If you have never heard of psychomagic therapy as a form of healing, you’re going to want to keep reading. Psychomagic (or psychotherapy) combines art, Eastern philosophies, and mysticism to heal patients with emotional problems.
Jambo Truong is a multidisciplinary integrated health practitioner, international yoga and meditation teacher, and he frequently travels the world teaching and training Forrest Yoga, Meditation, Functional Anatomy, and Native practices of the Medicine People. He is fluent in using psychomagic therapy to dive into the human psyche and heal behaviors that can be embedded within for generations.
I have personally worked with him monthly to work through certain practices, especially psychomagic, to let go of any ideas I have about myself, work through a set of belief systems, imprinted conditioning, multi-generational history of patterns, repetitive loops, and a dash of the unconsciously made decisions in my childhood. I was looking for an extra resource, mentor, and teacher to help me through these barriers and monumental shifts in life and break free and become my truest self. He’s shown me the door and it’s been a commitment to my process and realization of self.
You can learn more about Jambo by visiting his website HERE as well as his school HERE. You can also follow him on Instagram HERE.
Caution: This interview contains strong language. Reader discretion is advised.
What made you get into health and wellness? What made you start providing the psychomagic practice to people?
Have to do that in a nutshell, because it’s a very long story. So I came into health and wellness from a very young age. And I would say that I came into spirituality, spiritual practices, from a very young age. I must have been about three or four when I was at my first ceremony. And so when I was growing up, my passion was actually in dancing. But I chose to study something else because I didn’t want to lose my passion for dancing. And then I looked into philosophy, but at the time it was all western philosophy, and I wasn’t very interested in that. And then I decided to study health. So I came into reflexology first. Well actually no, I mean I came into Qi gong and meditation first, but that was self-study. And then later on One of my mentors said to me, “You must go back to school. Stop f***ing around.” And I said, “I don’t know what to do. What do you want me to do?” And I’m the type of person that spends a lot of time looking for teachers, like a lot of time. I search. I really, really spend time searching for teachers. And then when I find them, I want to do everything. I want to do it properly. So I listen to them. And thankfully for me, I’ve been blessed with many amazing teachers who never put my life at risk or anything like that.
And this particular teacher said to me, “Go study reflexology.” And I was like, I didn’t even know what that is. And I show up, and I’m in a room full of middle-aged women. I’m the only young man there, and I’m like 20 years old. Everyone else, the youngest person is 40 or whatever, and I feel like, I feel comfortable, but I remember being looked at as though a bit weird. And as the teacher was teaching reflexology, we were able to have these really interesting philosophical discussions, about chicken and the egg, which came first, the diagnosis or the emotion. Things like that. It was so interesting. I was very, very fond of her. Judith. I must contact her because I have so much to thank her for.
And then I had sciatica at the time, and funnily enough, I actually have a little bit of sciatica right now. Right now. It’s okay. But it’s interesting that it’s showing up right now. And so I asked her, “How about sciatica?” And she showed me this point on my foot, which I’m going to start rubbing now. And I rubbed it, and it was really painful. And I rubbed it every day for a week, and the pain, which I’d had for months, just went. And I came back to school the next week and I said, “Is there a degree in this? I want to do a degree. If there’s a degree in this, I’ll do it.” She laughed. She said, “There’s no degree in reflexology.” No degree in reflexology. I thought, “Okay.”
And then so I thought, “Right, plan B.” I’m like that. I don’t get disheartened very easily. So plan B, and so plan B was to go back to Newcastle College and study part-time courses for a year. And I would do two or three of them at the same time, because just one evening a week, and then after a year I’d have four therapies under my belt, and I’d just go in self-practice.
So I go to sign up, and the administration person, who’s another lady that I have a lot to thank for … I’ve got to find these women and thank them because she really spent a lot of time with me at the interview. She said, “There’s this degree, and it’s really designed for people like you.” And I was like, “Three years …” and I’ve been a party boy. I was a hippie. I spent my life under the sun. I mean I still do, kind of. Tropical boy. And so I thought, it was one of those years where you could do the first two years, a foundation degree, and then you could do another year, and it would turn into a BSc. So I was like, “Ah, well I’ll do the first two years, then, and then I’ll decide.” Anyway. I did the first year. In the first term, I’m nominated as a course leader.
I know. I couldn’t believe it. So I’m representing the students.
