Lenore Norrgard, MA
Lenore Norrgard was born to a progressive fine artist and a liberal Christian preacher in the midst of the turbulent Civil Rights Movement. Her earliest memories are of playing in the wild, going to church, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Her earliest years revealed her as an artist, a storyteller, and a teacher. She was "always making things" and creating stories. And each day after returning from kindergarten she passed on her lessons to her younger sister, who consequently knew how to read before she ever started school.
Lenore entered social activism through her first job with Planned Parenthood at age 15, and with her participation in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations the same year, followed by intense, multli-issue activism in the 1970s. She most strongly identified with others who knew that all of us are interconnected: that every social ill hurts everyone, whether directly or indirectly.
In the 1980s Lenore became a journalist and photographer and spent some years in China, where she became fluent in Chinese and involved herself with feminist and democratic activists. She completed an MA in International Studies at the University of Washington, which included study at Peking University in Beijing, and worked on the World News Desk of Reuters News Agency in Hong Kong.
In 1987, in the midst of a lengthy period of inner turmoil and depression, the helping spirits made themselves known to Lenore for the first time in her adult life; until that time, spirituality had not been part of her conscious journey. Her childhood religious training had not prepared her for the experience of animal spirits who now helped her recover her personal power and extended her support from the unseen world.
After reading a number of spiritual texts, Lenore discovered shamanism, finally finding a framework that fit her personal experiences of the divine. In 1991 Sandra Ingerman's first book, Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self was published, and at last Lenore felt she had found a teacher. After corresponding, Lenore began training through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies with Sandra Ingerman, Michael and Sandra Harner, Leslie Conton and other faculty. She trained as a Harner Method Shamanic Counselor (HMSC), and was certified by the Foundation in 1993 after completing its requirements, which included auditing of her work with clients.
A natural teacher, Lenore immediately began sharing her shamanic knowledge, first through introductory workshops and individual counseling and healing work, and then through her Shamanic Empowerment Circles, through which she teaches beginning journey skills. As the demand for more advanced instruction grew, Lenore developed classes and workshops for experienced journeyers, culminating in her 10-month Shamanic Healing Apprenticeship Program.
Lenore teaches independently as well as through host institutions; these have included the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Bastyr University, the University of Washington Experimental College, Mandana House Community Recovery Center, the Talking Drum Bookstore, Enterbeing spiritual cooperative, and Durant House Urban Retreat Center.
In addition to standard offerings in shamanic counseling, healing work, tool making, and Medicine for the Earth gatherings, Lenore enjoys designing workshops tailored to specific populations: For example, she developed The Spirits of Qi: A Shamanic Exploration of the Spirits of Chinese Medicine for the acupuncture school, and Shamanism for Activists: Spiritual Tools for Social Healing for activists at large. She has taught Indigenous Peacemaking and currently is developing a new intensive offering, Healing America.
Lenore is a member of the Circle of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, a minister ordained by the Association for the Integration of the Whole Person, and founder of the Circle of the Living Earth-AIWP. She was a leader in Enterbeing when it was a spiritual cooperative in Northeast Portland, a leader in the Northeast Portland Interfaith Peace Group, and a member of the Society of Shamanic Practitioners, the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
Lenore's work as artist, writer, activist and healer come together in her work as a filmmaker: She is committed to creating films that heal and empower through showing our interconnection with one another, our planet, and the cosmos itself.
"We are the stories we tell," she says. "It's time for our culture to tell new stories."
Harner Method Shamanic Counselor