worked at home as a child minder from when Jem was 18 months old until she started school.

In 1987 my life changed significantly when I met Geshe Khensur Jampa Thegchok, a Tibetan Buddhist Lama, at the London Jamyang Centre. At the time I was recovering from a dysfunctional relationship, feeling quite lost and disconnected from myself and the world around me. Geshela’s compassionate listening to and understanding of the pain that I was experiencing helped me to open my heart again.

Geshe Tegchok 1930 – 2014

The meditation practices that he gave me to do enabled me to find my way and eventually touch on my own path of truth. I attended the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, which I consider to be the heart of my work and the inspiration for my way of being in the world, for more than 20 years and I am still connected to the lineage.

In 1993 I started back in education. I took a degree in Women’s Studies with Sociology, and I qualified as a teacher of adults specializing in Sociology.

I also studied Psychosynthesis, which is a transpersonal psychology.

In 1999, I experienced a profound spiritual awakening which led me to the shamanic path. In the same year I started my training in Core Shamanism with Jonathan Horwitz and the Scandinavian Centre for Shamanic Studies. Geshe Thegchok was instrumental in supporting my integration of Buddhist and Shamanic practice and in helping me to find my feet and heart felt orientation to healing work and to the world at large. I embrace Shamanism as a spiritual path and since 2001 I have been working as a professional practitioner of Shamanic Healing and a Shamanic Counsellor.

I started teaching shamanic work in 2002. I teach a basic introductory course in Shamanism, an advanced course in Shamanism and a series of Shamanic-Cranio courses for Craniosacral Therapists.

I first encountered Craniosacral Therapy after I had a back injury in 2002. I was so impressed by the results and the depth of practice whereby I felt truly seen and heard at a soul level. I started my training in 2005 with Franklyn Sills at The Karuna Institute and I gained my diploma in Craniosacral Biodynamics in 2007. I am a registered and insured member of the Craniosacral Therapy Association U.K.

A few years ago I had the good fortune to meet Sarah Tyler-Walters, a trance medium and spiritual strategist. Sarah invited me to join a small study group that she was running to explore the nature of the subtle energy bodies of the human system. This proved to be life changing work for me as I went on to integrate this awareness of the subtle energy bodies into my craniosacral practice through my shamanic connection.

In the past I worked for more than 8 years as a freelance Facilitator of Personal Development Courses for vulnerable women, both in the community and in prison. I also worked for a charity for 5 years as an Outreach Education Worker supporting young people and families in crises in Hackney.

Puppa!

More recently I worked as a professional Note Taker for 3 years at St. George’s Medical School supporting a profoundly deaf student undertaking a Bio-Medical Science degree. This work has given me a much deeper understanding of the biological process involved in the human body. I am passionately interested in the study of applied human biology, in particular the energetic life and interactions of the cells and how they inter-relate and inter-correlate through the entire human system, including the soul and the subtle energy bodies.

I have lived in the East End of London for more than 30 years and today I share my home with a very small scruffy dog who brings me endless joy!