And of course, well you know me, I’m mouthy. I storm into these groups and I’m like, “What are you doing? We want this, we want that.” And I’m unafraid of just laying the table down, and I really, really love that part of myself. I really do. Because you really got shit done. No bullshit.
No f***ing around.
No bullshit round. So then that went on, and then of course what happened was, after each module, once you completed a module you were entitled to practice it. So as a student, in my first term, two terms, I worked in a bar and did whatever massages, reflexology, reiki, I could do on the side. Because these are things that we studied in the course. And then eventually I’d had enough clients that I could just leave the bar. And then I got into working with addicts. I moved to a different so in my second year, I moved to a different apartment. And my mom always taught me that when you move to a new community, get involved. Get involved. So I’m downstairs in the lobby, just looking at these posters on the wall, thinking, “What’s going on here?” And there’s a sign, [SCAPA]: saving communities affected by drugs and alcohol. We offer counsel, one to one service, cups of tea, support, complementary therapies. Oh, I’ll volunteer here. So I called them up and I said, “I’m a student, and I would like to just volunteer,” just to give you this stuff. So went along and met them, they grilled me, and then they really grilled me. They really, really grilled me, and I was like, “I’m just a kid, but okay. I’m here for free. I mean I’m harmless.
I know, and then I started working with them once a fortnight. I was just giving a few hours, and about a month into this they said to me, “Look, the other therapist is no longer working with us. Would you like to take the job?” And this is every week at 25 pounds an hour, for about two to four hours a week. As a student, that’s like striking gold. Right? That’s like striking gold. So I was like, “Yes, sure, I’ll take it.” I take it, and then I find out that the other therapist was actually less qualified than me, and apparently the clients were gelling towards me more so than her.
So they let her go. But I didn’t know that until later. Anyway, the next thing I know, the whole city hears about me, the whole city. And I would say 80% of the drug and alcohol services contacted me in like one year. They all did, and I was working with 80% of them. Then eventually I became known as the complementary therapist that specialized in substance misuse. That then extended into hepatitis C, which is a bloodborne virus that’s connected to intravenous drug use and dangerous sex. And then after I did that for a couple of years, the HIV department heard about me, and then I became a specialist in management for HIV medication.
So then few years on, I’m like this … I’m a hippie, right? I’m a hippie. I pray to Quan Yin, I believe in spirits, and then I have this other job as a consultant of complementary medicine on behalf of Newcastle City Council. And so in my day job, because it turned into a day job, I’d had so many of these 25 pounds an hour gigs, that it just became a full-time job. And then of course, whoever I would see at home, and I would charge a little bit more, but not a lot more because I was still really a child. I didn’t know what I was doing, money-wise.
So yeah, that’s how I became established, I guess, in that. And then yoga was an accident. Because I just practiced it, and then took over someone’s class, loved it, and then somebody handed me every single penny that I needed to do a teacher training. In one go, they were just like, “Here.” The universe is just giving me stuff. So that’s how learning to become a yoga teacher came about. Now so the main thing that I do now is I teach yoga, and essentially postgraduate courses, to graduates of yoga teacher training already.
And I also teach anatomy through the medium of yoga and bodywork. Self-palpation as well as working on other people. And I also teach physical, so kind of like allopathic anatomy, as well as subtle anatomy.
When I’m teaching, when I teach there’s a lot of observation time. A lot. From the second day, you are teaching. You’re just going, and you’re doing it every day. There’s no day without because that’s what you’re here for. You want to teach, I want to make sure that by the time you leave, you can teach. And then also I have a tendency of not letting people leave if I don’t think they’re ready. I don’t say, “You failed,” I just say, “You just need to do more.”
And-
No bullshit. No bullshit. And in recent years I’ve had people say, “But I paid.” I don’t give a flying f*** if you paid. I’m not certifying you to be carrying my name around what you do when you can’t do what I f***ing taught you how to do. And I’m willing to let you repeat it until you get it. That’s how generous I am. Whereas other teachers will just give them certificates and say, “Forget them. They’re not your responsibility anymore.” But you know what? They’re going to have my name, and I know what I’m like when it comes to anatomy. I f***ing know my shit. So no. I’m not having somebody do some Mickey Mouse shit with my name on it. So anyway. That’s that.
What would you say is your favorite aspect of this work?
So when people are teaching in front of me, as you know when I’ve been working with you, I’m only interested in the subconscious pattern, the pattern that you can’t quite see has taken over. You know. I only care about that. Right?
