Course Leader
Twobirds Cunningham was born in America but spent her formative years in Germany. She left Europe after a successful career in acrobatics and moved to South Africa where she lived for nine years, establishing a shelter for homeless street children in Johannesburg and latterly walking ‘barefoot in the South African bush’. This minimalist lifestyle living in close communication with indigenous African tribes laid the foundations for her passion for the shamanic path. She came to Scotland in the summer 1996 and joined the Findhorn Community where she lived for two years.
During this time she found the language that allowed her to begin to put her African experiences into words and help define her innate spiritual sensitivity. She has subsequently undertaken intensive formal training in cross cultural Shamanism, Shamanic Healing, Toltec Shamanism, Plant Spirit Medicine, and Native American Spirituality. These teachings have been augmented with the emersion in indigenous shamanic cultures in Mexico, South Africa, the Kalahari in Botswana, North Vietnam, and the Ecuadorian rain forest.
This cross fertilisation of experiences has enriched and expanded her personal understanding, which, with years of private study, has culminated in an extensive range of highly experiential training courses. It is her keen desire to share her insights with like-minded souls and nurture the ever expanding community of shamanic practitioners.
Twobirds and her husband Alastair co-founded the Anam Cara Retreat Centre in Inverness, Scotland where they both live and work since its establishment in 2003.
The Team
Course Assistance
The following are qualified shamanic practitioners who support the training programmes:
John McCarthy
After years of searching and learning about a variety of healing arts and spiritual practices, John finally found a fulfilling way of being in the world through his dedication to Shamanism. He is a Shamanic Practitioner trained in core shamanism and in conducting Sweatlodge Ceremonies. Based in London, John moulds his shamanic practice around life in a modern urban city.
Carly Popplestone
Carly initiated her interest in earth centred spirituality and the healing arts with sojourns to India and Africa, which have been followed up by six years of formal training and practical experience in shamanic practise and ceremony. Carly now offers individual healing sessions, ceremonial rites, and land healings. She harbours a passion to help connect others with their own capacity for innate healing and wellbeing.
Joany McGuire
Joany enjoys a strong connection with nature living simply in the wild North West Highlands holding communion with Nature Beings in this most rugged of environments. Joany has embarked on a series of shamanic trainings over the last eight years. She hosts retreats in the Highlands with particular interest in sacred circles for women, helping to nurture a safe and insightful environment for authentic shamanic practise and understanding.
Jayne Paulson
Jayne lives in the beautiful Scottish Highlands and draws much of her spiritual inspiration through deep communion with nature. Shamanism has woven through her life for many years, as a more formal training over the last four years. She offers individual healing, land healing and ceremony and is committed to creating space for the deepening of relationship to self and Spirit..
Hosting
Alastair Cunningham
Alastair maintains an important but fairly invisible presence, playing host at Embracing Shamanism retreats, thereby ensuring the many physical components of the programme flow without disruption. He occasionally offers percussion backup in the shamanic events. He has been a Buddhist for over twenty years but enjoys a fruitful coexistence with Shamanic ways and teachings.
Administration
Ushka Davies
Ushka has been a regular visitor to Anam Cara over the years. She has an active interest in earth-centred shamanic practices which has led to extended stays in Mexico, Peru and Bolivia. She has a keen interest in photography as a spiritual practice and has been a Vipassana practitioner for the past eleven years.
Course Facilities
We hold our courses in a variety of beautiful settings around the country.
- Anam Cara, Inverness, Scottish Highlands
- Noddfa, Snowdonia, Wales
- The Lodge on the Loch, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire
Anam Cara 
Noddfa retreat centre 
The Lodge on the Loch