Rachel Chase is a healing arts mentor, intuitive guide, and wellness facilitator with a profound personal journey of resilience and transformation. Having grown up in the fundamentalist cult The Way International, she experienced deep emotional and spiritual trauma, which later shaped her approach to healing.
Through modalities like Reiki, somatic healing, expressive arts, and Quantum Healing Hypnosis, Rachel helps others reconnect with their inner wisdom and reclaim their power. In this interview for Mystic Mag, she shares insights from her personal healing path and how she supports others in overcoming trauma and embracing their authentic selves.
How did your experience growing up in a cult environment shape your understanding of trauma and resilience, and how does it inform your approach to helping others heal?
My family got out of the fundamentalist bible ministry cult, The Way International, in 1987 when I was 12 years old. I was very angry for many years after that – angry at my parents, angry at God. I felt I was lied to about everything. I wanted to run, to escape, to leave this reality.
Spiritual and emotional trauma go hand in hand. In my case, I experienced the trauma of neglect, abandonment, toxic enmeshment, and personality splitting.
As a child, luckily, I was not privy to the darker activities going on behind the scenes. I later learned about horrible sexual abuse and much more as I got older. The Way’s leadership perpetuated a culture of spiritual bypassing, manipulation, threats to safety, and blatant gaslighting to keep members from questioning actions of the leaders.
Our lives did not belong to us. They belonged to the will of the director of that cult who dictated where we would live and what my family’s role would be in service to the ministry’s ideologies, hierarchy and dogmatic dictates. Personal autonomy was limited to the mundane. All future planning was for the most part dedicated to the furthering of the cult’s outreach programs and brining in more members to the group.
Life was filled with constant change. We moved to a different home every six months. I had chronic anxiety at a very young age. I would hide my anxiety so as not to draw negative attention my way. I was well-trained to be a people pleaser.
I was taught that we “Way Believers” were different from the rest of the world, that others were sinners, that we were the chosen ones who would get to go to heaven while everyone else who was most likely going to hell when they died.
In contrast, if we the Believers, somehow didn’t measure up, we would be accused of being possessed by devil spirits and shamed into getting back in line. That message was clear. You’re either in or cast out – ex-communicated.
I was confused about who I was supposed to be, what I should want to become and what to believe about life. There were a lot of mixed-messaged ‘shoulds.’ I witnessed constant hypocrisy that I was supposed to dismiss and pretend was not there. Afterall, what does a child know, anyways? (A lot more than the adults realize as it turns out). The unsaid rules seemed to always come down to – ‘do as I say not as I do’.
Much like toxic societal pressures do, living in a cult environment trains us to suppress our personal desires and focus on what you’re being told to focus on. I modeled that behavior, and I hid my true thoughts, feelings, and desires from everyone, even myself.
Since I also attended public schools, I learned how to wear various masks depending on what was expected of me. I did learn how to be resilient in an unconscious way, which is one thing that trauma can sometimes instill. I became very well adapted to the unexpected. I learned to let things go easily – forgive and forget (without true accountability) was another core message.
My parents were vulnerable young adults when the cult indoctrinated them, without a ballast to hold them steady. Although I witnessed my parents’ ongoing verbal fighting and obvious incompatibility, both showed me unconditional love. Unwittingly, they gave their identities and power over to this organization, specifically its founder. He and its leaders would dictate their lives for 17 years. As their only child, I was born this culture that shaped me in many ways. I was conditioned to be overly trusting of others who did not have my best interest at heart, and left without grounded wise guidance to navigate this world.
Once I became a young adult, it took me some time to find the support I needed to heal and grow. I experienced many health crises, substance abuse, and destructive relationships before I hit rock bottom at 27 years old.
In addition to the emotional and spiritual abuses of childhood, I suffered in deep shame and complex traumatic grief from losing my boyfriend to drug overdose and suicide during my early 20’s. Plus, I was also sexually assaulted by men I trusted. I’ve done deep shadow work to heal these wounds over the last 22 years, and am proud to say that, at 49, I am freer than ever day by day.
I see this in many others lives too, the lack of a stable foundation, raised in families where there is abandonment, abuse, and neglect. For many of us, it takes more time than others to develop emotional maturity so that we can make sound decisions and change self-destructive patterns.
