A Holistic Approach
July 23, 2001 Arizona Daily Sun By Becky Pallack
Sun Staff Reporter Terri Sides, who took part in the psychic and wellness fair at Bookman's, wears hats of a nurse and New Age healer
A Flagstaff Medical Center nurse has found a second career in becoming a New Age shaman.
"I've learned that what we see with our eyes isn't all there is," said Terri Sides, who moved to Flagstaff about three months ago because she felt moved by a spirit.
An animal communicator and clairvoyant reader, she refers to nursing as her "day job."
"This is a different way to help people. Instead of just physically taking care of people, I'm looking at them mind, body and spirit, in a more holistic way," she said.
As a shaman, Sides said she helps people balance their personal energy and connect with the Earth. She helps her clients find clarity in specific issues by reading their energy fields and chakras, energy centers in the spine that correspond with meaningful body parts, emotions and spiritual centers, she said.
She usually helps "people who want some clarity" or "people who are stuck and don't feel like they have any choices," but she also helps animals and pet owners.
She said she communicates with people and animals by entering a deep meditation and receiving pictures. She "just knows" when she is communicating with the spirit of the client. She calls the person's energy to her attention and asks them what they would like to discuss. She sees pictures and hears messages about relationships, career choices and the individual sense of self. She has also helped heal the pain of an emotional or physical trauma.
"Sometimes it's like watching a little movie," she said of the pictures. She describes to her clients what she sees and hears. "I see you teaching," she told Barbara Croly, of Flagstaff, who approached Sides at the New Millennium Psychic and Wellness Fair at Bookman's Sunday. Croly was looking for some validation in feelings she has about her spiritual life and her career path.
Sides talked with Croly about how she could best use her unique energy to help people. She encouraged her to speak from her heart and helped her meditate about the chakras of the heart and throat.
Croly also had an animal spirit about her feet, Sides said, and they talked to the spirit about the path Croly is on.
Jeri Ichikawa, of Flagstaff, came to Sides at the fair for stress relief. Sides talked to her about how she spends her energy and what her energy sources are. She suggested ways to connect with her spirit and spend time for herself.
One picture showed Ichikawa as a child finger- painting. Sides suggested she connect with that carefree child in her past by giving finger- painting another try.
Ichikawa said the reading helped confirm her own feelings and helped her to move on.
Sides offers private, one- hour sessions for more in-depth work. For information, call her at (941) 226-5845.
