Cecile Carson, MD is a clinical associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY. An internist and counselor, she has focused her work over the past several decades on the mind-body-spirit interface in teaching and clinical care. She respects the endless variety of forms the healing process can take, and has explored and integrated a number of them: spiritual healing, hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming, therapeutic recreation, psychodrama, and dreamwork. Her extensive shamanic training with the FSS began in 1986 and included the Basic Workshop, 2-Week Intensive, Shamanic Counseling, Soul Retrieval, and the 3-Year East Coast Program. She also trained with a Romani choviano.

Tom Cowan, PhD is a shamanic practitioner specializing in Celtic visionary and healing techniques. He combines universal core shamanism with traditional European spirit lore to create spiritual practices that can heal and enrich one's own life and the lives of others. He is an internationally respected teacher, author, lecturer, and tour leader.   He has taught training programs in England, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and Italy. Tom received a doctorate in history from St. Louis University.   He has studied extensively with and taught for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

Tom is the author of Yearning For The Wind: Celtic Reflections on Nature and the Soul, Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit, Shamanism as a Spiritual Practice for Daily Life, The Pocket Guide to Shamanism, The Book of Seance, The Way of the Saints: Prayers, Practices, and Meditations and Wending Your Way: A New Version of the Old English Rune Poem.

Alan Davis, MD, PhD is an assistant professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Salt Lake City, and the medical director for Quinney Rehabilitation Institute at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center. His medical practice focuses on inpatient medical rehabilitation. He completed his physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. He then completed his neuroscience PhD investigating how yoga-like breathing exercises produce a relaxation response. He has been apprenticing with Sarah Sifers, PhD, a graduate of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS) 3-Year program, and pursuing FSS coursework, including the 2-Week Intensive in advanced shamanism and Shamanic Healing, directed and taught by Sandra Ingerman.

Sandra Hobson combines her interests in art, healing and shamanism through her counseling/consulting practice focused on individuals and organizations interested in personal and community development and growth.  She has been a student of shamanism and indigenous wisdom for more than fifteen years, studying with shamans in the United States as well as in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and Nepal.  She has also been involved in a broad range of nonprofit board activities including serving as the President of the Board of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and as the Chair of the founding board of the Institute for Health and Healing at California Pacific Medical Center and is currently a member of the board of The Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Sandra Ingerman, MA is the author of Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self   (Harper San Francisco 1991), Welcome Home: Following Your Soul's Journey Home (Harper San Francisco 1994), A Fall to Grace (Moon Tree Rising Productions 1997), and Medicine for the Earth   (Three Rivers Press 2001). She is also the author of The Beginner's Guide to Shamanic Journeying and The Soul Retrieval Journey lecture programs and the book and CD program Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide produced by Sounds True.

Sandra has an MA in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She teaches workshops on shamanism around the world and was formerly the Educational Director of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies directed by Michael Harner. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods into our modern day culture addressing the needs of our times. Sandra is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Professional Mental Health Counselor in the state of New Mexico.

Carol Proudfoot-Edgar has been studying and teaching shamanism for 20 years; prior to that she was a Psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.  Twelve years ago she helped found the nonprofit organization, Shamanic Circles. She is currently co-coordinating SSP's project called "Shamanism without Borders".

She has worked with a group of women physicians for 11 years to integrate shamanism and contemporary medical practice. Carol continues her work with a Clan of BearWomen that came into formal existence 16 years ago, and she has been teaching in the University of San Francisco Medical School's Integrative Medical Program.

In the early 90's, she joined with Paul Rebillot to develop a paradigm regarding the evolution of the self that would integrate shamanism and Gestalt psychology. Out of this collaboration, Carol developed a Medicine Wheel Handbook that guides one through interrelationship between the personal and the transpersonal.

     Carol and her shamanic work are featured in Beverly Engel's book, “Women Encircling the Earth” while her poetry and stories appear in a number of books and magazines. There are two CDs containing healing songs that came to her from the spirits. Her writings and videos of her work with National Geographic and two PhDs that were done in mixed media by graduate students interested in her teachings are available at her website www.shamanicvisions.com.

Barbara Tedlock
Barbara Tedlock, PhD is the granddaughter of an Ojibwe midwife and herbalist, Barbara was trained in shamanism by the K’iche’ Maya of Highland Guatemala.  She is currently Distinguished Professor of Anthropology ay SUNY Buffalo and Research Associate at the School of American Research in Santa Fe.  Most recently, she is the author of The Woman in the Shaman’s Body.