Siberian shamanhood (Evenki, Sakha, Tuvan and others)

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Siberia

What it is

Siberian shamanhood is not one therapy. It is a set of living, revived and partly lost spiritual and healing traditions among peoples including the Evenki, Even, Sakha (Yakut), Tuvan, Nanai, Nenets, Enets, Selkup, Khanty, Nivkh and Oroqen. A Russian reference entry describes the shaman, as…

Format

• Engagement and cultural assessment (sessions 1 to 3, 50 to 60 minutes each). Goal: complete the core CFI, add relevant supplementary modules and the Informant Version, and map the client's explanatory model and who they regard as legitimate healers. Move on when you can state the problem in the…
• Differential formulation (sessions 2 to 4). Goal: decide, with consultation, whether the experiences fit a culturally recognised process, a disorder, both, or neither, and assess risk. Move on when risk is assessed, your formulation is shared with the client, and medical review is arranged if…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Tuva. Shamanic societies are registered organisations. The first, Düŋgür ("Drum"), was registered in 1993. Sources differ on its founder: one names the ethnographer Mongush Kenin-Lopsan, who is not himself a shaman, and another names the shaman Dugar-Syuryun Oorzhak. Other societies include Tos Dėėr, Adyg Ėėren (founded 2001) and Ush-Möörük. By 2009 there were eight societies. Shamans in organised societies hold…
• Sakha (Yakutia). The Aar Aiyy faith gained formal registration in 2014. Its beliefs combine shamanism, animism and Tengrianism. Fieldwork in Yakutsk and eight uluses describes healers, (neo)shamans and algyschyts, who are specialists in the blessing tradition (algys). These practitioners are increasingly institutionalised and commercialised.
• A psychotherapist does not practise shamanhood. Authority rests with communities, elders, lineages and, in some republics, registered shamanic and faith organisations. The therapist's work, which this guide covers, runs alongside the tradition. It includes culturally responsive assessment (the Cultural Formulation Interview, the client's explanatory model and local idioms of distress), telling a culturally…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Shame, secrecy, or a client checking whether you will report them as "mad". It is working when the client discloses consultations voluntarily.
• Words such as "delusional belief in spirits" written into the record. It is working when the client could read the note and recognise themselves.
• Scapegoating. Pressure to accept or refuse the role. Confidentiality breaches. It is working when family support increases and conflict decreases.
• Family accounts that contradict the client. Record both views rather than choosing one. Watch also for confidentiality pressures in small communities.
• Large or escalating fees, isolation from family, demands for secrecy, or sexual contact presented as healing. Any of these calls for a safeguarding response.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.