About — The Heart Behind the Work

There’s a quiet moment in every life when the old ways of holding ourselves begin to soften,
and something deeper — older — starts to rise.
A memory, not from the mind, but from the soul.
A remembering of who we are beneath the old patterns, beneath the defenses, beneath all the stories we’ve carried as truth.
Every soul carries within it a spark of the Sacred — a quiet knowing that whispers, “There is more.”
More love. More presence. More truth.
But somewhere along the way, life happens.
We learn to adapt, to hide, to strive, to protect.
We lose touch with the deeper current of our being.

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

~ Rumi

My name is Simon Shadowlight,
and the heart of my work is helping others remember that deeper current — reawakening a direct connection with the sacred essence of who you are.
Not as a concept — but as a lived experience of wholeness, presence, and divine connection.

Healing is not the end of the story.
It is the beginning of awakening.
And awakening, when embodied, ripples outward — touching families, communities, and the greater unfolding of humanity.

For more than twenty years I’ve walked with people through the tender terrain of transformation — as a minister, psychedelic facilitator, IFS practitioner, and wilderness guide.

Each of these roles is simply a doorway into the same sacred space: the place where we meet ourselves honestly, and where grace has room to enter.

My path was never a straight line.
It curved and spiraled its way through wilderness and wonder,
through decades of spiritual study, through the intimate work of trauma and attachment, and the tender terrains of psyche and body.
It wandered through sacred medicine traditions that teach us how to open, how to listen, how to remember.
And just as truly, it wove itself through the living of a life —
through the breaking and the mending,
the losses that hollowed me out
and the revelations that filled me again,
through the fierce beauty, the bewilderment, and the small astonishments that come with being human and awakening in an unfathomably vast universe.

The thread connecting all of it is simple:
We heal by turning toward what we once turned away from.
We awaken by slowing down enough to hear our own heart and soul.
And we come home by discovering that the Divine has been within us all along— that we are, in fact, Sacred.

How I Hold This Work

I don’t approach healing as fixing.
I don’t approach psychedelics as recreation or escape.
And I don’t approach spirituality as something separate from daily life.

I hold this work as sacred practice — a place where every part of you is welcomed,
where your pace is honored, and where nothing is forced.

Whether we’re engaging through Internal Family Systems, through spiritual counseling, through psychedelic work — preparation, ceremony, and integration — or through time on the land beneath an open sky, the intention is the same:
to create a steady, loving container where the truth of who you are can emerge in its own timing.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.”

~ Rumi

Roots, Lineage & Training

The depth of this work is supported by many years of study, formation, and experiential training. What follows isn’t a list of accomplishments — it’s a glimpse into the lineages and teachers that shape how I hold space.

Academic, Ministerial & Wilderness Foundations

  • Licensed Sufi Cherag — Sirat-I Inayat Interfaith Path lineage
    “Cherag” is a light-bearer in the Sufi tradition — a minister trained to tend the flame of remembrance, unity, and the sacred within all beings.
  • Licensed & Ordained Interfaith Minister — Centers for Spiritual Living
  • Master of Consciousness Studies — Holmes Institute
  • Master of Arts in Information & Learning Technologies — University of Colorado, Denver
  • Outward Bound Instructor — Pacific Crest Outward Bound School
    Foundational wilderness leadership and experiential facilitation training.
  • Bachelor of Science — University of Oregon

Psychedelic-Assisted Support & Sacred Practice Formation

  • Ministerial Training (Parts I & II completed) — Congregation for Sacred Practices
  • Psychedelics and the Soul (Level One) — Simon Yugler
  • Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training — Synthesis Institute
  • Psychedelic Integration Coach Certification — Plant Spirit School
  • Experiential Trauma-Focused Psychedelic Therapy Program — Innate Path

Internal Family Systems (IFS) Training

  • IFS Online Circle — IFS Institute
  • IFS & Psychosis (Master Class) — IFS Counseling Association
  • IFS Approach to Secure Attachment — NICABM
  • Stepping Deeper (Level Two) — IFS Counseling Association
  • Stepping Stones (Level One) — IFS Counseling Association

Trauma, Somatic & Attachment Training

  • Somatic Psychotherapy (Level One) — Hakomi Institute
  • Polyvagal-Informed Therapy (Master Class) — PESI
  •  Neurobiology of Attachment — NICABM
  •  Attachment Trauma Treatment Specialist Certification — PESI
  • Working With Pain: A Somatic Approach — The Embody Lab
  • Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies — Trauma Research Institute

Ongoing Training & Continuing Formation

  • Ministerial Training, Part III (in progress) — Congregation for Sacred Practices
  • Ongoing IFS consultation, supervision, and advanced study
  • Continued study and supervision in psychedelic preparation, harm reduction, and integration
  • Ongoing interfaith and Sufi spiritual formation

Why I Do This Work

Because awakening doesn’t happen in isolation.
Because healing is relational.
Because our wounds soften when they’re witnessed with care.
And because the Sacred becomes unmistakable when someone sits beside us with an open heart and no agenda.

This work is not about striving toward some ideal self.
It’s about remembering the luminous being you already are — and learning to live from that place with tenderness, clarity, and courage.

If your path is calling you inward, if something in you is ready to unfold, or if you are simply curious about the whisper beneath your everyday life,
I would be honored to walk with you.

Peace, Blessings, & Joy.

Simon Shadowlight

Begin Your Journey

If you feel the stirring — that quiet knowing that it’s time to remember — I welcome you.

You are not broken down. You are broken open.

You are unfolding… becoming.

And the journey begins within.

Begin Your Journey...