Indigenous Healing Practices
Here’s something most of us don’t learn in business school: the body keeps score, and sometimes the best way forward is to stop trying to skip over the hard stuff. In this episode of Gratitude Geek, I sit down with Ben Oofana, a healer who trained under one of the last traditional Kiowa medicine men. We’re talking Vision Quests, the loss of indigenous wisdom that could have saved us all some therapy bills, and why your “good vibes only” approach to grief might actually be keeping you stuck.
If you’re a woman solopreneur over 40 who’s been through something hard—and let’s be honest, who hasn’t—this conversation offers a different path through pain. No spiritual bypassing here. Just honest talk about processing emotions, the intersection of ancient practices and modern neuroscience, and why specialization matters whether you’re a healer or running a design business.
Meet Ben Oofana
Ben Oofana is a healer who began his training at age 17 when he left Texas with $900 and ended up apprenticing with a traditional Kiowa doctor. For three years, he underwent intensive training that included everything from assisting with patients to being dropped in the middle of the Hopi reservation with thirty bucks and told to figure it out.
Today, Ben works with people experiencing physical pain, emotional trauma, and life-threatening illnesses. He’s completed dozens of Vision Quests—four days and nights alone in the mountains without food or water—and has spent time studying healing traditions in China, India, and Sri Lanka. His approach combines indigenous wisdom with a practical understanding of how to help people process grief, heartbreak, and the kind of life events that knock you sideways.
You can find him at benoofana.com, where he offers guidance for healing emotional wounds, recovering from breakups, and building stronger relationships.
“When you’re facing challenges, when you’re struggling emotionally, whatever it is you’re dealing with—acknowledge that’s step one. Acknowledge what’s happening. Two, what do you feel in response to it? Three, notice where those feelings are situated in your body. And then bring your full awareness to these feelings or bodily sensations.”
Ben Oofana
What You’ll Learn
- Why Ben left home at 17 to train with a Kiowa medicine man and what that extreme apprenticeship taught him about resilience
- The four-step framework for authentically processing difficult emotions instead of bypassing them with positive affirmations
- What happens during a Vision Quest and why these sacred practices are vanishing from Native American tribes
- How modern neuroscience is finally catching up to what indigenous healers have known for thousands of years
- Why most traditional Native American healing knowledge—including languages, ceremonies, and the gifts of powerful doctors—has been lost
- Ben’s approach to working with everything from digestive issues to traumatic brain injuries to terminal cancer patients
- The surprising parallels between specialization in healing and building a successful solopreneur business
- Why gratitude practice only works when you’ve done the hard work of processing your actual emotions first
Episode Breakdown
00:00 Introduction: Ben’s childhood fascination with Native American healing
05:32 Meeting his mentor Horus and beginning the apprenticeship
11:45 Extreme survival training and the breaking down of identity
17:20 Starting a healing practice despite fear and uncertainty
22:40 Working with pain, trauma, and terminal illness
28:15 The tragic loss of Kiowa traditions, language, and ceremonies
33:50 Vision Quests: Windows between worlds and connecting with unseen forces
38:25 The convergence and evolution of indigenous cultures
42:10 Stories of Kiowa war chiefs Satanta and Satank
46:30 Ben’s four-step emotional processing framework
51:05 Ben’s moment of gratitude and how to connect
Connect with Ben Oofana
- Website: https://benoofana.com/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@benoofana
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benoofana/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-oofana8/
- Free resource for breakup recovery: http://refiningrelationships.com
- Free resource for relationship healing: http://gettingoveryourbreakup.com
Disclaimer: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase. This helps support the podcast at no extra cost to you.
Also Mentioned
- Hopi Snake Dance photographs: https://www.loc.gov/item/mp76000109/
- Girl pushes herself down the slide (motivation): https://youtube.com/shorts/ajeo29ETKA8
- Supaman (Native American rapper): https://www.youtube.com/@greasyface
- “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World” documentary: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8E1VVadxjRw
- Terry Schiavo case: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/look-back-in-history-terri-schiavo-death/7/
- Quanah Parker (Comanche chief): https://www.britannica.com/biography/Quanah-Parker
- Satanta (Kiowa war chief): https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=SA024
- Satank (Kiowa war chief): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitting_Bear
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