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Melissa Sophia Joy, ND
Vitalism is a cornerstone of the naturopathic worldview, underpinning many of its core tenets and healing modalities. Vitalism has been described as “the doctrine that life originates in a vital principle, distinct from chemical and other forces. It is a belief that a vital force is operating in the living organism and that this cannot be reduced or explained simply by physical or chemical factors.”1 At its very root, the vital force not only has the potential to heal and transform lives, but it can also reveal the core of who we truly are.
From a naturopathic perspective, the vital force is an organizing principle within us: the core principle of vis medicatrix naturae, or “the healing power of nature.” When we align the vital force with a nature cure’s harmonization, we nurture the body’s balancing mechanisms of homeostasis.
I learned this concept in naturopathic medical school, which governed how I viewed the vital force in my first few years of practice. However, as I went deeper into my experience as a naturopathic doctor, spiritual practitioner, and teacher, my view of the vital force deepened significantly. In 20 years of practice, I have seen thousands of patients and clocked thousands of hours in meditation and personal inquiry into the true nature of reality. Through these experiences, I’ve come into direct contact with the deeper essence of the vital force and how it aligns with what quantum physicists call the quantum field, the zero point, and pure potentiality: all of this together may be perceived as the divine. This divine vital force constantly moves into us, flows within our body, and animates our being, not as an idea, but as a reality.
Earlier in my life, I had been overwhelmed by almost constant anxiety, stress, and numerous other negative emotions connected to past trauma. I also had physical symptoms connected to this trauma, including severe eczema, allergies, insomnia, and heart palpitations. When I made full contact with the divine energy within me through long periods of meditation, my life drastically changed. Not only did I experience a profound awakening, but I also had significant emotional, mental, and physical healing experiences. My symptoms decreased, and now I rarely experience them.
Because I am a naturopathic doctor with the heart of a healer, I examined these encounters to replicate them with patients. I discovered that with focus and intention on both parts, I could guide my patients to align with their divine vital force as a healing power by helping them connect with their higher self, their spirit. When I helped my patients make contact with this potent, living divine vital spark, the resulting healings bordered on the miraculous.
I saw numerous patients finally come back home to peace after years of spiraling in ongoing anxiety, depression, PTSD, and/or chronic stress. As the process profoundly changed how they felt within themselves and how they saw life, their emotional symptoms abated. I have also worked with patients who were struggling with physical issues, such as autoimmune conditions, multiple chemical sensitivities, chronic fatigue, and pathogenic issues such as Lyme disease and its co-infections. When these patients fully opened to the living, vital spark of the divine meeting their core issues, their symptoms improved, and they could get back to their lives with their inner life force renewed and activated.
The process I used includes guiding patients in a facilitated meditative process to make contact with the energies of their higher selves and the divine and to bring this presence into the places that need attention. These places were usually somatic contractions of old pain and trauma. As the energy within my patients’ contractions softened, they learned to trust and opened to divine energy through this process, and the dense energy of trauma dissolved. The internalized negative ego voices and physical symptoms that this dense energy had been directly fueling also dissolved. I observed this result so often, within myself and others, that I saw it as nothing short of a divine alchemical process of transmutation. This process and healing modality have transformed countless lives, and I now teach it and am writing a book about it.
Susan stepped into my practice 5 years ago. She was suffering from excruciating gastrointestinal (GI) spasms that frequently sent her to the emergency room. She struggled with even the simplest daily activities, and as a result, was on disability. Despite seeing numerous gastroenterologists, she remained undiagnosed and ill.
Susan sensed that her gastrointestinal pain was somehow linked to her traumatic childhood and was sometimes so severe that she could barely tolerate it. She was extremely limited in what she could eat and was underweight and debilitated. Without effective treatment, she could continue to deteriorate, losing even more weight and strength.
I learned that Susan had experienced multiple levels of abuse as an infant, continuing into childhood. Her GI symptoms also started when she was very young. I intuitively perceived that this past abuse was manifesting as chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) symptoms in her GI tract. Although Susan had gone through years of traditional talk therapy, she had not been treated from the deeper mind-body and somatic perspective that I sensed she needed.
Most of her flare-ups were connected to stress: a fight with her boyfriend, a harrowing incident with a family member, or a problematic business call could cause excruciating pain. She felt bombarded by relatively minor external stressors, which would easily trigger overwhelming negative inner voices, a whirlwind of anxiety, and agonizing pain.
