There’s a lot of talk about awakening. About light, energy, expansion. But for many people, it doesn’t feel like rising and it doesn’t always bring peace. Sometimes it’s disruptive. You start to realize you’re more than your thoughts, more than your pain, more than what happened to you, but even then, you’re still here, still in a body that gets triggered, still in a brain that has been working hard to keep you safe for a long time.
My own path wasn’t neat or graceful. I didn’t suddenly become awakened or healed. I lived through trauma and spent years in survival mode. I learned how to be strong because I had to be. By the time I was nineteen, I was living a form of street life in East Vancouver and doing whatever I could to get by. I went to food banks. I sat through church services because I knew they would serve food afterwards. I kept going the best I could, but I was worn down and holding on by a thread. Still, even through all of that, something in me believed there had to be more than just surviving.
When my best friend died by suicide, something shifted in me, not in a peaceful or inspiring way, but in a way that cracked everything open. I didn’t have language for it at the time, but I knew I couldn’t go on like I had been. I didn’t know what healing was supposed to look like but I did know that something had to change.
Even when I was a child, I had moments I couldn’t explain. I sensed things before they happened or felt a presence around me I couldn’t quite define. I felt deeply and picked up on things no one else seemed to notice. I always had a quiet awareness that something larger was with me, but I didn’t grow up in a world that encouraged that kind of understanding, and I learned early on that being sensitive often meant being unsafe, so I kept that part of myself hidden and focused on just getting through life.
At twenty-four, I started to climb out of the mess and the constant pressure of survival. I went to university to study music, and through performing, teaching, and travelling, I created a life that looked full and vibrant in many ways. Music helped me reconnect with a part of myself that I had almost forgotten, and while it wasn’t perfect, it gave me something to build on. I was proud of what I was creating, and I was growing in ways I hadn’t before.
Throughout all of that, I still considered myself a spiritual person. I had experienced moments of clear guidance and connection. I believed in something greater than myself, and I had felt supported by a force I couldn’t always name, but I knew was real. I had mystical experiences and a deep intuitive knowing that had been with me for as long as I could remember. But even with all that awareness, I was still carrying so much. I was still struggling in ways I didn’t talk about. The pain I had carried for years didn’t simply go away because I was doing better. My nervous system was still overworked and overwhelmed. My body was still holding on to experiences I hadn’t fully processed. I found myself in a place where things looked fine, but inside I didn’t feel fine, and I could no longer override that truth with spiritual ideas or positive thinking.
This too became its own kind of awakening, not the kind that lifts you up into peace and clarity, but the kind that brings you face to face with what you’ve been avoiding. I realized that my spiritual awareness wasn’t going to carry me through if I kept ignoring my body. My nervous system wasn’t separate from my soul. My brain wasn’t the enemy. These were the parts of me that had carried everything, and they needed care. They needed healing on a human level.
That was when I found hypnotherapy.
At first, I didn’t expect it to make a huge difference, but what I discovered was a way of working that brought things to the surface gently and helped me understand myself more deeply. I started to see that my mind wasn’t broken. My subconscious wasn’t working against me. It was doing exactly what it had learned to do, keeping me safe the only way it knew how. I began to notice how old patterns were still running underneath the surface, not because I was doing anything wrong, but because they were familiar. They had once protected me, but now they were holding me back, and I didn’t need them anymore.
Through hypnotherapy, I learned how to listen to what my nervous system was actually trying to say. I learned how emotions live in the body and how we carry our stories in our hearts, in our muscles, in our thoughts, and in our behaviors. Healing didn’t come from trying to push through or get rid of the pain. It came from slowing down and creating space to reframe the way my stories from the past lived in my heart, mind and body. I needed to honour my human self because that too is sacred,
And the truth is, I already knew a lot of this in a spiritual sense. I believed in energy and intuition. I had experienced connection beyond this world and believed deeply in the soul’s journey. I knew that love continued after death and that we are made of something more than just flesh and bone. But knowing all of that didn’t stop me from struggling. It didn’t take away the panic attacks. It didn’t cancel the patterns that still played out when I was triggered. It didn’t stop the thoughts or calm my nervous system when it was on high alert. I found myself thinking, I know all this about spirit and energy and love, but why do I still feel like I’m falling apart.
That is the part of awakening no one tells you about. It doesn’t fix everything. Sometimes it makes you even more aware of what needs attention. It brings you deeper into the work, not out of your life, but straight into it. You begin to realize that healing is not about floating above the pain. It’s about learning how to be with yourself in it, and not abandon yourself when it gets hard.
That’s what I wrote about in Awakened Hearts, the bestselling book I contributed to. My chapter is called Streetwise and Soul-Led. It’s not a polished story with a bow tied at the end. It’s a real story. It’s what it’s like to come apart and find your way back home in a way that’s honest and human.
Now, this is the work I do. I help people who are struggling, people who are overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, or stuck. People who are intuitive and self-aware, but still feel like something inside them hasn’t shifted yet. People who have done a lot of work, but still feel like they’re carrying something heavy.
Through hypnotherapy and subconscious healing, I help people reconnect with themselves by working with what the body has been holding and listening to what the nervous system is trying to say. Together, we begin to explore the patterns that no longer serve you and support them in shifting, not through force or quick fixes, but through awareness, consistency, and compassion. My approach is grounded in neuroscience, rooted in trauma-informed care, and powered by the healing force of neuroplasticity. I help people rewire their brains to feel, think, and live differently. The work can be spiritual, but it is also deeply human, and it honors every part of the journey you’ve walked to get here.
To learn more about my work or to book a session, you can visit shannonshypnotherapy.com.
My story is also featured in the bestselling book Awakened Hearts, which you can find here on Amazon . Awakened Hearts: Stories of Embracing Light, Love, and Limitless Possibilities
It’s a powerful collection of real, honest stories from people who’ve walked through fire and found their way forward.
Curious about how hypnotherapy can support your healing journey?
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Shannon Shade, RCH is a Registered and Accredited Clinical Hypnotherapist, bestselling author, and trauma-informed practitioner based in Calgary, Alberta. She works with clients both online and in person, blending neuroscience with sharpened instincts and lived experience to help people rewire their brains and reclaim their lives.
Shannon’s work has been featured on FOX, NBC, CBS, Google News, and more.
Her writing appears in two bestselling anthologies:
• Awakened Hearts: Stories of Embracing Light, Love, and Limitless Possibilities — alongside Marci Shimoff (The Secret)
• Mediumship: Sacred Communications with Loved Ones from Across the Veil — by renowned spiritual teacher Suzanne Giesemann