Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Joy Adler is an accomplished holistic health, healing, and wellness leader with over three decades of experience. She founded Alternative Healing Arts in 1993, integrating psychology, energy work, and the arts to help individuals overcome trauma and achieve optimal well-being. Joy is an award-winning singer/songwriter and sound healer, whose music plays a central role in her healing practices. Her journey has been deeply influenced by her training with Native American shamans, where she reclaimed her voice and spiritual path.
Joy serves as the Dean of both the master´s program Advanced Studies, at The Barbara Brennan School of Healing in Florida and their school in New York, mentoring the next generation of healers. She continues to perform with her group, The Souls of Evolution, as well as leading spiritual musical retreats to sacred sites. Her work combines her vast experience in energy healing, sound therapy, and education, offering transformative experiences through music and teaching. Joy´s commitment to healing extends beyond her practice, as she shares her knowledge through workshops, writings, and upcoming books, helping others reclaim their paths and voices.
Can you tell us more about your work and how you ended up where you are today?
I began my work as a client trying to heal from my own traumatic Injuries. I was a person who had once been an award-winning public speaker with a bright future as well as being a lead singer in a rock band, which had always been my goal. Yet it was in my efforts to further my music career, as well as my career in marketing, that many traumatic experiences stopped me to the point that I was terrified to sing or speak. Naturally, I needed to reach out for help, as this kept me “stuck”, and blocked my own life force and me from doing what I was meant to do.
Have you encountered any major challenges during your journey and how have these affected you?
It was in seeking help that I was able to really engage in my own deep healing process and reclaim my voice as well as my music. As Barbara Brennan’s program taught me, “Healer heal thyself”. It was a challenging road. Yet it also put me on a path of leading and teaching others what I had learned after much healing and training. Hence, there were many gifts born from the trauma, for which I am now grateful. In my process, all of the gifts from my wounds began to emerge as I risked dropping into my them to “feel to heal” as they say. Eventually and organically, I risked speaking and singing again. With music, I began to express myself differently- and I began to integrate my healing into music in an entirely new, and authentic way. So my path was forged from trauma and in healing from that trauma, I was inspired by those that helped me become the person that I was meant to be, and I wanted to get the best education so that I could hope to learn how to help others in turn.
When I began healing school, I also knew that I wanted to be a teacher. As a communication major, I knew that I wanted to be a counselor too. I was guided to learn as much as I could about energy, I was fortunate to find the book Hands of Light at a time when Barbara Brennan was so popular from her books and school including, Light Emerging and Seeds of Spirit. I attended her workshop and finally felt a place where I belonged. I began attending the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, a 4-year program in 1994 and was trained by her and some of her exemplary staff. Upon graduation, I felt honored that they asked me to enter their teacher training program and I studied early childhood psychology post-grad during this deep training period as well. I went on to become a teacher at the school where I am still training others, and I feel a deep respect and devotion to supporting the next generation of healers and counselors.
Is there something special that keeps you motivated?
Yes, training the next generation, as mentioned!! I often describe my work as ‘treating the body mind and soul as one’. Many years ago, when I first began this path of healing and education, I could see the future of energy work and counseling. I knew that it was about holistic health, or “treating the whole person”, yet at that time in the early `90s we were considered “fringe dwellers.” That didn’t matter to me because I had a sense that this was going to be a lasting phase that would lead us into the future. Here we are now where yoga and Wellness and holistic health, energy healing and coaching are everyday phrases and professionals that people are drawn to. As a result, as an educator, I’ve noted that we have a very sophisticated audience these days! Seeing the positive intent from others to heal themselves and help others in their unique way has also been very inspirational and motivates me to keep on doing what I’m doing!
Thus, I have loved watching the evolution of yoga, Wellness, balance, and alternative healing arts- joining with allopathic medicine for people to choose their care- teams; with great fondness and reverence. I feel blessed to have observed this through the decades, as well as having been a part of the revolution.
