Atlas›Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield›Guide 109
Guide XII-109

Shungite

Karelia, Russia
A 30 · L 58 · M 1210 interventions in the Trinity explorer
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: shungite as its retail and crystal-healing literature presents it (the publisher's description of Regina Martino, Shungite: Protection, Healing, and Detoxification, Inner Traditions/Bear & Company, and the claims recorded in a UK Advertising Standards Authority ruling), set against geological and regulatory sources. The psychotherapist works with the client's use of shungite and never sells, supplies, recommends or "prescribes" it.

What it is. Shungite is a black, carbon-rich Precambrian rock (or the carbon material within it) named after the village of Shunga in Karelia, Russia, with its main deposits around Lake Onega (Zazhogino/Maksovo field). Geologists date the host rocks to the Palaeoproterozoic, roughly two billion years ago [source: Transactions of the Karelian Research Centre RAS, 2015; Wikipedia, uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Sellers grade it by carbon content, with the purest "elite" grade promoted for healing and lower grades for jewellery and objects [source: WebMD]. It contains trace fullerenes (cage-shaped carbon molecules), which sellers place at the centre of its claimed effects; geological summaries describe the amounts as trace and not unique to shungite [uncertain: secondary, unverified].

Core idea of how change happens (as sellers and practitioners hold it). The stone is said to act by absorbing, neutralising or "harmonising" harmful influences: electromagnetic fields (EMF) from phones, Wi-Fi and 5G; impurities in water; and, in energy terms, "negative energy". The publisher's description of Martino's book attributes to it protection from computer, phone and Wi-Fi emissions, purification and "revitalisation" of water, antioxidant, immune, pain-relieving and anti-allergic effects, help with skin and musculoskeletal complaints, and energy transfer "between the chakras and higher energies" and harmonising of living spaces [source: libro.fm publisher description]. Russian-language consumer coverage lists the same cluster of claims (water, radiation shielding, chakra balancing, many wellness conditions) [source: Lifehacker.ru, 2024]. These are attributed claims; this guide does not present shungite as a treatment for any physical or mental illness.

Evidence status (one line): health, EMF-shielding and energy claims are unsupported in humans; shungite does adsorb some contaminants and has antibacterial activity in laboratory water studies, but it also leaches heavy metals into water [source: WebMD; Jurgelane & Locs 2021; Lifehacker.ru 2024].

2. Framework

Shungite is a consumer product with no phased protocol, training route or certifying body. What exists is a set of common uses as sellers describe them [source: WebMD; Lifehacker.ru; ASA ruling 2023]:

  • Objects near devices or in the home: pyramids, spheres, plates, phone stickers and "5G" products placed near phones, routers or beds for claimed EMF protection. (Orgonite resin pyramids are a related product: see entry 087.)
  • Worn or carried: bracelets, pendants, keychains, pocket stones.
  • Water: stones placed in drinking water, "shungite water" and filters sold with purification claims.
  • Body products: heated pads, mats, belts, knee supports, mattresses, cosmetics.
  • Energy and meditation use: placement related to chakras, "cleansing" of spaces, or use as a focus object in meditation.

What a client experiences. Mostly self-use after purchase from crystal shops, online retailers, teleshopping or wellness sellers; sometimes recommended by crystal or energy practitioners. Expense ranges from small stones to costly mats and "elite" grades [synthesis].

Who practises it. Retailers, crystal healers, some energy practitioners and influencers; no profession or licence attaches to it [synthesis].

Regulation (one line each):

  • UK: the Advertising Standards Authority ruled in June 2023 that a teleshopping ad for shungite products breached the broadcast code: claims that they blocked EMF and 5G were unsubstantiated, describing EMF and 5G as harmful played irresponsibly on consumer fears, and medicinal claims are not allowed for products that are not licensed medicines or CE-marked medical devices [source: ASA ruling, Shop TJC Ltd, 2023].
  • USA: the Federal Trade Commission advises consumers that there is no scientific proof that phone radiation "shields" significantly reduce exposure and that they may interfere with the signal [source: FTC press release, 2011].
  • Russia: no specific federal regulatory position on shungite health claims is cited here [uncertain: not verified].
  • EU and other jurisdictions: general advertising, consumer-protection and medical-device rules apply to health claims; no shungite-specific action is cited here [uncertain: not verified].
  • Water safety: a peer-reviewed study found that commercial and non-commercial shungite released nickel, copper, lead, cadmium, zinc, chromium and arsenic into drinking water, with lead and cadmium exceeding drinking-water limits for some days and nickel for up to two weeks [source: Jurgelane & Locs 2021].

