By Andrea Harwood Palmer
A new holistic healing and educational organization called At Sanctuary has opened in Saratoga Springs.
Gabrielle Maryland is a shamanic practitioner. She runs the organization with Sera Rose, a shaman and friend. The organization opened for business in October and is completely virtual during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We had a really great reception at our launch,” said Maryland.
Maryland and Rose met in the summer of 2018 at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York.
“[Rose] was a wellness practitioner and I was milling around the bookstore, going about my business. She gave me a read, and it was an amazing experience. It changed my life. From that point on, we were best friends,” said Maryland.
A read is performed after an ethics speech detailing how a practitioner works with both the client and spirit to receive messages and communicate them to the client.
Upcoming workshops available are Past Life & Soul Agreement, Crystal Energy Healing and Being a Spiritual Translator Level 1. The organization also hosts numerous pop up virtual events.
“Sometimes when people think about holistic healing or shamanic services, they think of snake oil salesmen. But that’s not who we are and that’s not what we do. We treat this work with respect, our clients with respect, and Spirit with respect,” said Maryland. “The way we learn from our clients and from Spirit really informs everything we do.”
Maryland says taking the organization virtual has not impacted effectiveness.
“Sera has been doing distance healing for some time,” said Maryland. “There’s always an intention. You work with that individual to learn what they need. You have a conversation beforehand and find out what they want out of the session, and why. Then you work with the client to best help them based on their energy system and what they say they need.”
Maryland sites loneliness as a prevalent struggle many of her clients are going through.
“There’s grief and loneliness. For a lot of people, there’s so much uncertainty. Whether it’s political, societal or just within our own lives—there’s so much uncertainty and upheaval that happens all the time. There’s also a lot of fear. It’s palpable,” said Maryland.
“There’s something having to distance, and the impact COVID has had on the world,” said Maryland. “It’s this great leveler. We’re all going through this. How we adjust and navigate the fear, anxiety and uncertainty.”
At Sanctuary can be reached via email at healersatsanctuary@gmail.com or via telephone at 518-350-4278.
