My journey began when I started having experiences that some would say are characteristics of
psychosis or mental illness. My experiences included disturbing visions, voices, and confusion. I had a deep sense of loss, purposelessness, profound depression, and anxiety. I was in and out of hospital psychiatric units and on tons of prescription drugs that were very detrimental to my body and spirit.

Eventually, I began to research for answers that resonated more with my spirit. I learned about sacred plant medicines and later found my amazing Gobela (teacher) GogoNana. It was then that I came to realize that I had been experiencing a spiritual emergency. This was a sign of my “shamanic calling” and the illness could be cured through the ancient ways of my ancestral lineage and initiation. This was just the beginning of my radical life transformation and spiritual opening.

In many traditional societies, when one has experiences of suffering from visions, hearing voices, and ultra-sensitivities to environments and emotions they are taken in by a spiritual leader or a shaman of their community and are cleansed and released from any negative spiritual attachments they may have accumulated. Some may even have spiritual gifts of healing and are taught how help and heal others, as opposed to most western medicine that tells us that we’re sick, incurable, and not normal. “I am grateful that even though I was born in America, I found my way back to the traditional roots which provided me with the medicine that literally saved my life!”

My goal is to help us remember who we are, connect back to divine source for healing through ancient Ancestral wisdom and practices.

A Healer

Gogo Ekhaya Esima is a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist in the Mental Health field, a Trauma Survivor, a Spiritual Coach, and initiated Healer in the South African Sangoma tradition. She is trained in Trauma Informed Practices and blends these techniques with shamanic healing for a wholistic approach to mental wellness. As a trauma survivor, her personal struggles led her to traditional methods of healing. Sangoma’s are well known and highly regarded in South Africa as professional healing practitioner’s and over 60% of the population still consult with Sangoma medicine people for physical, psychological, and spiritual healing. Sangoma’s use a form of spiritual mediumship by communicating with the ancestors to give messages and heal.

Gogo Ekhaya’s offerings include assisting souls on their spiritual journey, cleansing and protection, spiritual emergence guidance, and ancestral healing.