Meet Chelsea Noel
Hakomi & QRA-Trained Somatic Practitioner
CURRENTLY BASED IN ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA
Hi, thank you for being here! I am a person who's learning how to love themself unconditionally, to hold themself in their pain and struggle with tenderness and compassion, and who endeavors to live with as wide and open a heart as I can muster.
I humbly offer myself to you if you feel a resonance with my words and perspective. My message is simple: love yourself, all of yourself; parse through all the layers and feed them each with acceptance, compassion, love. It is truly an alchemical healing elixir. One that also requires some finesse and patience.
Early Roots: Art, Activism & Awakening
Always a deeply creative kid, I attended the University of Michigan’s School of Art and Design, entering with a portfolio of digital art and photography. After my first of several “quarter-life crises,” I left school to march across part of the country with an activist group passionate about climate change called The Great March for Climate Action.
The years that followed were a winding journey through North and South America, where I studied permaculture and intentional living communities. During this period, I had my first encounters with ceremonial psychedelic medicines, sitting in ceremonies of San Pedro, Peyote, and Ayahuasca, as well as participating in temazcals and tobacco ceremonies.
I had had many psychedelic experiences prior and had tried the gamut of illicit substances in my early 20's. While I always viewed these experiences as educational and spiritual, not just party drugs, stepping into the depth of intention and prayer of ceremony space made them that much more impactful and revealing.
Foundations in Holistic Health
In 2017, I completed a 200-hour Hatha Yoga teacher training in NYC while also working as a stretch coach. Years later, I deepened my studies at Hill College through their Holistic Wellness Pathway, where I learned about biology, nutrition, herbalism, and integrative coaching.
Then, in 2019, I had my first Hakomi session with someone still in training. I showed up with no idea what the modality was, and was floored by the depth it accessed. It connected me to my body and psyche in a way no conventional therapy ever had. It was deeply healing and didn’t require ingesting anything.
From that session on, I became obsessed with somatic therapies. Over time I explored TRE, Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal Theory, Emotional Freedom Technique, EMDR, and Sensorimotor Therapy; seeking out whatever tools helped me understand the body-mind connection more fully.
Hakomi Training
In 2022, I found myself with enough money saved to take on training in Hakomi and spent the next two years pulling back the curtain on the alchemical elements necessary to elicit such profound and healing experiences. Over the next two years, I dove deep, both learning how to facilitate and regularly receiving sessions. Those two years brought profound transformation and a continual unfolding of awareness.
It was also the year I realized something was missing: a serious and consistent meditation practice. I began practicing various forms of meditation as guided by a close friend of mine, along with other influences such as Reggie Rays somatic meditations. That, in combination with Hakomi, blasted me wide open in many ways.
I entered what I call my re-sensitization process. After spending most of my life identified with an overactive mind, I landed in my emotional, physical, and energetic body. I realized I had been dissociated and numb for much of my life. Now, I could actually feel myself, and others. That was a revelation.
The Path of Meditation
In 2023, while still in Hakomi training, I enrolled in Dr. John Churchill’s year-long program on the Tibetan practice of Calm Abiding, or the Elephant Path. If the first year of Hakomi and meditation taught me how to feel myself, this year taught me how to hold my feeling self.
Calm Abiding teaches us to settle deeply so we can sustain attention on a chosen object; the basis for true meditation. What made John's teachings unique from the standard teaching on Calm Abiding practice was his skillful weaving of eastern practice with his knowledge of Western transpersonal psychology, attachment theory and developmental trauma.
Throughout the training, we practiced meta-cognitive skills, learning how to insert subtle energetic intentions into our meditation practice to transform our inner relationship with attention itself. These teachings gave me tools to stay present with both pain and possibility.
Quantum Reflex Analysis
In 2023, I also began interning with Mary Kay Finn, a functional nutritionist in practice for over 17 years using a muscle testing modality called Quantum Reflex Analysis. Mary Kay trained directly under QRA’s creator, Dr. Bob Marshall in LA for many years. Now she is a master QRA practitioner and holds a vast wealth of holistic health information that I’ve had the honor of soaking in over the past 2 years. With QRA, I’ve found another way to communicate with the body to support physical health, not just emotional alchemy.
My Approach Today
Ever since, I have continued to connect dots between eastern meditative practice, developmental trauma healing, and the human journey of remembering what we truly are and the limitless nature of reality. All this has culminated in a unique approach to somatic inquiry into our present moment experience. It is here- deeply in the now and the immediacy of our bodies- where we find what's holding us back, as well as our path towards liberation.
All of this: my studies, travels, heartbreaks, openings, awakenings, obsessions, and quiet transformations has shaped the way I show up to this work. Rooted in curiosity, compassion, and a deep respect for the mystery of being, I hold a loving, attuned field to welcome you just as you are. Together, we walk the path toward wholeness, not as something far off, but as something already present, waiting to be remembered.
Welcome!
To a beautiful voyage, intimately human and entirely unique to you.