Shamanic Healing Practitioner & Intuitive Empath near San Francisco, CA
I am so grateful that the Universe has sent you here, and perhaps you are interested in exploring your spiritual gifts and/or learning more about Empath Connection!
It brings me such joy to know that Spirit has entrusted me with sheparding individuals to the Light by serving as a spiritual guide and mentor for empaths, highly sensitive people, and the LGBTQ+ community. And when I think of all the wondrous things that we have co-created together in 28 years as a healing practitioner, well, it still shocks me to this day. Quite honestly, I can't wrap my head around it all, but thankfully I don't have to because the Divine is in charge of that process. :)
I hope to be able to offer something of value to you, because YOU are my primary commitment in this life.
Like you, from the time I was a little child, I felt the motivations and emotions of other people. I could tell, like you, when someone was sad, lonely, depressed, or angry. I would cry other people’s tears for them, and absorb their energy and this made me sick for many years, until I raised my vibration so it didn't hurt anymore. Like most spiritual folks, we as empaths usually must endure some darkness in order that we may truly understand and work with the Light, and so many of us endure trauma or PTSD or unpleasant experiences that allow our souls to expand.
This is often referred to as the 'dark night of the soul.' My first of several 'dark night' experience came as an adult in the late 1990's/early 2000's, when I ignored signs from Spirit and was out of alignment with my own soul. I knew the kind of counseling I was practicing wasn’t right for me because it was too cognitive. I longed for spiritual work. But, at that time, I felt I needed the illusory 'security' of a steady paycheck no matter how soul sucking it was. Thus, the Universe manifested me basically getting fired and I endured a depression that left me not wanting to live .
After all these shenanigans, I knew that I must step outside my comfort zone and ask for help. I went on a retreat for gay men in Santa Fe, and that’s when I met the first of many important spiritual mentors, a Native American healer in Santa Fe. In spiritual ceremony, I felt at 'home' for the first time in my entire life. In Santa Fe in 2005, I completed a one-year program in energy medicine and massage, started working as a healing practitioner, and started exploring for the first time what it felt like to be grounded in my OWN energy.
Soon, I started traveling, expanding my lifelong interest in dancing, movement, and yoga. I traveled to Asia and spent some months hiking through rural villages, learning from the Earth and exploring her healing power. I bought a drum and started attending drum ceremonies. I began explorations into martial arts and healing movement/dance practices. My earnest steps were being reflected back to me - as they will be for YOU if you decide to work with me & Spirit - and I was rewarded with medicine dreams and feelings of total communion with the Universe.
As I continued to do weekly Native American sweat lodge for many years and raise my vibration through this and other means, I learned also that I was a medium and could communicate beyond the veils of Earth. In 2009, I wrote my first book for empaths, The Complete Empath Toolkit: A Guide to Spiritual and Energetic Empowerment for Sensitive People.
Over the last few years, my work and our collaborative movement have evolved to a new level as I have made it my intention to live a life of constant co-creation with Spirit.. It continues to be my absolute Joy to channel Spirit to create empath classes and courses to share with all the magnificent souls with whom I am grateful to be able to call my brothers and sisters.
❤️ I am a shamanic healing practitioner and psychic empath living near San Francisco, CA. I invite you to explore my large menu of intuition classes, and use the CONTACT FORM here to let me know how I can help. I offer day long personal shamanic medicine retreats at my home in the redwood forests near Woodacre in Marin county. Contact me to share your interest, what you're seeking from Spirit, and together, with Spirit, we will design a day-long vision quest experience that will bring you more of what you seek.
And in 2025, I recently completely re-designed my Empath Type Quiz, that over 200,000 empaths have taken - so you can discover which of the 10 empath types you are.
For over two decades, Dr. Michael R. Smith has helped millions of people worldwide to connect to their inherent Divinity and intuition. As a doctoral trained counselor and practitioner of indigenous healing arts, he has been featured in documentary films and shared the stage with luminaries like Sonia Choquette and Judith Orloff.
Dr. Smith has offered a diverse selection of workshops and retreats worldwide, including hosting spiritual cruises, as well as workshops at New Yorks' Omega Institute, The Shift Network, and his annual summer spiritual retreat.
Michael is a shamanic healing practitioner and professional intuitive who lives in the redwood forests of Marin county, 45 minutes north of San Francisco, where he offers daylong private in-person shamanic medicine retreats in addition to a large menu of online classes and private online spiritual guidance sessions.
He offers empath to support empaths in their journey awakening, as well as Lightworker mentoring for those who want to become a lightworker and start a spiritual business or healing practice.
He previously lived in Flagstaff/Sedona, AZ (2021-2024(; Bar Harbor, Maine (2016-2019); Santa Fe, NM (2005-2010), Ft. Collins/Evergreen, CO (2010-16), Reno, NV (1999-2002), and other stints in Ohio, Wyoming, Southern California, Michigan, and his home state of Minnesota.
Prior to working exclusively with empaths and sensitive people, Dr. Smith was an Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at the University of Wyoming, where he was an assistant editor of one of the leading journals of the 50,000+ member American Counseling Association. He is the author of 8 research publications appearing in various scientific journals, and his doctoral dissertation was groundbreaking for being among the first to research the effect of counselor spirituality on effectiveness in therapy sessions.
In 2003, Michael started an apprenticeship with several Lakota Native American shamans and healers. In a first-of-its-kind partnership, he secured $25,000 in grant funding to teach Native American healing methods to mainstream graduate counseling students. It changed the lives of countless students and community members. "Michael is a leader to me and many others," says Johnna Nunez, Ph.D., one of the students that Michael mentored.
In 2025, he is writing his third book, creating new empath classes, and increasingly helping gay men overcome religious trauma to connect to their Higher Selves. (follow Gay Spirit Magik on Instagram). And he is continuing to do his favorite two things - hot yoga daily, and talking to trees.