And so when people are teaching, I see that show up. So over the years, I would ask these practitioners, these trainees, to do an act, to act in a certain way, whilst they’re doing the work. That would break them free. Okay. So I wanted to get much better at that. Much, much better at that. And so I studied, I was under supervision with a body psychotherapist for about three years, and still am. And then, and that gave me a very gentle way, a very yin, soft way, to coax somebody through the thing. And I was like, “Okay, I like this.” So then one of my friends said, “You need to check this guy out. This psychomagic guy out. Alejandro Jodorowsky.” And I read the book and I was like, “This is crazy shit. This is crazy shit.” I was like, “Okay, I want to study it.”
It’s crazy. Crazy. You know yourself. We have to end up doing some really weird shit. But it breaks us free. Now what I love a lot about psychomagic is that it’s connected to lucidity. It’s a very lucid experience when you go, you’re like, “Am I awake? Am I asleep? Is this really happening? Am I really doing this?” It’s very, very weird.
Sounds crazy. Now dreams are lucid and weird. Dreams are the expressions of the subconscious that is able to be released when the ego is out of the way holding it down. When we are asleep, the ego is out of the way. So the subconscious gets to play out. Now when we’re dreaming and we have these weird lucid experiences, when we wake up we go, “Oh, it was okay. It was just a dream,” but actually there was a process in order for that thing, that emotion, that trauma that was trapped, to unwind, to be released. And it can only happen in that way. Not only, but it’s an easy way for it to happen, in sleep. Now of course, if there is a part of the self that identifies with really holding onto it, and it’s going to be a harder experience. You’re going to need a lot of nights of sleep, a lot of nights of sleep before it unwinds. Right?
Now, although I’ve studied various different types of medicine, so studied classical East Asian medicine, covering the Chinese medicine and Korean medicine perspective.
I did a couple of years of Ayurvedic medicine, so I didn’t go too super deep in that, but I definitely had a good sample into it. And what I realized I love the most about this work is the diagnostic technique. So when I teach anatomy, I actually teach people how to locate muscles by performing tests that will enable the practitioner to know what could be potentially weak, or out of balance. So the psychomagic work was very interesting to me because it felt like another thread of diagnostic techniques. So really, if somebody was to ask me what is it that I do, I mean I have to say, usually, I say yoga teacher or something like that, so that it depends on who I’m talking to, so it’s just easier for them to wrap their head. If it’s a taxi driver I’ll just say I’m a yoga teacher. Something like that.
But if I was speaking to somebody who was a professional, then my job title, the official job title is I’m a consultant of complementary medicine.
But if somebody asks me what is it that I really do, I’m a diagnostician. I want to know why you are the way that you are. I want to know why this issue is the way that it is. And as you know, I go through quite a lengthy process of digging that up, and then there’s a very short window at the end where I go, “This is the remedy.” And I like to spend that much time because I want to get to the reason under the reason under the reason of what’s going on. So that’s how I got into psychomagic, in terms of wanting to further my skills in diagnostics, and of course to get out of my own way, too.
Can you explain what a typical psychological session looks like from start to finish?
So usually a consultant shows up with a question. And sometimes they don’t. They also want an open reading. And so then, what we’re studying when we’re looking at the spread is. So we come with a question that we connect. There’s a spread of cards. Each of the cards represents an archetype of the human psyche. The arrangements of those archetypes enable us to know what is going on with the individual, and then how to appropriately prescribe a psychomagic spell.
Can you dive in a little more on why you use cards in this particular practice?
So I originally was not excited about cards. I’m not a card reader at all. So I’ve been in this industry for two decades, and I don’t read cards. And then suddenly I have to study these cards. We use something called the evolutionary tarot by redoing it. He recreated the Tarot de Marseilles, which is a classic, ancient classic deck. Yeah, one of the oldest ones actually, and so what he’s showing through each of the archetypes is the aspect of the human psyche. So a process that we go through in life. So there’s these 22 stories or 22 levels of a journey. And that can be from the beginning of life to the end of life, beginning of the project, end of the project, beginning of a relationship, end of a relationship. It’s this pathway. And by studying the 21 steps that an individual goes through, you can then see what sort of imbalances are going on within the subconscious, when the cards are arranged through the reading.
What would you say, what sort of challenges can psychomagic practices be effective for, and why?