We need to develop our capacity for discernment which comes through an initiation of reconnecting our mind, body, and spirit so that we can tune in with our intuition and feel safe in our own inner being. Reiki was the gateway to my healing journey that began in 2002. It helped me reconnect with my spiritual connection with life and grow my intuitive self.
Developing our intuitive nature is the key to being able to live a fulfilling life. This is how we find out what is right and best for us, on our own terms. Being easily manipulated is no fault of our own and happens frequently if we have not found out how to use discernment. As people-pleasers, we want to see the best in people and tend to feel ashamed if we doubt someone else’s motives as less than honorable. This is internalized abuse which leads to self-abandonment. It’s an unconscious behavior that can lead to more harm.
We sometimes live in shame for being abused, saying to ourselves: “How could I let that happen?” It takes a deep level of self-compassion to heal from those abuses, clear the shame, and step into our fully expressed, inherently powerful selves. One of the main personality shifts I’ve had to make is growing out of codependency. Living a cult life means constant exposure to addictive personalities, ungrounded energies, powerlessness, chronic denial, toxic emotional enmeshment, and codependency.
As a sensitive child, I could see that things didn’t add up. I could feel everyone’s pain and felt responsible to heal everyone else. If they weren’t okay, I couldn’t be okay. We knew nothing of emotional regulation or talking about our feelings in a healthy manner. This pattern of codependence continued into my intimate relationships and marriage.
In all my years of self-healing and holding space for thousands of clients and students, I’ve learned a lot about transforming emotions, the power of non-reactivity, and using mindfulness skills to respond with presence and neutrality rather than trying to control everything outside of of us.
As a child I learned how to suppress my emotions, which created a lot of physical problems for me. Through consistent practice I have learned how to unlock those suppressed places and process long held traumatic stressors through dance, yoga, reiki, somatic healing, breathwork, psychology, energy healing, and creative self-expression. These are the ways I help my clients heal and grow too.
We can’t force anything to be what we want it to be, but we can grow our ability to live with presence and find out what life is giving us to help us in each moment. If we look, we can see that within every challenge is the answer to overcoming it. In this way, we cultivate true resilience which is about flexibility and curiosity rather than certainty and rigidity.
Can you explain how your artistic background influences your healing practices, particularly in integrating art into your retreats and coaching sessions?
The one thing that was ‘my own’ in all of those early years, was dancing. I loved to dance and spent many hours in dance studios, eventually becoming a choreographer, professional performer, and teacher. I feel most free when I am dancing.
As a child, dance was my secret connection with the feeling a deeper spiritual consciousness, God. To me, God was not the big man in the sky as the cult alluded to, but the deep force of love and life essence within me. I kept this information to myself, as well as the visions I would have with other dimensions.
I inherited a legacy of creativity from both sides of my family including writing, visual art, theater, and dance. Art making has always been my mental health therapy, conscious or not. I loved it and still do. It is how I commune with the inner dimensions and bring out insights and healing.
Because my art has in essence saved my life, it weaves itself through all my healing work in some way. After dropping out of junior college 4 times and changing bachelor degrees 3 times, I put school on hold. Then I realized I had been trying to please everyone else by pursuing degrees in fields I thought my family would approve of.
Once I took a stand for my artist-self, I found the fine arts program that felt like a good fit so that I could explore my performance art in tandem with video projection, as well as develop my drawing skills through studying printmaking, and taking painting classes. Art school was the best therapy for my soul, where I got to process my trauma in a creative way.
This experience showed me the power of expressive arts therapy. I’ve since developed arts and wellness sessions, classes, workshops and retreats to help people reconnect with their inner muse and creativity for healing and wellbeing.
During these experiences we use a combination of: creative movement to release tension and activate fresh energy, gentle yoga, breathwork and meditation to release energy blocks and connect within, sound healing for relaxation, oracle cards and books for inspiration, watercolor painting for processing emotions, writing and visualization for insights and mental processing, drawing and collage for dream visioning.
We are all creative beings. When we reembody this, we awaken our full power to live as awakened, alive autonomous interconnected beings in union with all, able to live with a sense of purpose and fulfillment.
What led you to explore Quantum Healing Hypnosis and Beyond Quantum Healing, and how have these modalities enhanced your ability to facilitate deep soul-connection for your clients?