Typical course of the psychotherapist's work. Not a protocol: the inventory below is used when shungite comes up in assessment or treatment, usually within one or two sessions, and revisited if risk, cost or health anxiety grows [synthesis].

3. Guiding principles

  • Curiosity before correction. Ask what the stone means to the client before offering any information; practical meaning: open with questions, not facts [synthesis].
  • Attribute, do not adjudicate. Describe energy, chakra and "vibration" concepts as the client and the sellers hold them, neither affirming nor ridiculing; practical meaning: "in that view…" language [synthesis].
  • Stay in scope. The therapist does not sell, supply, recommend or advise on shungite, water treatment, devices or medicines; practical meaning: route physical-health and product questions to the doctor, pharmacist or relevant regulator [source: APA Ethics Code 2.04, 3.06].
  • Autonomy with information. Clients may keep using products they value; the therapist's job is that decisions are informed and not driven by fear, pressure or exploitation [source: APA Ethics Code 3.04; synthesis].
  • Harm is the threshold for action. Concern rises when use replaces or delays medical care, involves children's or pregnant people's drinking water, drains money, or feeds an escalating fear of EMF [source: WebMD; Jurgelane & Locs 2021; WHO EHS backgrounder; synthesis].
  • Treat the fear, not the field. For EMF worry, focus on symptoms, function and coping rather than on reducing exposure, as WHO advises physicians [source: WHO EHS backgrounder].
  • No conflicts of interest. Never sell crystals or courses to clients or refer to sellers in whom you have an interest [source: APA Ethics Code 3.05, 3.06].
  • Coordinate with consent. Share relevant information with the client's doctor only with consent, except where safeguarding law requires otherwise [source: APA Ethics Code 3.09; synthesis].
  • Document neutrally. Record use, meaning and any risk in plain, non-pejorative language [source: APA Ethics Code 6.01].

4. Intervention inventory

All interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work alongside the client's use of shungite. None involves performing, selling, supplying or recommending it. Unless a source is given, steps are [synthesis] built on general psychotherapy practice and the sources cited in sections 1–3.

4.1 Routine, non-judgemental asking and recording

  • Purpose / when: at intake and at reviews, find out which complementary products and practices the client uses, including crystals and "protective" objects, so risks and meanings are visible. Use with every client; revisit when health worries, money stress or new physical symptoms appear [synthesis].
  • Steps:
    1. Normalise: ask as part of a general list (sleep, exercise, supplements, crystals, apps, healers).
    2. Ask open questions: what they use, how they came to it, what they hope it does, what it costs.
    3. Ask specifically about drinking water, use by children or during pregnancy, and whether any medical treatment has been changed or put off.
    4. Record in neutral terms: product, purpose as the client describes it, any risk noted, any information given [source: APA Ethics Code 6.01].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Many people use things like crystals, stones or protective objects alongside other care. Is there anything like that you use?" / "What do you use the shungite for, in your own words?"
  • Watch for: guarded or apologetic answers (the client expects judgement); slip into debating the stone. Working: the client describes use freely and returns to the topic unprompted.

4.2 Exploring meaning, hopes, expectations and explanatory model

  • Purpose / when: understand what shungite does for the client psychologically: a sense of protection, control over an invisible threat, hope, identity, aesthetic pleasure, spiritual practice, belonging to a community, or distrust of medicine or authorities. Use after 4.1, and whenever use intensifies [synthesis].
  • Steps:
    1. Ask what the client believes the stone does and how (e.g. absorbing EMF, cleaning water, balancing chakras); reflect it back in their words.
    2. Ask what led to it: a health scare, symptoms, a news story about 5G, a friend, an online group, a seller.
    3. Explore what it would mean to be without it ("What would you worry about if it weren't there?"). Anxiety-driven reliance and relaxed, aesthetic or spiritual use look different here.
    4. Map the explanatory model of any symptoms: what the client thinks causes them, what would help, what they fear.
    5. Summarise the function of the object without judging the belief.
  • Example language (illustrative): "So having the pyramid by the router means you can sleep without that worry nagging at you." / "In the way you understand it, the stone takes in the energy that would otherwise reach you. What first made you concerned about that energy?"
  • Watch for: fear of EMF or 5G that is spreading to more devices, places or people; conspiracy narratives that isolate the client; use to manage symptoms that have not been medically assessed. Working: the client can name the need the stone meets and consider other ways to meet it.

