Meet Nicola,

Shamanic Dragon Priestess, Author, Founder of Soulful Wisdom Academy, Co-Host of the Dragon Thunder Summit

Nicola Brettell-Smith is a qualified Adult Education Teacher with over twenty years’ experience in training, curriculum design and practitioner development.

She is an Advanced Transference Healing Practitioner and Teacher, Reiki Master and Teacher, and trained Shamanic Practitioner. Her work integrates dragon wisdom, archetypal embodiment, elemental grounding, tree consciousness and lunar rhythm through the Sophianic Spiral of the Dragon Rose.

Nicola founded Soulful Wisdom Academy to create what she could not find: a structured, integrated spiritual education that weaves together modalities often taught in isolation.

Her work is known for depth, transmission-based teaching and a strong foundation in sovereignty.

She teaches that spiritual development should strengthen women, not position them as broken or perpetually unfinished. Her philosophy centres on integration, embodied devotion, ethical practice and personal authority.

The Story Behind the Work

I did not begin with dragons.

I began in education.

At 21, I was joint managing a 120-place day nursery with 18 staff. I became an NVQ assessor in early years and completed formal adult education teacher training. By my late twenties, I was teaching across three colleges and delivering structured qualifications.

Even then, I knew I would one day build my own academy.

I didn’t know what it would look like. But I knew I was here to teach.

What fascinated me most wasn’t systems. It was sovereignty.

I loved the way children moved through the world, honest, imaginative, certain of what they wanted before they learned to doubt it. That thread has followed me throughout my life.

Alongside my professional path, something quieter was unfolding.

As a child, I experienced prophetic dreams that later unfolded in waking life. For many years, I set that part of myself aside. I didn’t yet know how to hold it safely or responsibly.

In adulthood, through grounded shamanic practice and careful mentorship, that intuitive thread returned in a steady, embodied way.

I trained deeply, not because I felt broken, but because I could see patterns.

I saw women moving from modality to modality, sensing that something was missing but never quite landing in integration.

Each discipline offered something powerful:
energy work, archetypal psychology, elemental practice, plant wisdom, ritual, emotional integration.

But rarely were they woven.

That recognition became the foundation of Soulful Wisdom Academy.

Not a collection of courses.

A weave.

Today, I guide women through structured, transmission-based pathways, dragon initiations, tree wisdom journeys, feminine archetypal embodiment, elemental grounding and lunar rhythm work.

The transmissions themselves are alive. They arrive as they arrive.

But the container around them is intentional. Structured. Ethical. Grounded.

I believe devotion has a place, not as submission, but as sacred attention. Rituals make the invisible tangible and Ceremony brings the sacred into daily life.

I believe guides walk with us, not above us. Teachers are not hierarchies to ascend toward, but mirrors that help us recognise our own authority.

I do not believe in endless upgrading or perpetual healing narratives that imply you are unfinished.

Life shapes us. Some experiences wound. Some refine. Awareness becomes integration. Integration becomes resilience. Resilience becomes wisdom.

Spiritual work should return you to wholeness, not keep you searching for it.

The same sovereign spark I saw in children is the spark I now see in women remembering who they are.

That is the spiral I walk.

And the one I teach.

Your Spiral Begins Here

If you feel ready to deepen your understanding, trust your intuition more fully, or step into a clearer sense of direction, there are several ways to begin.

You may want personal 1-1 space and focused guidance.
You may feel drawn to structured study and long-term integration.
Or you may simply wish to explore freely at your own pace.

Choose the doorway that feels right for you.

Book a Soul Weaving Session
 Explore the Mystery School

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