We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daniel Vose. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daniel below.

Daniel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

At fourteen, I was placed in a treatment center for abusing heroin and other drugs. The program’s model was built around enthusiastic sobriety, where a group of fellow young addicts and I would engage in fun, sober activities together. It was during this time that I experienced a profound realization. Helping other addicts brought me a sense of joy and fulfillment that I had never felt before. This feeling, often referred to as the “helper high,” solidified my desire to dedicate my life to helping others heal.

Joseph Campbell’s famous quote, “Follow your bliss,” resonated deeply with me. I realized that when you pursue something you love, it becomes much easier to excel in that area. This defining moment set me on a path towards a career in somatic therapy, where I could continue to experience the joy of helping others while pursuing my passion for healing

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

From a young age, I struggled with intense dysregulation after a traumatic surgery, leading to severe migraines, tantrums, and a deeply oppositional spirit. My world felt overwhelmingly intense, oscillating between being too open to the raw stimuli and too closed off to protect myself. At just five years old, amidst this chaos, a traditional shaman recognized my unique sensitivities and opened a door to managing my experiences.
The shaman’s teachings helped me find some balance for years. However, as adolescence’s pressures mounted, I turned to hard drugs. By fourteen, I was using heroin to manage the overwhelming internal energies. During these tumultuous years, I met a powerful traditional indigenous medicine man who saw a future for me beyond my addiction. He believed in my potential to serve others, igniting a spark of hope. This belief led me to a 12-step rehabilitation program where I discovered the joy of helping others and experienced the transformative “helper high.” This kept me sober for a couple of years, but I eventually returned to heroin, though I knew sobriety was possible.

Determined to turn my life around, I sobered up again at 17. This newfound clarity brought me to a convergence of paths—First Nations healing ceremonies and professional training in somatic experiencing. These experiences were pivotal, teaching me to trust my body’s inherent wisdom and emphasizing a return to nature, not just as a physical space but as a return to balance within myself.

Armed with this knowledge and a master’s degree in somatic psychology, I ventured into psychotherapy. Here, I delved deep into the nuances of the body’s innate healing capabilities, often overlooked in traditional medicine but recognized in somatic psychology as the drive towards homeostasis. This exploration became my obsession to understand and harness this innate intelligent energy that drives us toward balance and expansion.
My professional journey has involved working with over a thousand individual clients. In every interaction, I remind myself of the gravity of my role, often thinking, “What if this were your mother? How would you want her to be treated?”
Today, I lead the comprehensive Trauma Alchemy program and other courses that draw on these profound insights. My approach sets itself apart through a focus on depth and nuance, making it a top-tier comprehensive somatic training program. Mastering your nervous system is about allying with your body, learning its language, and understanding how to program it.
I am most proud of how these offerings empower individuals to take control of their healing journeys, building resilience and wisdom along the way. As I look to the future, my aspirations include creating a certification program to elevate the standards of somatic coaching, ensuring that more practitioners can offer deeply impactful support to those in need.
In essence, my work and my life are a testament to the power of healing and transformation, grounded in the profound belief that everyone has the capacity to return to their most balanced, healthy selves.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I remember teaching a training to over 50 high-level therapists and Ph.D. psychologists. Initially, they were skeptical because of my young age, but once I started teaching, they were blown away. Despite their positive feedback, I genuinely believed they were just being nice because they could tell I wasn’t intelligent. I’d spent so much of my life seeking approval from people who couldn’t give it and instead put me down. This tendency to diminish others to lift oneself up comes from deep wounding, and understanding this helped me navigate my extreme self-doubt and eventually cultivate tremendous self-validation.
During one particularly challenging time, I was living in a toxic house full of mold and other environmental toxins, suffering from insomnia, and doing about 15 hours of sessions weekly with clients who had extreme personality disorders. To put this in context, many therapists will only work with one client who has an extreme personality disorder a week because it can be so dysregulating. At the same time, I was also stuck in a deep depression, trying to make sense of my life.
Out of this terribly confusing state, something beautiful was born. I clung to one healthy habit. No matter what, I made sure to do that habit daily. If you are struggling, cling to one healthy habit, and over time, it may be enough to pull you out of your struggles. For me, it was swimming, and after eight months of swimming for an hour almost every day, I was in the best shape of my life. I didn’t want to die anymore. At the same time, we discovered our house was extremely toxic, so I said, “F it,” put everything in storage, and started living nomadically in other countries, working on a book I had wanted to write and online courses I had wanted to make.
I hadn’t felt confident enough to really put myself out there, but eventually, I realized that no one would guide me to where I wanted to go—I had to take my own hand and get serious about my purpose on this planet. I remember looking around thinking, “How bizarre, there are so many people in adult bodies but very few who are actually an adult. Someone has got to grow up here, and it might as well be me.” I had to become a self-validating machine if I ever wanted to live up to my potential.
If you want to be successful and really live your potential, I encourage you to adopt this mindset as well. Reality checks are necessary, but you also really need to believe in yourself. Become a self-validating machine, turning out your own validation again and again.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

I remember teaching a training to over 50 high-level therapists and Ph.D. psychologists. Initially, they were skeptical because of my young age, but once I started teaching, they were blown away. Despite their positive feedback, I genuinely believed they were just being nice because they could tell I wasn’t intelligent. I’d spent so much of my life seeking approval from people who couldn’t give it and instead put me down. This tendency to diminish others to lift oneself up comes from deep wounding, and understanding this helped me navigate my extreme self-doubt and eventually cultivate tremendous self-validation.
During one particularly challenging time, I was living in a toxic house full of mold and other environmental toxins, suffering from insomnia, and doing about 15 hours of sessions weekly with clients who had extreme personality disorders. To put this in context, many therapists will only work with one client who has an extreme personality disorder a week because it can be so dysregulating. At the same time, I was also stuck in a deep depression, trying to make sense of my life.
Out of this terribly confusing state, something beautiful was born. I clung to one healthy habit. No matter what, I made sure to do that habit daily. If you are struggling, cling to one healthy habit, and over time, it may be enough to pull you out of your struggles. For me, it was swimming, and after eight months of swimming for an hour almost every day, I was in the best shape of my life. I didn’t want to die anymore. At the same time, we discovered our house was extremely toxic, so I said, “F it,” put everything in storage, and started living nomadically in other countries, working on a book I had wanted to write and online courses I had wanted to make.
I hadn’t felt confident enough to really put myself out there, but eventually, I realized that no one would guide me to where I wanted to go—I had to take my own hand and get serious about my purpose on this planet. I remember looking around thinking, “How bizarre, there are so many people in adult bodies but very few who are actually an adult. Someone has got to grow up here, and it might as well be me.” I had to become a self-validating machine if I ever wanted to live up to my potential.
If you want to be successful and really live your potential, I encourage you to adopt this mindset as well. Reality checks are necessary, but you also really need to believe in yourself. Become a self-validating machine, turning out your own validation again and again.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vosesomatic.com
• Instagram: @vosesomatic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@vosesomatic

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