So psychomagic is beneficial for literally anything. Because it helps to work out why this is going on. Why has this behavior led to this experience? Where has that behavior come from? Now we’re studying the 22 processes of somebody’s evolution. So when you see the spread you’re able to see where they’ve become unbalanced in that. For example, some people learn how to walk before they crawl. This is not a healthy process for human biomechanics. The same can happen with the human psyche. When maybe you are not loved by a parent, or both parents, for example, or the idea of a parent or guardian. And that creates a huge missing step in this process, and many people go through experiences like that, for example. Right? Like for myself, I was a very overprotected child, so I was never given the moment of freedom, to go to town with my friends, to have something to do on the weekend, to do something after school, forget it. I didn’t do any. I was not allowed to do any of that.
It was really rough. I was not out of my parents’ sight until I was 14. That’s a long time to be trapped. Right? So I was never given that piece of freedom. And so how I behave as an adult now, is constantly about breaking into freedom.
And do you have any other examples you can share, about what it could be used for?
So people usually come and find out, why have they still not found the love of their life, why have they still not had a baby.
And why are you not able to get the job that you want. It’s the why, it’s the why is this happening. I don’t predict the future. I mean, it’s possible, but I’m not interested. I’m more interested in how you got here, and what we’ve got to do in order to turn it the other way.
And how would you describe the psychomagic practice from a client’s point of view?
So the client would show up with a question, and then it’s going to feel as though they’re getting prodded, grilled, and triggered, which should lead to awakening, realization, and confidence. It really, really should.
It’s intense but so good. Once you do it you’re like, “Oh. I now understand why.”
And so I understand from the consultant’s perspective it’s an uncomfortable place to be in because they’re having to really look at some stuff. And I as the reader have to deliver this information in a way where your ego is going to be receptive. So if I’m gentle, gentle, kind, kind, it’s just not going to land. I have to behave towards you in the way that the ego is showing me it’s behaving. So as you know, each session is different, based on the energy of the spread. Sometimes I can be ranty, sometimes I can be just direct and blunt. And sometimes it is loving and nurturing because actually there’s no problem going on. There’s not a problem. Just for example, sometimes you went to an open reading and I’ve told you, “Wow, everything looks beautiful. Everything looks great right now.” Right?
It just depends. It really, it depends on the question, and it depends on how much that question is related to trauma. So a lot of people come because they want to work through their trauma. And then at sometimes, there are tears.
Rarely ever is there resistance. Ever. Because the spread shows the truth, so you just speak it. And if people resist, I remind them, “Look, I’m only telling you. I don’t know you. I don’t know you and I’m not going to judge you. You do whatever you want in your life. I’m just telling you what’s here.” Because I’m telling them what’s there, and they resonate with that, then they buy into it. So as soon as a consultant can get past the idea that I’m not judging them, they may feel judged, because they feel so seen. I’m not judging them, I’m only replicating what is in front of me, in the manner that it is in front of me, in order for the consultant to realizing the severity of the issue.
And then usually the reading, once we get to the end, the consultant arrives at a place of like a conclusion. And they arrive at some sort of conclusion, and then from there, the psychomagic is prescribed based on what is in front of me. And then it’s usually an enactment. And the consultant has however many days to go and do that in. And they usually break free. But I will say that sometimes I will give a really big psychomagic.
For example, I was working with somebody who is an intelligent, funny, witty, outspoken individual, but was going through a period of holding back his words, because he was afraid of offending people. And so then he was holding back his words to the point where he was depleting his spirit, and didn’t want to go to work anymore, didn’t want to do the things he was passionate about anymore. So then what I got this person to do was to dress up as a homeless clown, raggy, dirty clothes, holes in it, right. And he had a sign, and on one side of the sign, it said, “I am a useless artist. I am a fool. I am not worthy of being alive. I need your help. Please give me money.”
And then the person had to say shit jokes for 90 minutes. In public, 90 minutes. And had to go places where people knew him. Had to go. Had to go. And the thing is, he was all dressed up, so people didn’t recognize him anyway. But it didn’t matter. And he told shit jokes, and then he was given money for these shit jokes, and he was given a lot of money. A lot of money. And then he had, in the end, he had to take that money and buy something very special with that money, to celebrate with his friends.
So what happens to the subconscious then, it realizes that, actually, it’s got a lot to share. Lots to speak about, right? And not only that but actually people give a lot of money for it.
So then he realized that he was being given a lot of money for talking shit. And that helped to break him free.
What would you say to someone who’s skeptical about psychomagic practice and its effectiveness, and how would you approach that?