We began by exploring both naturopathic protocols and mind-body medicine. The supplements and herbs had hardly any positive effects, which is a common experience when the primary underlying issue is rooted in mind-body dynamics. Over the next few months, we dove into the healing journey utilizing this new mind-body-spirit technique. Through these sessions, Susan began to experience relief from her symptoms, as well as from her internalized mind-body strife and anxiety.
Given the strong connection between Susan’s physical discomfort and her emotional and energetic pain, I guided her through a meditative process to connect with her higher self witness consciousness (HSWC). This inner aspect brings profound presence, love, and compassion to any area needing healing. Once Susan accessed her HSWC, I encouraged her to direct this energy to the parts of her body that required the most attention. The presence of the HSWC allowed her to engage with her pain without being overwhelmed by it, while also staying present and compassionate toward whatever arose during the process.
As Susan dove into the pain within her body, she discovered that it was connected to imprinted layers of traumatic childhood memories and the multiple somatic contractions caused by these imprints. As she got to know these somatic contractions, she discovered they held traumatic energy that was frozen in time, hurt, scared, and at times even aggressive. It became clear that the individual somatic contractions had merged into a tremendous collective contraction of pain so intense that it took over her life.
This technique is about uncovering the pain held within and bringing in the stabilizing and healing energy of the higher self, the divine, and its potent vital force. I often guided Susan to experience the powerful connection between the traumatic energy stored in her somatic contractions and the dynamic presence and divine vitality flowing from her HSWC. In this process, I supported Susan, helping her to perceive and feel the ability of her HSWC to maintain a constant state of loving awareness and compassionate interaction with the energy and emotions trapped within her traumatic contractions. As a result, the past trauma stored within these contractions began to feel seen and safe, allowing the previously trapped energy and emotion within Susan to open and express the more profound feeling that had been trapped inside.
As the traumatized energies within the contractions started to feel safe and trust Susan’s process, they began to accept the healing energy of presence, love, and compassion. Over the next few months, this process expanded. As the energy and emotions within Susan’s contractions shared their deepest pain with trust, vulnerability, and authenticity, the next stage occurred spontaneously: the conduit of divinity was activated.
This divinity conduit, likened to a river containing a significant amount of energy and the vital force of the divine, now started to flow into Susan’s traumatic contractions. As these contractions began to be exquisitely met profoundly, they finally received what they most wanted: divine vital force. This divine energy of unconditional love, ultimate presence, oceans of nurturing, and powerful care healed Susan in a way no external source could. When this energy was fully engaged, the contractive energy of trauma that Susan had carried for decades began to transmute and dissolve.
Susan has now healed on a very deep level, physically, emotionally, and energetically. She is a new woman, living a whole life on her terms. She rarely has GI flare-ups, and when she does, she knows how to address them utilizing this method to calm and transmute her anxiety and stress. The negative inner talk of her ego has diminished considerably. Her life is now aligned with peace, sovereignty, and freedom in a way she hadn’t experienced before this healing journey.
Patients who end up at my practice usually have trauma to the point of physical symptoms. In the large majority of cases, their trauma has not been treated on a somatic level, especially a level that engages their powerful divine vital force in the healing process.
This process provides a transformative experience that alchemizes painful and dense aspects of our existence: difficult somatic contractions of trauma, the negative inner dialogue of the ego, and the density we hold within our body. In this process, the density of trauma within the physical body is transformed, enabling us to release symptoms rooted in past traumas and difficulties.2 As a result of our establishing a profound connection with the essence of our divine vital force, the burdens of trauma no longer weigh us down, allowing our beings to become lighter and experience less suffering. Therefore, we are freed—body, mind, and spirit—to return to a place of proper health.
Melissa Sophia Joy, ND, is a naturopathic doctor, a specialist in mind-body-spirit medicine, and a medical intuitive. She has been in practice for over 24 years. She is also an internationally known spiritual teacher and author. She is writing a book on Somatic Awakening®, which she founded (along with the Sophia Healing Academy) and teaches to those who want to heal and awaken in their own life and those wanting to become Somatic Awakening practitioners in their healing practice. For more information, go to sophiahealingacademy.com.
