Who I Am and What I Do
Hi. I'm Joalena and this is my story:
I'm a holistic lifestyle and mindset coach, reiki healer, sound healer and licensed massage therapist. Growing up, I was fascinated with alternative healing. At the age of 11, I found myself going into book stores and getting enraptured by the “self help” section. I learned early on that we as humans have the capability of changing our lives for the better. I focused on positive thinking, visualization and was practicing the law of attraction before I knew what that was. My exploration into the healing arts would continue as I practiced yoga and began learning about meditation.
When I was 18, I was discontented while working at a retail job. I thought, "I can't just continue to work in this soul sucking workplace." I expressed this to my mom and she asked me if I ever thought about doing massage therapy, “You’ve always been a healer” she said. I told her "no" without much thought. I would later admit to myself that my response was solely because it was my mom making the suggestion and there was a teeny bit of teenage rebellion. I further contemplated the idea and asked her to help me look into schools and licensing. I sat in on a class at the Touch Therapy Institute and felt so drawn to the work that I enrolled that same day. I received my massage therapy license in 2007. I worked at high end spas all over Los Angeles for about a decade. I enjoyed providing massage, but desired to facilitate a deeper kind of healing than the cookie cutter spa-style sessions that were promoted at most day spas. This led to experimenting with different modalities such as deep tissue, crainiosacral unwinding, and reiki. I consider myself a seeker, and I am always learning and evolving.
In 2011, I started my own independent bodywork practice, Heal with Me. For many years, I explored and trained in the vast field of the energy healing arts and helped individuals with lifestyle by co-creating wellness plans to reduce stress and restore balance to their lives.
In 2013, I fell in love with sound healing after doing a training with Jamie Bechtold of the Soundbath Center. I began incorporating the use of tuning forks in my massage sessions, amplifying the healing process of these sessions.
Just after my 30th birthday, my whole world flipped upside down in my personal life. My husband told me he no longer wanted to be with me. I found myself experiencing the loss of a nine year long relationship and someone I had been with my whole adulthood. My separation from my husband of four years was my first breakup. I had no idea how to handle it. I felt lost, abandoned, and really uncomfortable. I went through an identity crisis, as my identity had been intertwined with his for almost a decade. I turned to self development tools. I started therapy, read self-help books, cried a lot, practiced mindfulness and engrossed myself into community, through my passion, acroyoga.
While visiting my dad in Alaska, I met someone and got an invitation to travel to Europe and used it as the catalyst to quit my desk job of 6 years. I ended up going to Spain and traveled solo around the country for almost 2 months. It was through this experience that I discovered something I'd never truly felt: love for myself. I wanted to share it with anyone who would listen and empower other women to do the same for themselves! After my soul searching journey, I became a different person. I was wiser, stronger and more capable. I had traveled as a woman, by myself, in a foreign country.
A couple months after returning to LA, I met a wonderful man and began a beautiful, supportive and healthy relationship, of which I'm still in to this day. I still pinch myself that I found such an amazing partner.
During the pandemic, I reevaluated my massage career and decided to delve into my almost life-long passion: coaching others to change their lives for the better. I became a certified holistic life coach in 2021. My mission is to empower women who have lost themselves, or have never had a chance to discover who they truly are. I help empaths nurture themselves, strengthen boundaries and make huge shifts within their reality to discover their own gnosis (inner knowing). This creates a path where dreams can come true and be woven into a beautiful tapestry of life. We all have a story, but maybe the one you've been living hasn't felt true to you. Let me help you write the next chapter of the most exciting heart centered novel ever written, your story!