We were lucky to catch up with Melissa Michaels recently and have shared our conversation below.
Melissa , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
At 55 years old I was way too busy, dancing through life, running a not for profit and leading body-centered rites of passage programs around the world. One fateful day, I found myself face to face with late-stage ovarian cancer. Although this was an unwelcomed visitor, my whole life had been preparation for the eradication of that horrid disease.
Dancing along life’s edges was nothing new to me. I had navigated through life crisis of many kinds along with assisting hundreds of others as they did the same. Yet death was present this time in an unprecedented way. I needed to draw on every embodiment and transformational tool I had cultivated and taught and use them in the most focused of ways.
I relied on my decades of movement as a practice for consciousness and clearing. I integrated that into the medicine that the scientific community had for me along with prayer and disciplined attention on healing.
And I stayed public with my process. This was the work in action. People cared. I needed their prayers too.
I also needed to step out of the current of my work and go deep inside my vast inner landscape to alchemize the pain from surgery and the mass doses of chemotherapy pouring into my precious body.
This whole process was a game changer for me and of course, for my career. Months of leaving allowed me to return in new and never before imagined ways.
I came back to work as I could. When I did, my teachings were even more fully rooted in reality. People saw this. My body had aged. People noted this too. My spirit had refined. My gratitude for each and every day more robust. This allowed me to be a more joyous teacher, a more spacious ally on the path, a wild one less attached to growing my career and more devoted to the root of my work, the dance.
That was 7 years ago. On the outer, nothing much has changed. On the inner, I live in a vast space curated by cancer and liberated by courage, chemo, and love. It was a letting go and a course correction in the most twisted of ways.
To learn more about this moving journey, check out my award winning film short: TWISTED GIFT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDirtW1Ljdk
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am the Founder and Director of SomaSource Educational Programs, Golden Girls Global, and Golden Bridge, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving and empowering the lives of people through body-centered initiatory processes, mentoring, and community action.
For the past 36+ years, I have been creating movement-based cross-cultural educational opportunities focusing on the potential that is available at major life thresholds. Mapping the journey from trauma to dynamic well-being, my work utilizes the expressive and social arts to establish body and heart as resources for authentic expression and diverse community connections. Rooted in rhythm and fueled by breath, this work inspires the sacred union between Spirit, flesh, psyche, and deed.
I am the author of the book, Youth On Fire: Igniting a Generation of Embodied Global Leaders. It shares the story of my work with young people in principle and practice. These teachings are now available in an online course, Moving Through Life’s Thresholds: Pathways for Embodied Living and Leading, for people in all stages of life.
I have also directed and produced a number of films and performances, all of which share the stories of resilient people and communities.
In addition to training the next generations of leaders in the SomaSource process, I am currently focused on the Golden Girls Global initiative. Together with the mighty young women from around the world who have come of age through this work, we are collaboratively growing a movement of embodied global girls claiming their creative intelligence and fertility in safety, dignity, and alliance. G
I am a first-generation teacher of the 5Rhythms® and a Master Somatic Educator and Therapist (ISMETA). My doctorate degree is in Education, Leadership & Change.
Married to my beloved soul friend, Mark Gerzon, I mother three daughters, one son in law, one soul son, along with sharing in the love with Mark’s three sons and eight grandchildren. Daily, I actively mentors SomaSource emerging leaders across the globe as they navigate their way home to themselves and their unique life gifts.
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What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Love. Presence. Perseverance. And devotion to their well-being above all else.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
We place right relationship between us all and all that it takes to cultivate and maintain that as the highest priority above all else. We walk our talk at every level and when we don’t, we help each other see blind spots and grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: GoldenBridge.org// GoldenGirlsGlobal. org
- Instagram: golden_bridge_movement
- Facebook: MelissaMichaelsMovement
- Linkedin: N/A
- Twitter: N/A
- Youtube: Melissa Michaels & Golden Bridge You Tube
- Soundcloud: N/A
- Other: https://thedairy.org/event/creative-liberation-love-in-action/