While in my final year of graduate school for clinical mental health counseling, I also explored my interests in metaphysics, past-life regression, tarot and astrology. I’ve had many astral, visionary, altered states, and psychedelic experiences, as well as profound connections with guides and healer beings in different dimensions.
I was excited to find out more about what this side of my life might have to offer for my own healing and in my work with others. During that time, I fell in love with the work of Dolores Cannon. I immediately took her level 1 QHHT training and Candace Craw-Goldman’s BQH training in 2019.
Quantum Healing Hypnosis work was a natural progression for me, having been a reiki practitioner and trainer, intuitive life coach, and yoga teacher for several years prior to that. Off I went, giving practice sessions to friends and clients. It all made sense, and the work was very exciting for me. Finally I was doing what I loved!
Clearly, this work resonates with my clients too, over the past 6 years. Connecting in a shared intentional sacred space (in person or virtually) creates energetic synergy that supports a profound spiritual opening so the client can feel direct contact with their soul’s energy and wisdom. They connect with the abandoned parts of themselves for profound healing.
It’s always such a beautiful experience to witness the power of past-life regression combined with spiritual healing to channel incredible insight, guidance, and support from the Higher Self/Higher Power. This way of healing brings the unconscious self into the light of conscious awareness where we can actively transform trauma if we are willing to let love in.
I see quantum healing as type of transpersonal psychology in a way, helping us connect with the fullness of our multidimensionality. Each session is unique, phenomenal, and provides exactly what clients need to resolve problems, understand their lives, and create miraculous changes. I have witnessed incredible transformations in myself and others through this work. It helps us step more fully into our spiritual essence and inner power and bring that forward into our lives.
How do you tailor your approach when mentoring yoga teachers and healing arts entrepreneurs to help them rise to their potential?
Some yoga teachers come to me to mentor them to help shift feelings of imposter syndrome, learn how to heal their trauma and improve mental health. Others are more interested in learning how to use social media to promote their yoga classes, while others may need assistance developing their workshops and coaching programs.
It’s always a creative and highly individualized experience. The core intention of the coaching work is to use the principles of mindfulness and compassion to guide our way while cultivating practices and tools for holding space for self and others by being neutral, loving vessels for source energy to flow through.
As a seasoned yoga, meditation, and energy healing practitioner and teacher, spirituality through yoga, creative expression, and holding space for others has become a way of being for me that is like breathing air. I love assisting other creatives and healers on their journeys of healing and expansion. It’s a joyful experience.
I’ve been leading classes, workshops, coaching groups and healing circles since 2010.
What advice would you give to someone hesitant to take the leap into their own healing journey, particularly when facing deep-seated trauma?
I know it can feel scary to even think about opening the can of worms of your trauma. I was scared to share my story with anyone. I figured people would judge me as damaged goods. I didn’t want them to see the darker sides of me, the things I did that I wasn’t proud of. And I also didn’t want to keep feeling shame, fear, and anger. But numbing it out only worked for so long, and it came with painful consequences.
So often we just want to hide the past from people or even from ourselves. We just want to forget it happened and ‘put it behind us.’ But it seems to sneak back up without notice, getting in our way time and time again.
The trouble is we can’t actually put the past behind us without acknowledging what happened and becoming aware of how it still affects us. Once we do this, we can start figuring out the ways that work for each unique individual to finally be free of the pain.
Processing the effects of what happened to you can be a beautiful life-affirming process. It doesn’t have to be painful. You will learn how to feel those difficult things you’ve buried deep, in a safe way so they don’t disturb your life anymore.
As you build a strong connection with your inner wisdom and continue to implement the guidance from your higher self while using the healing tools you learn, you’ll master the art of understanding yourself and transforming your pain into purpose and possibility. Once you get the hang of it, you will see all the amazing gifts you already have within you that will fill your life with purpose and joy.
I call the combination of approaches I like to use to help my clients and students Somatic Self-Compassion because I have learned that it is through the power of re-connection with the wisdom of our bodies and the healing energy of compassion that we finally learn how to trust ourselves and feel safe to experience more of what life has to offer.
I’ve created a simple, short introduction to self-healing guidebook that folks can download for free: www.freecompassionbook.com.