Further motivation has been discoveries through my research, or validation of my theories in working with people over time, new technologies, alongside ancient healing modalities. By putting myself in the “lab of life” as I call it and doing deeper healing on myself, knowing that mining the gold therein will support me to deepen my effectiveness with clients and students impels me. Reading articles from your magazine, and listening to your podcasts and other great sources that explore the fusion of the alternative with education, business and allopathic medicine- is so exciting to me. Thus continuing my own education to be informed of new ways of healing- learning of the advents in medicine as an adjunct keeps me ever inspired and offers me fresh information to refer such discoveries to clients whom they may help.
What makes you feel ‘out of your comfort zone?’ How do you handle these types of situations?
I have been blessed to be trained in a school where at one time we had people from 48 different countries. Now we have schools the world over and still attract a global audience. I had no idea how valuable this training was. As a communicator, an edge that takes me out of my comfort zone would be not speaking the language. At BBSH, because we had students from all over the globe attend, I’ve been fortunate to be trained and learn how to walk into the field of someone from Germany versus Italy, or how to address a student from Japan versus South America for example. As a communicator what takes me out of my comfort zone, is not knowing another’s language. I feel very vulnerable when I am in a situation where I do not speak the language because I genuinely want to connect. How I handle that is by learning salutations and phrases to respectfully convey to others that I am doing my best to learn respect and “meet them” where they live by learning some of their language. It is so humbling! I have to shift out of my discomfort and regulate my human energy field to meet them in a way in which they are accustomed, as opposed to being in my very direct, New York, very American, individuated way. This is one of the reasons I love living and teaching in Mexico in the winter- it puts me at my edge. It’s exhilarating, even while feeling awkward, it’s decidedly human.
I am a well-trained professional with many years of experience, so to be in a land where I’m thrilled to learn more and experience not just my mastery, but my human vulnerability is a growth opportunity amidst the awkwardness. Never stop learning and growing! As they say, the flip side of the coin of fear is excitement. I love the Mexican culture and people. Their friendly, communal ways remind me of my mother’s family from Portugal, and the way my mother was such a conscientious community person and healer. I would accompany her from house to house when I was a small girl. She knew many natural remedies. I suppose this is why I was drawn to learn from Native Americans for many years as well as hungering for the science aspect and research that Barbara was so famous for. For example, I witnessed my mother’s compassion impacting others in a loving way, but I loved science and research, therefore I needed to know why healing worked. One could say that Barbara Brennan became my second “Madre.”
I love the vibration of Mexico, it´s very different from New York where we are trained to look away to not look into someone´s eyes because we have very little space and we have to honor another’s boundaries, so suddenly being in a land where it´s inappropriate to not say buen dia, or buenas tardes, and to ask questions respectfully is refreshing. It is an excellent edge that takes me out of my comfort zone, and one I wholeheartedly work on because I miss having that kind of connection and community when I am in the United States. This is also why I feel blessed to work in a school with students from all over the world. They are my teachers. Hence: You can be uncomfortable and still be courageous.
Additionally, “riding the edge” while leading groups is challenging yet so rewarding! I am aware having been in this field for a long time, and having led groups for years, that so many personal issues arise from within a group and its individuals that present for healing. Groups are a fantastic place for healing opportunities to upwell. However, it took years to be able to work with this and to find finesse in group work! It’s interesting that “riding the wave of the unknown” as a group leader and training other group leaders is where I thrive now. Perhaps there are specific group members that can be very vexing when you first start out as a leader. That used to take me out of my comfort zone as a former “people pleaser” and yet my motivation is to train people to understand the underlying issues that will occur- to learn who their audience is. I´ve made all the mistakes that you could possibly make while being a group leader and facilitator. I´ve experienced all the boundary issues, and I always tell my students that every single day you will be challenged with boundaries in your practice in your classrooms and your online work. I encourage them to have a mentor to work with so that they don´t burn out! I love working with others- that´s what keeps me motivated because I don't want people to be off the game board of life, we need guides on earth.