Melissa Sophia Joy, ND
Vitalism is a cornerstone of the naturopathic worldview, underpinning many of its core tenets and healing modalities. Vitalism has been described as “the doctrine that life originates in a vital principle, distinct from chemical and other forces. It is a belief that a vital force is operating in the living organism and that this cannot be reduced or explained simply by physical or chemical factors.”1 At its very root, the vital force not only has the potential to heal and transform lives, but it can also reveal the core of who we truly are.
From a naturopathic perspective, the vital force is an organizing principle within us: the core principle of vis medicatrix naturae, or “the healing power of nature.” When we align the vital force with a nature cure’s harmonization, we nurture the body’s balancing mechanisms of homeostasis.
I learned this concept in naturopathic medical school, which governed how I viewed the vital force in my first few years of practice. However, as I went deeper into my experience as a naturopathic doctor, spiritual practitioner, and teacher, my view of the vital force deepened significantly. In 20 years of practice, I have seen thousands of patients and clocked thousands of hours in meditation and personal inquiry into the true nature of reality. Through these experiences, I’ve come into direct contact with the deeper essence of the vital force and how it aligns with what quantum physicists call the quantum field, the zero point, and pure potentiality: all of this together may be perceived as the divine. This divine vital force constantly moves into us, flows within our body, and animates our being, not as an idea, but as a reality.
Earlier in my life, I had been overwhelmed by almost constant anxiety, stress, and numerous other negative emotions connected to past trauma. I also had physical symptoms connected to this trauma, including severe eczema, allergies, insomnia, and heart palpitations. When I made full contact with the divine energy within me through long periods of meditation, my life drastically changed. Not only did I experience a profound awakening, but I also had significant emotional, mental, and physical healing experiences. My symptoms decreased, and now I rarely experience them.
Because I am a naturopathic doctor with the heart of a healer, I examined these encounters to replicate them with patients. I discovered that with focus and intention on both parts, I could guide my patients to align with their divine vital force as a healing power by helping them connect with their higher self, their spirit. When I helped my patients make contact with this potent, living divine vital spark, the resulting healings bordered on the miraculous.
I saw numerous patients finally come back home to peace after years of spiraling in ongoing anxiety, depression, PTSD, and/or chronic stress. As the process profoundly changed how they felt within themselves and how they saw life, their emotional symptoms abated. I have also worked with patients who were struggling with physical issues, such as autoimmune conditions, multiple chemical sensitivities, chronic fatigue, and pathogenic issues such as Lyme disease and its co-infections. When these patients fully opened to the living, vital spark of the divine meeting their core issues, their symptoms improved, and they could get back to their lives with their inner life force renewed and activated.
The process I used includes guiding patients in a facilitated meditative process to make contact with the energies of their higher selves and the divine and to bring this presence into the places that need attention. These places were usually somatic contractions of old pain and trauma. As the energy within my patients’ contractions softened, they learned to trust and opened to divine energy through this process, and the dense energy of trauma dissolved. The internalized negative ego voices and physical symptoms that this dense energy had been directly fueling also dissolved. I observed this result so often, within myself and others, that I saw it as nothing short of a divine alchemical process of transmutation. This process and healing modality have transformed countless lives, and I now teach it and am writing a book about it.
Susan stepped into my practice 5 years ago. She was suffering from excruciating gastrointestinal (GI) spasms that frequently sent her to the emergency room. She struggled with even the simplest daily activities, and as a result, was on disability. Despite seeing numerous gastroenterologists, she remained undiagnosed and ill.
Susan sensed that her gastrointestinal pain was somehow linked to her traumatic childhood and was sometimes so severe that she could barely tolerate it. She was extremely limited in what she could eat and was underweight and debilitated. Without effective treatment, she could continue to deteriorate, losing even more weight and strength.
I learned that Susan had experienced multiple levels of abuse as an infant, continuing into childhood. Her GI symptoms also started when she was very young. I intuitively perceived that this past abuse was manifesting as chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) symptoms in her GI tract. Although Susan had gone through years of traditional talk therapy, she had not been treated from the deeper mind-body and somatic perspective that I sensed she needed.
Most of her flare-ups were connected to stress: a fight with her boyfriend, a harrowing incident with a family member, or a problematic business call could cause excruciating pain. She felt bombarded by relatively minor external stressors, which would easily trigger overwhelming negative inner voices, a whirlwind of anxiety, and agonizing pain.