4.3 Respectful handling of energy and spiritual concepts

  • Purpose / when: keep the alliance when clients describe chakras, "negative energy", "vibration" or harmonising spaces, as some shungite literature does [source: libro.fm publisher description of Martino].
  • Steps:
    1. Use attributive language ("in that tradition…", "as you see it…").
    2. Separate spiritual meaning (the client's domain) from physical-health claims (which you route to the doctor and frame with their evidence status).
    3. If the client asks your view, give a brief, honest position on scope: you are not able to judge energy claims; on health claims, the evidence in humans is lacking [source: WebMD; Lifehacker.ru].
  • Example language (illustrative): "For you the stone is part of a spiritual practice, and that matters. When it comes to your blood pressure, though, that's one for your GP; I'd want you to have both."
  • Watch for: either side pushing for agreement; the therapist's private scepticism showing as sarcasm. Working: the client can talk about the practice without defensiveness.

4.4 Supporting informed, values-based decisions

  • Purpose / when: when the client is deciding whether to buy expensive products, rely on shungite water, or use stones in place of medical assessment or treatment. No published decision aid specific to shungite or crystals is cited here [uncertain: not verified]; the steps are [synthesis].
  • Steps:
    1. Clarify the decision and what matters most to the client (health, safety of children, money, spiritual life, peace of mind).
    2. Invite the client to look at balanced information: e.g. that advertising regulators have found EMF-blocking and medicinal claims unsubstantiated [source: ASA ruling 2023; FTC 2011], and that a study found heavy metals leaching into drinking water [source: Jurgelane & Locs 2021]. Offer, don't impose.
    3. Weigh options against values, including continuing to use it in ways that carry little risk (e.g. as an object they like) and keeping medical care in place.
    4. Check the decision is the client's own and not driven by fear, a seller or group pressure.
    5. Leave the door open for review.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You don't have to decide whether shungite works to decide this. What matters most to you here: keeping your daughter's water safe, or the cost, or something else?"
  • Watch for: the therapist drifting into persuasion or recommending a product; the client deferring to you as an authority. Working: the client can state the reasons for their choice in their own terms.

4.5 Coordinating with the client's doctor or pharmacist

  • Purpose / when: when shungite is used for a physical symptom or condition, when shungite water is drunk regularly (especially by children or during pregnancy), or when medical treatment has been stopped or delayed [source: APA Ethics Code 3.09; Jurgelane & Locs 2021; synthesis].
  • Steps:
    1. Encourage the client to tell their doctor what they use, including any treated water; offer to help plan what to say.
    2. With written consent, share relevant information with the doctor (e.g. that the client has put off a test because they feel protected).
    3. Do not advise on whether to use shungite water or any medicine; route all such questions to the doctor or pharmacist.
    4. Record consent and what was shared.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would you be willing to mention the shungite water to your GP? I can't advise on it, but they can, and it's useful for them to know what you're drinking."
  • Watch for: reluctance driven by fear of being dismissed by the doctor (explore it, rehearse the conversation). Working: the client brings back the doctor's view and the decision is shared.

