Amazon Wisdom Keeper
by Dr Loraine Y Van Tuyl
Genre: nonfiction- memoir, spiritual
With captivating lyricism, Amazon Wisdom Keeper transports us into the multicultural upbringing and transformation of Loraine Van Tuyl, a graduate psychology student and budding shamanic healer who’s blindsided by startling visions, elusive drumming, and her inseverable mystical ties to the Amazon rainforest of her native Suriname.
Is she in the wrong field, or did her childhood dreams, imaginary guides, and premonitions somehow prepare her for these challenges? Did Suriname’s military coup and her family’s uprooting move to the US rob her from all that she knew and loved at thirteen to help reveal her soul’s purpose, or is she losing her mind by entertaining far-fetched questions and hunches that can’t be answered or proven—like wondering if her perplexing life story is shedding light on the double-binds in her field on purpose, and suspecting that her soul’s daunting blue print was plotted long before she was even born? Van Tuyl wrestles with these questions and more as she embarks upon her risky quest, enduring test upon test in search of her true self and calling while enrolled in a rigorous academic program that regards intuitive healing methods as unscientific—and even unethical.
Loraine Van Tuyl, PhD, CHT, holistic psychologist, shamanic healer, and Depth Hypnosis practitioner, is happiest when exploring how the natural world relates to our true nature in healing sessions, on the page, and in her journeys and dreams. She has guided visionaries, educators, holistic healers, artists, change-makers, writers, and psychotherapists from the Native American Health Center, the UC Berkeley Counseling Center, and at her private practice, the Sacred Healing Well (www.thesacredhealingwell.com). She is the author of Amazon Wisdom Keeper: A Psychologist’s Memoir of Spiritual Awakening, and is working on a handbook: Awaken your Amazon Wisdom Goddess to accompany her retreats for nature wisdom keepers in Costa Rica (2018) and online (fall 2017) (www.retreatsfornaturewisdomkeepers.com).
PRAISE FOR AMAZON WISDOM KEEPER
“Amazon Wisdom Keeper will ‘accidentally’ fall off the shelf at the opportune time for many readers. It’s truly a gift that will contribute to the next phase of humanity. In this important book, Loraine Van Tuyl captivates us with her personal journey and offers a revolutionary message about the human experience and what it means to be whole. Her story coherently weaves together so many levels of being, cultural issues, and forgotten truths, producing a true page turner that touches the heart and the mind. Read this book as a compelling personal memoir, a profound spiritual message, or as complimentary reading for cross-cultural psychology, counseling, feminism, ethics and spirituality.”
—Megan Cowan, Co-Founder, Mindful Schools
“Amazon Wisdom Keeper richly mirrors the incongruence I experience as a sensitive psychotherapist working within a mental health paradigm that at times clashes with my own intuitions about healing and instilled in me a sorely needed dose of validation, inspiration, and spiritual camaraderie. This book will catalyze and energize the visionary process of other sensitive, spiritually inclined healers, researchers, teachers, creators, innovators, and change-makers who also hear the call.”
—Krista Harrison, MFT, CHT, intuitive and shamanic healer
“Loraine Van Tuyl has drawn on an extraordinary multicultural background and a career as a professional healer to produce a beguiling and insightful work of wisdom and compassion . . . Highly recommended!”
—Mark Plotkin, PhD, President, Amazon Conservation Team, author of Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice, Medicine Quest
“Loraine Van Tuyl has written a memoir that spans time and space, memory and pre-cognition. She bridges cultural landscapes of nations and mindsets with a breezy and natural writing style, and escorts the reader across the bridges she creates with skill and purpose, showing what is required to move from one realm to another and maintain equilibrium and balance. We can all learn from the courage and commitment to meaning and understanding so poignantly demonstrated in Amazon Wisdom Keeper.”
—Isa Gucciardi, PhD, primary teacher at the Foundation of the Sacred Stream, author of Return to the Great Mother
“As we are poised at this critical time to evolve our consciousness, Loraine Van Tuyl has every reason to bring Amazon Wisdom Keeper forward to the public and especially therapists to open ourselves up to the multidimensionality of our beings.”
—Donna Morrish, MFT, Founder, Paths of Grace
“All the tales are so validating and inspiring.”
—Denise Colby, PhD, Founder of Integrative Wellness
“What a wonderful book! Loraine Van Tuyl is a clear voice to follow in the vastness of the mystical journey within to discover the sacred and the divine.”
—Lisa Tahir, LCSW, Host of “All Things Therapy” radio show
