Dr. Melissa Sophia Joy N.D., is the founder of Sophia Healing Academy and Somatic Awakening®. She has been a licensed naturopathic doctor, mind-body-spirit specialist, and intuitive healer in practice for over twenty years. In this interview, Melissa shares insights into her journey and the importance of spiritual awakening.
Please share your background with us and when your passion for helping and healing others began?
I am many things a Naturopathic Doctor, Founder of Somatic Awakening®, Founding Director of Sophia Healing Academy, Mind-Body-Spirit Specialists, Oracle, Medical Intuitive, and more.
Over twenty years ago I had a vision and calling to be a Modern-Day Medicine Woman. Through this vision, I knew that I was being called to not only help people heal physically, but also help them on multiple levels including emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
A few years after becoming a naturopathic doctor I went through a decade-long dark night of the soul journey, that led me through some of the deepest and most difficult journeys within. Through this process, I personally went through multiple levels of initiations and many awakening experiences. Ultimately I was led to step into who I truly am and who we all truly are…beings that are intimately connected to the divine oneness of all things. This awakening experience opened numerous doors and was the foundation for Somatic Awakening® and what I teach now in Sophia Healing Academy.
What is Somatic Awakening® – how does it work and what can people expect from this experience?
Somatic Awakening® is a mind-body-somatic healing modality that is also a spiritual practice. This modality brings in the most profound and deepest healing many have ever experienced because it arises from our spirit, and ultimately from the divine, making contact and healing the aspects inside of us that need it most.
It has three phases to it that consecutively align you with higher and higher levels of healing.
The first phase is called Gestalt Somatic Awakening® and it begins with stabilizing and healing the negative voices that can cause us suffering, such as the voices of “I’m not good enough” or “I will always be a loser”. It does this by connecting us to a foundational aspect of our higher self, which I call our Adult Consciousness. This phase has the ability to create a powerful relationship with these difficult parts of us inside. Thus helping us shift out of having these negative voices run our lives and we begin to live more in balance.
The second phase is called Somatic Awakening® The Practice. This aspect of Somatic Awakening® activates an elevated part of your higher self, called your Higher Self Witness Consciousness. In engaging this part of your being you gain the ability to bring this higher part of you down and into your body to make contact with any negativity, contraction, or difficult feelings inside of you. In essence. In doing so it powerfully helps us shift, clear, and dissolve dense energy of trauma or difficulty that we have been through that has been imprinted on our subconscious and somatic body. It also helps you embody your higher self and the energy of the divine more fully into your being.
The last and third phase is called Quantum Somatic Awakening®. This phase offers multiple ways that help you engage the powerful quantum energy of your divine self in your life. Thus manifesting even more healing, awakening in your being, and freeing your life to live more fully from who you really are.
The Sophia Healing Academy offers a variety of courses, could you tell us a bit more about these and who would benefit most from participating in these?
Sophia Healing Academy is a mystery school that teaches healing and awakening based on the principles of the Divine Feminine, as well as the mind-body-spirit healing modality and spiritual practice that arose from these principles, Somatic Awakening®. The teachings, meditations, and transmissions offered at Sophia Healing Academy share valuable information for healing, while also profoundly opening the doors to awakening, embodiment, sovereignty, and an alignment with our authentic divine power. The school is a response and living structure dedicated to the Divine Feminine Energy that has awakened in our world, as well as a practice based on Her principles.
There are many free offerings to those who want to find out more; such as free recorded meditations, podcasts, blogs, webinars, and more. Then there are other offerings that lead you deeper into the experience of Somatic Awakening®, such as the ten-day Break Free Meditation, in these meditations you are led through an experience of all three phases of the Somatic Awakening® process. There is also a powerful 8-week introductory course called Embody Healing and Freedom, this course helps participants go much deeper with this work and learn how to more fully engage it. Then for those who want to more fully embody Somatic Awakening® in their lives, there is the Somatic Awakening® Practitioner Program. This six-month program leads participants into powerful healing and awakening. This program offers two tracks; a non-practitioner tract for those who want to learn this for their own lives and also Somatic Awakening® Practitioner for those who want to share this powerful work in the world through a healing practice.
Does your work of helping and healing others take a lot out of you mentally?
Somatic Awakening® is based on sensing, feeling, and intuiting what is happening inside of yourself when you are working with it on your own. And, as a practitioner, you are using these three awareness in facilitating the process with others. Therefore, I wouldn’t say that it takes a lot out of me mentally. However, I do need to be fully present to be able to track what is happening with those that I work with.
Is there any method or practice you use personally to ground yourself and maintain self-care?
Somatic Awakening® is based on my own personal experiences of healing and awakening. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that this is the primary practice I personally do in my own spiritual practice since it is both a healing modality and spiritual practice. It utilizes grounding, working with the psyche, somatic body, and connecting with our spirit and the divine. So, it is a potent form of self-care.
What do you find are the more common challenges that people struggle with and seek guidance on?
In today’s world, there are many things that people are dealing with. But, what I mostly find is that it usually comes down to worry, anxiety, and/or depression based on fear of what’s happening (or what’s going to happen) in the world – both individually and in the bigger picture. Therefore, the work of Somatic Awakening® not only helps in the understanding of the core causation of why a person is feeling the way they are feeling, but it also brings in powerful stabilization, calming, and healing to the feelings underneath by bringing them in alignment with one’s higher self and the Divine.
Have you noticed a change in peoples concerns during the pandemic?
I have sensed that there are many things that people have been processing and dealing with through the pandemic. At first, it was fear of getting Covid, but then it evolved for many to a sense of loneliness, and even weariness at what all was happening. Now, many people are starting to understand the underbelly of it all as more research is coming out about the pandemic, the vaccinations, and more. Recently I’ve found that people are getting more disturbed and even outraged at the whole process.
In your experience in working with people what would you say is the main thing that holds people back from living the fulfilling life they would like?
I sense that the main thing that is holding people back is fear…fear of what would happen if they truly broke out of the box they’ve been living in, fear of survival, or of not making enough money to survive. Fear of what’s going to happen in the world with climate change, covid, and more. But, most significantly fear of living a life that is not truly our own, one that is not based on other people’s beliefs, assumptions, or control from outside sources…and what would happen to if we say no to these controlling forces.
When we have the ability to face our fear head-on with our higher self leading we have the ability to see the fear for what it is, to understand what’s motivating it, and what it needs to heal. With these things intact the fears inevitably decrease. When fear no longer leads our lives we become free to live more from our true essence.
Lastly do you have any advice for our readers about the importance of spiritual awakening?
Spiritual awakening, for most, is not a one-time process. It is a process that builds upon itself. The more that you have spiritual experiences or awakening (whether that be knowing the truth of your essence, knowing all as one, or some other kind of experience) the more you actually have the experiences of spiritual awakening imprinted upon you. Here, you not only mentally understand awakening you have experienced higher reality. The more this happens the more you trust that there is so much more happening than our regular 3-D reality than what meets the eye. You understand that we have the capability to fully heal ourselves, step into the freedom, and sovereignty of your divine essence. With this intact, we have an incredible ability to manifest reality in alignment with our highest good. The more people who have this holy power intact aligned with the highest good of humanity the more humanity will evolve into a higher vibrational evolution. This is the core of why I do what I do.