As the Dalai Lama said: “The planet does not need more successful people. The planet needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. When we are in the field of helping others for a time, we get to a point in our careers, where we long to reach more people. We realize as one person we are limited in our reach. For me, learning the fine art of group process while teaching is essential. I am aligned and devoted to supporting those who help others to go the distance the same way I have in my career. My job is to support other leaders to understand the tricky situations that can occur in relationships with their audience and support them to achieve a balanced centered power for the good of the whole, and to leave this world a better place than they found it through group work, and reaching the masses.
How do you stay inspired and continue to innovate in your field?
Here’s a simple answer to that question, by my own continuing education, therapy, supervision and research, research, research! I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to be in the laboratory of your life with research that calls to you. I always say that boredom is our friend. It teaches us that we have mastered our skills at the level we are at, and we hunger for something new, for something that will nudge us out of our comfort zone. This will always please you and fill you with self-confidence knowing that you are doing your “due diligence: and expanding your capacity and knowledge base. I notice a trend in the best healers, therapists, medical staff, coaches, and educators, they seem to be “forever learners”. Hungry for knowledge. What if that desire for learning leads us to life-long work that sustains our souls through further education as well as having served so many? This brings us full circle: for we can only take a client or student to the places that we ourselves have traveled. I find this to be true, so all of the deep work of learning about myself, dropping into painful places held within my body, heart and soul, and using modalities and new pieces of training and research to delve ever deeper- is always worth it, especially when your life opens to a new opportunity.
This is external validation of your internal shifts. You know that you are born to serve, and when a positive wave of expansion from your work comes to you due to your internal shifts, it’s evidence of your great inner work, and readiness to serve humanity in a new, expanded way. We experience true joy that comes from supporting others. Assisting a client or student makes all the deep soul-searching and healing worthwhile. It makes it a win-win. It is certainly an inspiration to never get out of a beginner's mind.
I´m always learning, I´m always searching, and I´m always dropping deep within to discover more facets of myself and my clients. I can work with someone for 20 years and it´s like a book of their life that I am honored to be part of, for it seems that every session is a different chapter. I find people fascinating when you discover that there is no end in sight to the depth if you´re willing to go there first yourself and to be filled with divine pleasure from watching them complete a vicious cycle and begin to excel and expand beyond their previous set limitations, to reveal yet another facet of the diamond within. To me, this is what it is all about. I believe that we will never be fully happy without being of service in our own unique ways.
What can you tell us about your upcoming workshop at Kripalu.org and the new school year at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing?
Well first of all you have two super institutions, you´ve got the college that is the Barbara Brennan School of Healing Science training, in our 42nd year, where one can receive a Bachelor of Science, as well as go on to our graduate program. To also have the honor of teaching at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health is a perfect marriage of education in holistic healing and training at the East Coast’s best year-round retreat center in the magnificent Berkshire mountains. Students feel drawn to this workshop to learn about Barbara Brennan´s monumental body of work from her second book Light Emerging, while they are working on self-care through yoga, saunas, and hiking at Kripalu’s many trails. Being out in nature and eating organic and vegan food- right from their gardens. So that everything is in the perfect balance for them to achieve optimal health not only with the skills that we train them with from Barbara’s books but also in the environment in which they choose to learn- that´s Kripalu, that´s the Barbara Brennan School at Kripalu-perfect together! Click here for more info. https://kripalu.org/presenters-programs/light-emerging-journey-personal-healing
Congratulations on receiving your second-lifetime achievement award from Midnight Records in NYC! How has your career in music for healing evolved over the years, and what does this recognition mean to you at this point in your journey?