We began by exploring both naturopathic protocols and mind-body medicine. The supplements and herbs had hardly any positive effects, which is a common experience when the primary underlying issue is rooted in mind-body dynamics. Over the next few months, we dove into the healing journey utilizing this new mind-body-spirit technique. Through these sessions, Susan began to experience relief from her symptoms, as well as from her internalized mind-body strife and anxiety.
Given the strong connection between Susan’s physical discomfort and her emotional and energetic pain, I guided her through a meditative process to connect with her higher self witness consciousness (HSWC). This inner aspect brings profound presence, love, and compassion to any area needing healing. Once Susan accessed her HSWC, I encouraged her to direct this energy to the parts of her body that required the most attention. The presence of the HSWC allowed her to engage with her pain without being overwhelmed by it, while also staying present and compassionate toward whatever arose during the process.
As Susan dove into the pain within her body, she discovered that it was connected to imprinted layers of traumatic childhood memories and the multiple somatic contractions caused by these imprints. As she got to know these somatic contractions, she discovered they held traumatic energy that was frozen in time, hurt, scared, and at times even aggressive. It became clear that the individual somatic contractions had merged into a tremendous collective contraction of pain so intense that it took over her life.
This technique is about uncovering the pain held within and bringing in the stabilizing and healing energy of the higher self, the divine, and its potent vital force. I often guided Susan to experience the powerful connection between the traumatic energy stored in her somatic contractions and the dynamic presence and divine vitality flowing from her HSWC. In this process, I supported Susan, helping her to perceive and feel the ability of her HSWC to maintain a constant state of loving awareness and compassionate interaction with the energy and emotions trapped within her traumatic contractions. As a result, the past trauma stored within these contractions began to feel seen and safe, allowing the previously trapped energy and emotion within Susan to open and express the more profound feeling that had been trapped inside.
As the traumatized energies within the contractions started to feel safe and trust Susan’s process, they began to accept the healing energy of presence, love, and compassion. Over the next few months, this process expanded. As the energy and emotions within Susan’s contractions shared their deepest pain with trust, vulnerability, and authenticity, the next stage occurred spontaneously: the conduit of divinity was activated.
This divinity conduit, likened to a river containing a significant amount of energy and the vital force of the divine, now started to flow into Susan’s traumatic contractions. As these contractions began to be exquisitely met profoundly, they finally received what they most wanted: divine vital force. This divine energy of unconditional love, ultimate presence, oceans of nurturing, and powerful care healed Susan in a way no external source could. When this energy was fully engaged, the contractive energy of trauma that Susan had carried for decades began to transmute and dissolve.
Susan has now healed on a very deep level, physically, emotionally, and energetically. She is a new woman, living a whole life on her terms. She rarely has GI flare-ups, and when she does, she knows how to address them utilizing this method to calm and transmute her anxiety and stress. The negative inner talk of her ego has diminished considerably. Her life is now aligned with peace, sovereignty, and freedom in a way she hadn’t experienced before this healing journey.
Patients who end up at my practice usually have trauma to the point of physical symptoms. In the large majority of cases, their trauma has not been treated on a somatic level, especially a level that engages their powerful divine vital force in the healing process.
This process provides a transformative experience that alchemizes painful and dense aspects of our existence: difficult somatic contractions of trauma, the negative inner dialogue of the ego, and the density we hold within our body. In this process, the density of trauma within the physical body is transformed, enabling us to release symptoms rooted in past traumas and difficulties.2 As a result of our establishing a profound connection with the essence of our divine vital force, the burdens of trauma no longer weigh us down, allowing our beings to become lighter and experience less suffering. Therefore, we are freed—body, mind, and spirit—to return to a place of proper health.
Melissa Sophia Joy, ND, is a naturopathic doctor, a specialist in mind-body-spirit medicine, and a medical intuitive. She has been in practice for over 24 years. She is also an internationally known spiritual teacher and author. She is writing a book on Somatic Awakening®, which she founded (along with the Sophia Healing Academy) and teaches to those who want to heal and awaken in their own life and those wanting to become Somatic Awakening practitioners in their healing practice. For more information, go to sophiahealingacademy.com.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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