A Journey of Spiritual Awakening: Harnessing Your Intuitive Gifts

Naomi Brun is a freelance writer and a book reviewer for The Hamilton
Spectator.

Judy Brown is a spiritual teacher and life-skills coach who resides in
Carleton Place, Ontario. A Journey of Spiritual Awakening advertises
itself as a self-help manual.

Brown has structured the book as a therapy guide. The content is broken
down into six thematic “sessions,” and at the end of a session, she
gives readers some homework, ostensibly so that they can apply the
lessons to their own lives. Given the book’s title and arrangement, it
would be natural to assume that the guide is a helpful tool for those
who want to embark on a journey of self-exploration. Sadly, this is not
the case.

Rather than being therapeutic for the reader, A Journey of Spiritual
Awakening is overly centred on the life story of the author. Brown, an
Aboriginal Canadian, has experienced a great deal of misery in her life.
Her parents married extremely young, had difficulties with substance
abuse, and failed to protect her from sexual exploitation in her
childhood. When Brown grew up, she married an abusive, philandering
alcoholic. She needed strength to rebuild a healthier adult life, and
she found it in spirituality. Her belief system encompasses traditional
Native teachings, Roman Catholicism, Reiki, and other Eastern practices.

I do not wish to discount Brown’s suffering in any way. Her early
life and young adulthood were full of torment, and she should be praised
for her ability to reconstruct her life. Her book, however, is not an
effective teaching tool, for it seems to be nothing more than a
published version of her own journaling. Moreover, the few client
interviews she does include reveal practices that are generally
considered unhelpful in the psychological community, such as telling her
clients how they feel and declaring, with little evidence, that they
have been abused during infancy or in past lives. Perhaps others who
have shared similar experience will find resonance in this book, but it
should not be considered a serious alternative to counselling.