4.6 Recognising and responding to risk

  • Purpose / when: whenever use goes beyond a low-cost personal object. Risks named in sources: relying on shungite instead of medical care [source: WebMD; Lifehacker.ru]; heavy-metal leaching into drinking water [source: Jurgelane & Locs 2021]; advertising that plays on fear of EMF and 5G [source: ASA ruling 2023]. Further risks are [synthesis]: children, pregnancy, financial strain, and online or group pressure.
  • Steps:
    1. Medical care: ask directly whether any assessment, test or treatment has been stopped, delayed or replaced. If so, explore why, give the client space to reconsider, and with consent involve the doctor (4.5).
    2. Children and pregnancy: ask whether children drink shungite-treated water, wear stones (choking risk with small items in young children is a general [synthesis] concern), or are kept from medical care, vaccination or devices on EMF grounds. Assess against your safeguarding duties (4.10).
    3. Money: ask about spending, teleshopping, repeat purchases and "upgrades" to costlier grades or mats; explore pressure from sellers or group members. Note multi-level-marketing structures if the client is also selling.
    4. Groups and isolation: gently explore whether 5G or EMF communities are driving fear, cutting the client off from family or work, or pushing distrust of all medical care.
    5. Mental state: where EMF fears are fixed, escalating and bizarre in content, consider assessment for psychosis or severe anxiety and refer accordingly.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned you've stopped going for your scans since you got the mat. Can we talk about what's behind that decision?" / "Who else in the family drinks the water with the stones in it?"
  • Watch for: the client hiding spending or medical avoidance; family conflict over the product. Working: risks are named openly and the client takes at least one protective step of their own choosing.

4.7 Working with EMF worry and idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI-EMF)

  • Purpose / when: when shungite is used to manage fear of, or symptoms attributed to, phones, Wi-Fi, 5G or power lines. WHO describes symptoms attributed to EMF as real and sometimes disabling, but finds no scientific basis linking them to EMF exposure; well-controlled double-blind studies show symptoms do not track actual exposure. WHO advises that treatment focus on symptoms and the clinical picture rather than on the perceived need to reduce EMF, include medical and psychological evaluation, look for other contributors (flicker, glare, noise, air quality, ergonomics, stress), and support coping and return to work and social life [source: WHO EHS backgrounder]. Cross-reference Domain II for health-anxiety and somatic-symptom protocols.
  • Steps:
    1. Validate the symptoms as real and distressing; do not argue about EMF.
    2. Check the client has had a medical evaluation; with consent, coordinate with the doctor (4.5).
    3. Build a shared formulation: triggers, bodily sensations, attention to the body, catastrophic interpretations, and avoidance and safety behaviours (shielding objects, stones, avoiding places) that keep the fear going [synthesis].
    4. Use established CBT approaches for health anxiety and somatic symptoms (Domain II): monitoring, attention training, behavioural experiments, graded reduction of avoidance, and work on sleep and stress [synthesis].
    5. Treat any stone as one of the client's safety behaviours only if the formulation shows it maintains fear; any change to its use is the client's choice, at their pace.
    6. Track function (work, social life, places visited) as the main outcome, in line with WHO's emphasis on coping and normal life.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your headaches and the trouble sleeping are real, and they're wearing you down. Rather than focusing on the router, could we look at what's happening in your body and what helps or worsens it?"
  • Watch for: ever-widening avoidance (sleeping in shielded rooms, quitting work); the therapist becoming another source of reassurance. Working: wider range of places and activities, less checking, less time spent on protection.

4.8 Client-chosen objects in session

  • Purpose / when: some clients hold or bring a stone as a comfort or focus object. WebMD notes any calming effect may come from touch or focused attention, as in meditation [source: WebMD]. The therapist neither introduces nor endorses the stone [synthesis].
  • Steps:
    1. Let the client choose whether to hold their own object; do not supply one.
    2. Use the object as you would any grounding object the client brings (noticing weight, texture, temperature) without attributing powers to it.
    3. If the object functions as a safety behaviour in anxiety work (4.7), discuss this openly.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If holding your stone helps you stay present, that's fine. What do you notice about it in your hand right now?"
  • Watch for: the client asking you to confirm its powers; dependency that stops other coping skills developing. Working: the client can ground with or without the object.

4.9 Managing conflicts of interest and boundaries

  • Purpose / when: always; especially for therapists who personally use crystals or are approached by clients who sell them.
  • Steps:
    1. Do not sell, supply, gift or recommend shungite, crystals or related courses to clients, and do not refer to sellers you have a link with [source: APA Ethics Code 3.06].
    2. Decline to buy from or join a selling scheme run by a client [source: APA Ethics Code 3.05].
    3. Keep your personal beliefs about crystals out of clinical recommendations [source: APA Ethics Code 2.04].
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm glad it matters to you, but I don't buy or sell things with clients; it keeps our work clear."
  • Watch for: pressure to join a client's online shop or group. Working: boundary held without rupture.

