About Wind and Raven
Healing Pathways, Survival, Story, and the Long Work of Becoming Whole
Wind and Raven is the public home of Steve R. Patterson’s Healing Pathways work, videos, reflections, older writings, and conversations about recovery, illness, survival, dependency, identity, meaning, and transformation.
This site began during a very different season of life. Some of the older writing came from the years when I was living with end-stage liver disease, liver cancer, and the uncertainty of whether I would survive long enough to receive a liver transplant.
What began as a search for meaning during illness became an archive of survival, recovery, spiritual inquiry, and rebuilding a life after collapse.
Wind and Raven has changed because I have changed. Earlier versions of this site used more direct shamanic language and included spiritual offerings that are no longer part of the public work here. The current direction is simpler: preserve the archive, continue Healing Pathways, and create a public space for honest conversations about healing, survival, recovery, and transformation.
Where This Work Began
My name is Steve R. Patterson. I am a writer, liver transplant survivor, inactive counselor, group facilitator, and creator of the Healing Pathways body of work.
My path was shaped by illness, dependency recovery, spiritual searching, clinical group work, and the need to make meaning out of experiences that did not fit neatly inside one category.
The question underneath Wind and Raven is simple:
What happens when everything you thought you were falls away, and you have to decide who you are going to become?
The Wind and Raven Archive
Wind and Raven also preserves older writings from the years of sickness, transplant, recovery, searching, and rebuilding.
Some of that material may not match the current direction perfectly. That is part of the point. It shows the evolution of the work before it became a book, a framework, or a program.
Healing Pathways
Healing Pathways is the body of work that grew out of this journey.
It is a narrative-based, integrative approach to recovery, healing, and personal transformation. It works with story, body, memory, meaning, relationship, intention, and integration. It does not treat mind, body, and spirit as disconnected parts. It treats them as one living system.
The Healing Pathways work includes:
- The Healing Pathways Companion
- The Healing Pathways Facilitator’s Guide
The Companion is written for individual reflection, journaling, and personal exploration.
The Facilitator’s Guide is written for group leaders, counselors, recovery coaches, peer workers, and facilitators who want to bring the Healing Pathways framework into group or community settings.
Wind and Raven is where the public-facing and reflective side of Healing Pathways continues.
View The Healing Pathways Program on Amazon
Wind and Raven on YouTube
The Wind and Raven YouTube channel is where I share Healing Pathways videos, reflections, and public conversations about recovery, illness, survival, meaning, identity, and the slow work of becoming whole after life has broken open.
Watch Wind and Raven on YouTube
This Is How It Feels to Heal
My first book, This Is How It Feels to Heal, came out of the illness, transplant, recovery, and spiritual inquiry period that originally shaped Wind and Raven.
It is a lived account of collapse, survival, recovery, and transformation. It is not a medical guide or clinical manual. It is a personal record of what it felt like to live through the breaking and begin again.
View This Is How It Feels to Heal on Amazon
How Wind and Raven Connects to Valkyrie
Wind and Raven is the public home for the reflective, personal, and Healing Pathways side of the work.
Valkyrie Counseling Group is the professional and publishing home for facilitator resources, clinical writing, ASAM-related material, and group facilitation tools.
This separation is intentional. Wind and Raven carries the public conversation. Valkyrie carries the professional framework.
Visit Valkyrie Counseling Group
What Wind and Raven Is — and Is Not
Wind and Raven is a place for reflection, education, story, spiritual inquiry, Healing Pathways groups, individual Path consultations, videos, and public conversation.
It is not a medical site, counseling platform, treatment program, crisis service, or place for clinical diagnosis.
I am an inactive counselor. My clinical counseling work is separate and takes place through Recovery Café. No counseling takes place through Wind and Raven, Healing Pathways, or Valkyrie Counseling Group.
Healing Pathways groups and individual Path consultations are educational and reflective. They are not counseling, psychotherapy, addiction treatment, medical care, or crisis support.
If you are in crisis or need clinical, medical, or mental health support, contact a licensed professional, emergency service, or crisis resource in your area.
Contact
For questions about Wind and Raven, Healing Pathways, books, videos, or related public conversations, email:
Email: [steve@windandraven.com](mailto:steve@windandraven.com)
For my broader writing, media, podcast, and project archive, visit StevePatterson.online or my Amazon author page.