About Me
Welcome, my name is Sonya and I am the Transformation Consultant at Mendip Reiki Healing Arts. I would like to tell you ‘About Me’, how I came to be a therapist and what my life ethos and mission is.
Crossroads
During my role as People Development Consultant for Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals, I found myself at a career crossroads. For over 10 years, I had gained valuable knowledge working with teams and individuals to optimise their delivery and realise their potential. But I had a niggling feeling my path lay elsewhere. So when the business offered voluntary redundancy, I took a leap of faith. I then decided to focus my time bringing up my two young children and start up a small business painting children’s murals – going back to my creative roots. However, the universe had other ideas…during this new phase my marriage starting showing signs of real difficulty and my Mother’s health was declining rapidly from Parkinson’s disease.
Life Tests Us
This was a very testing time with two young toddlers, a marriage breaking down and my dear Mum slipping away. I found myself in a ‘fog’, feeling very low and purely surviving for the children. I knew this wasn’t what life was about, so at a particularly low point, I decided to explore the root cause of my ‘depression’. Conventional medicine would have seen me treated with anti-depressants, but instead I chose to treat myself holistically by learning Reiki. This opened up a whole new world to me. One that I later learnt not only lifted my spirits, but also supported me through my later divorce and saying goodbye to my dear Mum.
We Are Spiritual Beings Living a Physical Life
So this is how I came to know that there is so much more than what we can see – a world of energy and yes, Angels. From 2007 to present day, I use the knowledge, experience and my skills as a ‘catalytic empath’ to help others navigate their lives, learn how to heal and not just survive but THRIVE!
The Way I Work With Clients
I Am A Catalyst
Over the years, many have used the term ‘catalyst’ to describe me, because I speed up their personal evolution, guiding people to understand themselves better and enabling healing transformation.
This is an intuitive ability which I believe I was born to share and the accelerated healing and learning people receive, can be instrumental in the evolution of their personal lives. This is why I call myself a ‘Transformation Therapist’.
Reiki & Crystals
My experience as a Reiki Master and Crystal Therapist provides a wonderful platform for healing transformation. From these tools, I can structure development plans with my clients so they learn how to heal themselves. Sessions can be one-off or as part of a regular programme depending on the needs of a client.
Ethos
My ethos is to be a conduit for client evolution, a partner in their development and to encourage healing responsibility early on in the process. My goal is to teach, inform and empower; ultimately fostering a new ability in each client to self-heal.
Why ‘Healing Arts’
My Childhood
As a child I was always aware I was a little different. Compared to most, I seemed more sensitive to my surroundings and the feelings of others. I lived with my parents in the beautiful village of Almondsbury, just outside of Bristol. Back then we were surrounded by golden corn fields in the summer, bluebell woods in the spring and the constant mooing of cows…
The Calling Of Nature
I loved being close to nature and often spent my time playing by the stream, somehow never feeling as if I was really on my own. My weekend friends were my nine guinea pigs and I loved to paint and draw flowers, walk our dogs in the fields after school and listen to music by ‘Prince’. Much of the time, I also enjoyed losing myself in films such as ‘The Golden Voyage of Synbad’ and ‘Jason and the Argonauts’; always curious about the idea of magic and the lost lands.
Creativity & People
Much of my youth was spent harnessing my love of art. After school I qualified with a BA (Hons) in ceramics, and then later found a synergy within HR and specifically ‘People Development’. Subsequently, I went on to forge a 10 year career learning about people and how to help them work more effectively in teams. I offered career guidance, coaching and strategic planning.
MBTI Consultant
Along that journey I became qualified in Myers Briggs Type Indicator and Occupational Personality Questionnaire Testing. This further deepened my knowledge of people, personality and their innate behaviours.
Healing Arts
In 2007 I qualified in as a Reiki practitioner and later a Crystal therapist. Life’s toils had opened a door to another world. Whilst working p/t as a therapist, I also starting working as the ceramics specialist at my old school in 2017. I found a lovely balance by blending my art (my own therapy) with my healing work for clients. To this day, I combine my love of creating ceramics inspired by nature, with healing. My aim is to give people the tools to heal themselves and within that tool box, is a deep appreciation in the natural healing power of nature. This is why I use leaves in all my ceramic art!
I believe we all have a ‘Soul Contract’ and if I can help those who come to me, find the path that leads them to fulfil their own contract, then my heart is content. Thank you for allowing me to join you on a journey of discovery about your wonderful and unique self, to help you unveil and embrace your highest potential in this life and beyond!
To find out more about my own personal ethos on the ‘Art of Living’ please read ‘My Ethos‘.