4.10 Reporting routes and safeguarding

  • Purpose / when: when a product is advertised with medicinal or EMF-blocking claims, when a client has been financially exploited, or when a child is harmed or deprived of medical care.
  • Steps:
    1. Advertising (UK): misleading health or EMF claims can be reported to the Advertising Standards Authority, which has ruled against such claims for shungite [source: ASA ruling 2023].
    2. Consumer fraud (USA): the FTC handles misleading radiation-protection claims and runs a fraud-reporting portal [source: FTC 2011].
    3. Other countries: use the national advertising, consumer-protection or medicines and devices regulator [uncertain: not verified for each jurisdiction].
    4. Practitioners: if a registered health professional sells shungite as a treatment, consider a complaint to their professional board [synthesis].
    5. Safeguarding: follow local child- and adult-safeguarding procedures where a child or adult at risk is deprived of needed medical care or harmed; consult your supervisor and document [synthesis].
    6. Support the client to make reports themselves where they wish.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you feel the seller misled you, you can complain to the advertising regulator. Would you like help with that?"
  • Watch for: reporting against the client's wishes when no safeguarding duty applies (respect confidentiality). Working: concerns reach the right body with the client informed.

5. Handling problems

The sources do not address psychotherapy problems specific to shungite; all guidance here is [synthesis] unless a source is given.

  • Client asks you to say whether shungite works. State your scope briefly: you can't judge energy claims; regulators have found EMF-blocking and medicinal claims unsubstantiated [source: ASA ruling 2023; FTC 2011]; the doctor is the person for health questions. Then return to what the question means to the client ("What would it mean for you if it didn't work?").
  • Client feels judged and withdraws (rupture). Name it and repair: "I think I came across as dismissing something important to you. That wasn't my aim." Go back to exploring meaning (4.2) before any information.
  • Client is entrenched in 5G or EMF conspiracy beliefs. Avoid debate, which tends to harden beliefs. Work on shared goals (sleep, work, relationships), the costs of avoidance, and the client's own doubts. Watch for paranoia or psychotic features and refer for assessment if present.
  • Escalating protection behaviours. More stones, stickers, shielded rooms or leaving work signal rising anxiety. Use the formulation (4.7) to show how protection keeps the fear going, agree small behavioural experiments at the client's pace, and coordinate with the doctor.
  • Non-adherence to medical care. Explore reasons (fear of side effects, distrust, past bad experiences) rather than arguing; consider motivational interviewing approaches; with consent involve the doctor; if a child is affected, follow safeguarding procedures (4.10).
  • Overwhelm after learning about heavy-metal leaching or misleading ads. Some clients feel foolish, guilty (e.g. about children's water) or angry. Normalise (sellers' claims are persuasive and the ASA found ads played on fears), focus on next steps, and route health concerns to the doctor; do not advise on testing or treatment yourself.
  • Financial harm or regret. Explore shame and the pull of hope or fear that drove the spending; help with practical steps (budgeting, stopping subscriptions, complaints to the seller or regulator) and, where there is debt, refer to debt advice services.
  • Family conflict. A partner may ridicule the stones or, conversely, insist on them for the household. Use couple or family sessions to separate values (spirituality, safety, money) from the factual dispute, and agree what each person decides for themselves and what is decided jointly (e.g. children's drinking water, with the doctor's input).
  • Client sells shungite or recruits you or other clients. Hold the boundary (4.9); explore any financial pressure from the scheme; consider whether the selling role affects the client's ability to look at risks.
  • Therapist's own beliefs. A therapist who uses crystals or who is strongly sceptical risks colluding or dismissing. Take it to supervision and keep to the attributive stance in section 3.
  • Somatic symptoms with no medical explanation, attributed to EMF. Avoid both "it's all in your head" and agreement that EMF is the cause; use WHO's emphasis on symptoms, function and coping [source: WHO EHS backgrounder] and Domain II approaches.

Sources

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