Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Erin Shannon.
Hi Dr. Shannon, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I was an athlete, from a family of athletes, immersed in professional sports from the jump, so when I was no longer to run, due to a failed bilateral foot procedures at age 16, I didn’t have a backup plan. I no longer could go to the Olympic Games or even take advantage of athletic scholarship opportunities. I mean, I couldn’t even walk! So, I was very unsure of my future but I knew I felt like a huge failure-in being the only one of my large Irish Catholic family to not have a full ride, and my parents actually had to PAY for my higher education…. I put all that guilt on myself and I think my spirit never stopped sprinting for the proverbial “finish line”. So, I flew through college (Loyola Marymount University) in a couple years by taking triple credit loads (I DO NOT recommend this lol). Then following what seemed to me to be the best fit and certainly was the most intuitively logical 😉 path, I also flew through a master’s in clinical Psychology (Pepperdine University) in less than a year by testing out of the second year. Then I followed that with a doctorate three years later from Pepperdine. Then I returned to Stl to complete a pre doctoral internship at the Veterans Administration Hospitals. My first day of work as a white coat was Sept. 11, 2001. I was Downstairs in the new doc orientation meeting with the other two interns at John Cochran veterans’ hospital in downtown St. Louis, when the very Decorated and esteemed head of operations for our system was interrupted by two VERY armed National guard soldiers who quietly conveyed to him the unfathomable …. Which intern explained all of the noise we heard happening above us, banging running and shouting my mind was racing and I told the other two interns that it must be a drill they must be testing us for something. Once I came upstairs and I saw the actual chaos and literally, people having flashbacks and attacking each other in the lobby, as well as a show of force military personnel around the exterior of the building, my heart sank and I realize this was not a drill. Indeed, going to be the most difficult and challenging internship I could have never imagined! That year was the long and busy and beyond challenging. It seemed as if some new fire was popping up every day, from the front-line trauma of returning injured, to the strange illnesses that were as of yet undiagnosed, to anthrax and the threat of chemical attacks, to dealing with rampant PTSD reactions of our vets triggered by this war, that was an intense and remarkable year of training! Upon graduating from the VA system internship, I was lucky enough to be rewarded A unique dual post-doctoral fellowship at Washington University school of medicine in the department of psychiatry and genetics, this was so amazing in many ways but most significantly my genetics mentor just happen to be one of the brilliant physicians who had worked on and completed the human genome project. I was allowed to continue my research in Nuro development inside of architectural abnormalities in schizophrenia. And then life happened and my beautiful first child was born. Rapidly followed by five more and I walked away from my research in order to raise these beautiful children full-time.
Then life happened again, and due to the economic downturn, my husband at the time decided his ability to work in the industry of urban development was no longer viable so I was to go back to work and support the family. Never having worked in the private sector I was, and this is an understatement, extremely anxious about my ability to hang up a sign and trust that people would show up! Certainly not a small ask to provide for such a large family instantaneously but somehow the universe provided and one-day Fessional last day and his wife happened to walk into my office for a session. The wife recognized a book I had in my briefcase on her way out and asked me if I “could do that for (her husband’s) shoulder because he was pitching that night?“. The book was Donna Eden‘s energy medicine and that that day indeed would serve to change the course of my career and my life. My practice rapidly morphed and I created two different treatments rooms -one was the treatment room where energy medicine and somatic psychology sessions took place and the other room was a traditional psychotherapy room with chairs and a couch. After a few months of working, regularly seven days a week with extremely long hours, I realized the only time I went into the psychotherapeutic office was to dust or clean it! Several years thousands of patients, four different office locations, and about 27 additional degrees or certifications in complementary healing techniques later, I find myself with a very unique practice consisting of probably 8O-90% professional athletes from the NFL MLB NHL NBA MLS WNBA, etc. So, for some reason, I seem to have or been pulled back in (pardon The Godfather reference) to my familiar tribe. Currently, I find myself in St. Louis with a practice that I would have never in my life imagined.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Oh absolutely not smooth, but all the challenges Make perfect sense in hindsight and I am a big believer that everything happens for a reason. Along the way I have had the following divorce serious/critical life-threatening health problems
Economic recovery
Spiritual awakenings
Family health challenges
Four /five moves
Etc etc
But that’s life, it’s not fair or easy but it certainly is not boring!
What matters most to you?
My mom passed from a brain tumor several years ago. It was the worst year of pain, panic, fear, anger, denial, and horrible grief. She literally passed laying underneath my hands where I was resting my head, gently crying, on her bed. I literally felt her last breath as if it were my own and felt her energy slide from her body and out.
There was a woman who did reiki on her that week and, in front of my own eyes, I saw this woman (based on the monitors hospice had set up) take away my mother’s pain when western medicine could not.
She passed peacefully because of this wonderful and gifted healer. That began my journey into reading a min of a book a day on anything and everything I could find to explain what I saw. I started with reiki, followed by healing touch, quantum touch, EMDR, HMP, EFT, Eden Energy Medicine, and on and on for years. Until the fateful day, that pitcher and his wife came in and asked me that question “do you do that?!”
What matters to me most? The fact that I was never taught any of these techniques during all of my years of schooling and training in the healing field, not even a passing mention these healing techniques!! So What matters is that people are given the truth and told things exist outside of pills and surgery and western medicine. I love western medicine; I always have and I always will and that is why I think that complementary medicine is the wave of the future. I also think people deserve the right to have the information and knowledge that allows them to CHOOSE how they want to heal or not heal. I want people to know that fear-based methods of healing and living don’t serve anyone. I don’t want anyone to ever regret not knowing information until it is too late. To feel as I did, After the passing of my mother, that I could have done something differently to help. THAT is my “why”.
Contact Info:
- Email: Erin@drerinshannon.com
- Website: www.drerinshannon.com
- Instagram: @drerinshannon
- Facebook: Docshannon
- Other: 314-370-9338
