Cecile Carson, MD

Cecile Carson, MD is an internist also trained in psychiatry, who for 30 years focused much of her work on helping people deal with life-threatening illness such as HIV and cancer. Recognizing that illness often requires soul-level work, she has shifted her focus to spiritual coaching and healing.

She also teaches healthcare communication skills, and has developed a curriculum in nonverbal communication for healthcare providers that has been disseminated nationally and internationally. She was Clinical Association Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY, from 1988 - 2006.

Since her first days in medical school, she has looked for ways to address the whole person. Her fascination has been the many forms that the healing process can take, and she has explored many of them outside of traditional Western medicine: Reiki, hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming, therapeutic recreation, psychodrama, dreamwork, and shamanism.

Following extensive training through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies in shamanic methods for addressing the spiritual aspect of illness, she began integrating this modality into her own practice as well as teaching it to others. She is a Founding Board Member of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners, an international organization of individuals deeply committed to using shamanic skills to heal the spiritual aspects of illness in people, communities, business, and the environment.