
ABOUT ME
RUTH EMSLEY
ANKITA PARADISA OCEANA
I have a passion for enabling people to clear issues and patterns that hold them back in life, and to find new inspiration and energy to live more fully, authentically and vibrantly.

And this is a picture of me in the Amazon with a monkey on my head. I'm scared of monkeys so had to dig deep!

I come from a very ordinary background in the North of England. After performing badly at school, I worked as a shop assistant for a couple of years, before taking my A Levels at the local community college. Discovering I have a gift for academic work, I went on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford.
After graduating, I have worked in the charity sector, in financial, business and fundraising management. I’m a professionally qualified fundraiser with the Institute of Fundraising. I was trained as a coach, and have many years’ experience in using coaching for staff and team development.
I have faced many personal challenges in my life, including PTSD, and in the process of trying to find a way forward for myself, I immersed myself deeply in the practices of Focusing and Shamanism. My motivation at the start was purely personal, but at some point, I discovered somehow I had started training to work with others.
Focusing is notoriously difficult to describe, but has been, for me, the most profound gift, and I often wonder how people live without it. It has brought me into deep connection with myself – not as I might think I am or wish I was, but as I actually am. I have gradually learnt great compassion for myself, and have learnt it is only from this place of deep connection that real transformation can emerge.
I have also been worked on, and trained, with shamans from a variety of countries – Peru, Mexico, Nepal in particular – as well as working with shamans and shamanic practitioners here in the UK.
I am an initiated Curandera, in the Amazonian tradition. A Curandera means healer or shaman.
I am also an initiated 4th Level Paqo on the Andean shamanic path, and an initiated Mesa carrier, which is a vital part of my healing work.
These initiations are a great honour, and have gradually given me the confidence to work with others.
I have followed the South American Medicine Wheel teachings with Skie Hummingbird of Sungate over a number of years. These demand profound personal honesty and an ongoing process of opening and listening. During my time on the wheel, I was gifted with a new medicine name: Ankita Paradisa Oceana. The “meaning” of this is about a paragraph long, but names me as a Sacred Prayer Carrier. Prayer is at the heart of my practice.
I am qualified as an Advanced Shamanic Practitioner by Sungate.
I have also undertaken several Non-Violent Communication trainings, including a 9 month intensive.
I have also completed Part One of Bodynamic's "Healing Shock, Trauma and PTSD".
All the healing “techniques” I offer have helped me immeasurably. Because I know how deeply they have helped me, I am called to offer them to others.