We recently connected with Julie Genovese and have shared our conversation below.
Julie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
Willow Healing came to me on my drive to my teaching job one foggy morning about 4 years ago. I had been operating my healing business out of my home for years and had finally decided that I wanted my own brick and mortar and with that comes a legit name and llc of course. Weeks had gone by with a million different ideas. Should I just use my name as the business name? That didnt feel right, because I knew that in the future Id like for the business to grow and be more than just lil’ol’me. I wanted to grow the community of healers and be the host for them to share their uniqueness with others, so my name was out of the question. I even used different apps to create a name for me, and that felt unaligned with each result. To be honest, I almost forgot about naming the llc completely, or at least that morning is wasn’t in the front of my mind. On a chilly Northeastern Ohio Spring morning, Im in my car, listening to my own thoughts as I drove through the fog to the public school that I taught at. I can remember exactly where I was when the name literally dropped out of the sky and into my awareness. As I crossed under a traffic light, near a little pond, the word “Willow” was spoken into me. And in that instant, I had my business name. I had no connection to willow trees in particular except for “hey, theres a pretty willow tree over there.” I loved the name and how it felt saying it. Forward 2 years later, Willow Healing is now my full time career. I left teaching to give all of my heart and soul to the healing of others (and myself). I expanded my understanding of how energy heals and how the universe truly is always in our favor; we simply need to have our listening ears on. so yes, two years go by, and I am at a healing retreat when I had taken some lovely “plant medicine.” The group has gathered outside under the sunny sky. An hour into the ceremony, we disburse to find our own little nooks to relax and contemplate and I find myself the perfect spot, lay out my blanket, and relax. I close my eyes and allow the medicine to move through my heart and I can feel the rays of the sun touch my face through the tree that I had nestled under. I open my eyes to see the leaves moving and making shadows and light. And just like the word “willow” dropped from the sky two years prior, it came back once again. “Willow” . I gasped. In a snap of a second, I saw all the moments that led my to this precise moment and how this instant connected me to all of those previous moments. I was laying under a sprawling Willow Tree, doing my own deep soul healing. I had come full circle. Willows are resilient. They seek out water with their intelligent root systems and anchor to ground widely. They have limbs and branches that withstand the strongest of winds. The leaves are unique and dangle like twinkling lights. The Willow represents all that we can be, resilient, intelligent and rooted.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My business was not a life long dream.. I wasn’t a small child thinking that I wanted to learn reiki or talk to those that are on the other side of veil. I wanted to be a teacher or a nurse. And though I did achieve both of those dreams; I was a medic in the US ARMY and an EMT for 22 years then went back to college for a degree in Education, I was never feeling fullfilled. All my life, I had felt other peoples energies, wether it was theirs or their loved ones that have come to me to share a message. Delivering message became of fun hobby and sometimes reading peoples Auras was a fun evening party trick. IN 2011, I went through what I now know as a Dark Nigh of the Soul. I had lost my sense of being, belonging, purpose and became extremely depressed. I didnt recognize myself in the mirror, love seemed useless. Indian want to die but I didnt want to be here. Also, I had noticed that my energetic world had gone silent. I was not able to feel the natural buzz of the day to day world. I had usually battled the congestion of people and spirit at the grocery store or sporting events, however, there was nothing. No noise, No battle. After six months of this, I recall waking up one morning, coffee mug in hand, looking outside at the trees and noticed that there was color back into my life. It was life for 6 months I had seen life in black and white and now, life had returned. Life of myself and the world around me. I had tears of joy and appreciation. In that moment, I had a knowing or a voice say to me in my mind “No you know what life is life without your gifts, It is time to do something with them.” From that moment on, I sought out teachers and mentors and community. I was urged by my mentor to start delivering spirit messages and market myself. I started with friends and family and then the word got out. I was seeing strangers to help them find closure and connection. Along the way, I had someone mention to me “reiki”. Until this time I had never heard of it, but my intuition said that this was something I HAD to know. I found a Reiki Master Teacher and scheduled an attunemtent (which is being taught Reiki and then the channel to receive and deliver the energies are aligned with you). I was attuned to Reiki level 1 without ever having receieved a reiki healing session prior, and I was hooked. It felt so natural, like I had simply remembered a part of myself. Within one year, I was a Reiki Master and sharing the loving and warm universal energy with anyone that would lay on the table, I now teach Usui reiki to others as believe we all have the ability to be our own healers. It’s important to me that others realize and remember that they have so much