I mean, first of all, usually, the people who come aren’t people who are skeptical and aren’t people who are looking for a typical reading. So like I said, I’m not telling the future. So it’s usually people that want to go a lot deeper than that. A lot deeper than that. So it usually attracts people that want to work with their trauma so people are already aware of it.
Now if somebody approached me and they were skeptical, I would just very honestly share with them, this is what I’m reading here. You take from it what you will. And if you don’t want to take from it, it’s totally fine. I don’t judge you. Even if I give a psychomagic, if somebody doesn’t want to do it, don’t do it.
It’s up to you. I’m just telling you this process. But you do whatever you want. I’m not going to judge you. I’ll still see you next time. I’ll still talk to you. I’ll still give you another session. We’re all on our own path at our own pace. And I honor that. I really honor that.
Besides psychomagic, do you have any universal health and wellbeing tips, that you’d like to share?
What I have to say is that, please recognize that your traumas are your gifts. And we’re very blessed to be incarnated in the human realm.
I was watching these flies in my apartment the other day, and in the bathroom, I have this sticky thing so that flies stick on it, and I was watching them, and some of them are really big flies, and I was watching them just watching other flies already stuck to it, and still flying to it. And I thought it’s really interesting how that’s going to take several lifetimes before the fly’s brain and nervous system will evolve to a place where it knows that that is dangerous.
Whereas a human being just needs to graze themselves against something once, and that is enough for us to evolve. So as human beings we have the blessing to evolve at such a rapid rate. We don’t need to wait several lifetimes for that evolution to happen. And so what that means is that we have the potential, the greatest amount of potential to evolve as individuals. How do we evolve? We evolve by addressing our tensions. Now that doesn’t mean letting the tension go. That means going to the tension and meeting it.
Tension is formed from the trauma. All forms of tension, whether it’s muscular, but our life tensions are all based on the emotional traumas that we’ve experienced since we were born. So a health tip that I have, is that if you want to liberate yourself, and realize why you are here, and share the gifts that you are here to share, be with your traumas.
Learn from your traumas, love your traumas, live with your traumas. Because your scars are not designed to go away. Scars are here forever. Well, till the end of this life, anyway. And those scars show you exactly what you have to work with, and as a result of knowing what you have to work with and working with it, you also develop gifts and further new gifts to share with the world.
Is there one piece of advice you would give to someone who was struggling? And what would it be?
My advice would be this. Learn to be struggle-free. Doing the exact same thing that you’re doing, but do it in a struggle-free way. The struggle is a choice. The only person who can decide that life is not a struggle is ourselves.
For someone who’s interested in the modality of healing, what kinds of resources would you recommend?
Well, first of all, come and study with me.
People can find me at https://www.jambodragonschool.com/.
I’m also continuing to build my YouTube channel into a podcast kind of format, so that’s very slowly building. And what people can expect from Jambo Dragon School is a combination of science and magic.
I love to talk about both sides of the same coin. And on the YouTube channel I have a couple of practices there, but what I’m really interested in is sharing techniques. So I’ll do some research, and I’ll share the results from that research.
Usually in a video. It could be like anything from hamstring tightness, in splits, all the way to essential oils. I mean I was reading some really cool stuff around eucalyptus recently, for bronchial conditions. Coronaviruses, influenzas, actually. So there’s a lot of studies in eucalyptus oil that’s being currently studied, apparently.
Health-wise, I’m trying to work out health-wise.
I think it’s all fair and well to read books and look at websites, but it’s very important to get a teacher. Get a teacher. Because books only give you a fraction of the truth. Because a good teacher only gives the information at the appropriate time for the student. That requires a relationship.
So if you want to further deepen your study into anything, choose about three to five teachers at any one time, and commit to them for a set number of years, until you know their stuff inside out. That’s when you’ve learned. And if you really want knowledge, get it that way.
Jambo has studied Complementary Medicine with the following subjects:
- Ayurvedic Therapy
- Classical East Asian Medicine (Acupuncture & Tui Na)
- Aromatherapy
- Reflexology
- Thai Massage
- Muscle Testing
- Shamanic Studies
- Performance Coaching
He also has over 15 years of experience of working with allopathic medicine as well as the well-being industry. His background is in addiction, trauma, and chronic pain where he has set up clinics and centers. Jambo currently ravens internationally teaching workshops and training on Forrest Yoga, Experiential Anatomy & developing personal ceremonial practices based on his apprenticeships with senior shamans of the traditions from Native America & South East Asia.
You can learn more about Jambo by visiting his website HERE as well as his school HERE. You can also follow him on Instagram HERE.
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