Conversations with Valentine McKay-Riddell, Ph.D.

Valentine McKay-Riddell was born a “Navy brat” in Orlando, Florida and grew up in Canada and Texas. A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, Valentine is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA, where she earned a Masters in Counseling Psychology and a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology.  She has a private practice in holistic counseling and shamanic healing in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Descended from Scottish, Irish, French, and Native American ancestors, Valentine developed a combination of shamanism and art making (Healing Art©) to heal herself from cancer, and later founded a nonprofit organization, Orenda Healing International (OHI), devoted to promoting individual and community health and wellbeing. OHI umbrellas many of her research projects, which currently include filmmaking as a catalyst for intergenerational healing among Native American youth and elders; the possibility of genetic inheritance as the inspiration for shamanic practice; and shamanism as a root philosophy for many of our modern professions, including medicine, religion, and art.  She has taught art making to young people and adults and Healing Art© to AIDS and cancer patients; incarcerated, homeless, and challenged youth; developmentally disabled adults; and women in transition for over twenty years.  She is a certified Reiki Master in the Usui Lineage. She has lived in Mexico, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, California, Nebraska, Oregon, and New Mexico, and has traveled in England, Ireland, the Virgin Islands, and the British West Indies.