power and it all exists within. Over time, my style of energetic healing has evolved. I have developed a style to which I call upon the Quantum Fields or “multi-deminsional” fields and connect the physical body to the soul essence of the client. Deep, ancestral and astral healing and experienced happen in this healing. I also offer what I call the Somatic Serpent Clearing. (This is a modality that was never taught to me, but rather remembered). You may have heard of Kundalini energy which is another word for Life Force- it’s what makes you YOU- where your life energy is centered. Kundalini looks like to snakes coiled at the base of your spine. I call upon those serpents to gently and lovingly, clear your physical body and auric fields of what it no longer needs. Clients have reported a profound sense of connection to their soul essence and physical body. I witness many of my clients have somatic or physical movements as they release these old energies and beliefs. I still offer messages from spirit and guides. I love to teach, and teach Reiki as well as my other modalities to those interested. Additionally, I teach children that have exceptional abilities. Yes, those young ones that have psychic or mediumship abilities. I host a group meeting monthly with the children and their parents so that they can talk about their experiences as well , the parents can meet with each other and share theirs. In this meetings, I also share techniques and skills for the children to feel safe and have a better understanding of their gifts. As I have grown in my own abilities, my offerings are constantly evolving and new offerings are being added to my website.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I had a career in Emergency Medicine, then returned to college to get my degree in Middle Childhood Education, and eventually was employed at the local high school. All the while. offering readings and reiki from my home. I did this for over 15 years. Though, into my third year of being an educator, I was finding that I was having to turn clients away because I had my obligation as a teacher. Being a teacher was getting in the way. I felt this internal shift in my chest. I remember starting to feel like I was trapped like a caged animal when I was in the school, clocked in and stuck there until the last bell. I would have daily panic attacks as the day would drag on. I contemplated how I could get out of the day, pretend to be sick, make up a drs appt that I had to go to, or just simply dissociate and trudge through the day. I usually just trudged. I felt an obligation to the students and they were all really so lovely. I didnt want to let them down or abandon them. Upon graduation of that years students, my youngest son included in that graduation class, I put in my resignation. I knew that I could no longer live like I was. The anxiety had become debilitating and I was absolutely unfulfilled. I took the leap, a BIG one, to leave a “normal job” to being a Psychic Medium/Reiki Healer as my primary income. It was terrifying, and sometimes still is. I moved my office out of my home and found a small little nook in the college town next door and founded an LLC. I made business cards and logo. Opened a business banking account, and paid for my first official website to be created. I had never felt so aligned with my calling until then. People made appointments and would become return clients, referring others to me. I had heard that my name had been shared on a local towns Facebook page and that brought me quite a few clients. My website helped me gain a more national reach. I have now seen clients from Ohio, but also California, Florida, Washington, and expanding all the way from Vancouver, BC to little towns In Australian. I even had a client from Istanbul join in one of my online events. I am continuing to refine how I can reach a wider clientele. I have never felt so sure that I made the right decision.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Social conditioning has to be unlearned and that one is a doozy. It become engrained into out DNA (it seems) that we must get a job out of school and work there until we reach the age of retirement, receive our pensions and social security and eventually we pass on. We are taught these things in the education system, by our parents and grandparents, social medias and television. We need to do all of these things because ….. WHY? I realized that we dont “have to do any of that” as long as we know how to invest in ourselves first. I fought the urge to go back to “working of the man” many many times. I had to relearn that not everyones path is the same. We aren’t all meant to fit into this “box”. It took me almost 15 years to realize that I could sustain in the work that I love to do. That I was worthy of offering what I love and not to have guilt creep in. Hearing another’s voice in my head “you need to get a real job”, when in my heart I knew that that would put me into complete despair. What I had to unlearn was that, my needs had to come first and I needed to listen to my own calling. NOT the projection of someone else’s view point. It’s ok that they are motivated by the mind set off : career, retire, die. While I am motivated by: passion work, seeing my purpose and being financially concious of my future, then pass on. Going down a different path than others is not easy. We sometimes feel that we are alone, but that is what community is about. Finding others that are paving new roads and receiving support from them.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.willowhealing.net
- Instagram: @healwithjulie
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JulieGenovesePsychicMedium
Image Credits
Head shot: Pictures with Polly – Polly Dierkens