Thank you I appreciate that. I have to say that I was in a bit of an existential crisis when I got the call and invitation to receive the gold record from Midnight Records in New York City. I´m about 80% done with my 6th album, and I just dropped into this place of wondering “Does it matter if I create anymore?” Is anyone really listening? Is releasing another album foolhardy?” I’m human! Songwriting is so intimate. Aspects of the creative process I would say brought me to this dark night of the soul. That I was contemplating these queries, when I received a beautiful voice message from a gal who was an A&R executive at Midnight Records. She said she found my music, and she was really moved by it, and that she felt the healing energies from my songs.
I have to say that it meant everything to me in those moments due to the creative dilemma I was in, and the questions that I had. My mother always said, “Angels work through the people who are open to them”. That record executive was my Earth Angel at that time. This is why receiving that beautiful gold record, and acknowledgment of a lifetime of “music for healing”, after all of these years in the field- really put a pep in my step.
It reminded me how important music for healing is and to never stop. Create for the pleasure and balance it brings for myself, and trust that when my intention is aligned for healing to emanate out as I sing, that its vibration will find the right people, and land in those that are open, and perhaps need it. My songwriting and music changed as I evolved. My simple songs have universal themes we all experience in our lives. Our album “Community Heartshare” for example came from and inspiration to do a concert series and to invite spiritual leaders, teachers, poets and shamans to create a live album, that if you weren’t at the events, you could listen and receive healing from it-as the audience was able to during those events. My music matured to consider it an offering for replenishment of the soul. I don’t care about ‘performing’, and therefore have healed much of my fear of “being seen”, as I had suffered from in the past. I know the healing power of music. In my work, I am fortunate to work with many artists and to support them through their creative blocks. To assist them through what I refer to as their “creative wounds.” Because for artists there is no retirement. All of life is about creating what we feel a call or longing to do. Everyone is an artist. My work is to support others to discern what their “addiction to distraction” is. I have a theory that addiction is a distraction from giving ourselves what we truly want, what will fill us up from within. Gnarly, yet fertile ground to explore!
To me, what could be more interesting than the evolution of an artist? My songwriting changed as I did. I also think of contemporaries that I admire; I love watching them grow through the decades and the changes they go through and how it inform their music and art. I just find it ever fascinating, much like I find people interesting that I work with overtime. It’s similar to working with students and watching them master skills, which is engrossing. They are fascinating and brilliant if you remain present with them and listen deeply to understand. This compels me to want to support them to open to their greatest fulfillment! For I know well that being blocked prevents us from that. Personally, when I am on stage, at times, it is an orgasmic experience of universal consciousness, of feeling aligned with the oneness of all. In harmony with the audience, spirit, my band mates, The Souls of Evolution in concert- and just expressing myself completely, risking bearing myself on stage, opening my heart, knowing- that to do so people will be moved in ways that they are open to. I look to artists that I admired as I came up, who moved me when they were able to perform from essence- not from ego. In those moments I want for nothing, for I am one with all things, the cosmos, the very stars that we look upon, the oneness and magnificence…
What advice would you give to someone just starting in your industry?
1. If you´re going to get into this industry, choose the best education for what you want to do and achieve. As I shared earlier, we learn how to help others, by healing ourselves. There are no shortcuts. Choose a holistic institute that does not cut corners, and work in your own therapy as you do to expedite your healing and integrate the skills that support your personal healing and evolution. Choose the best school or program for what you long to achieve.
2. For me, I do a lot of professional supervision, which is mentoring people in helping professions or businesses, including consultations. I enjoy supporting them with challenging clients, colleagues, employees, companies, or students. I believe engaging in supervision with a mentor, will help you stretch ever further, and deepen your own healing which supports you in deepening your effectiveness with clients. This helps stave off burnout!
3. I help others to get out of their own way! I also work a lot with Chiefs of Staff, therapists and coaches in the field who get burned out due to their employees, clients, or students “resisting” or defeating their suggestions.
4. If you experience one client after another “resisting or defeating “your suggestions to help them take a step toward the horizon of their dreams…There is one answer to that, check your agenda. If you are using a willful energy-it can be perceived as “a push” or “invasive”. People who have inner authority, won’t like feeling “pushed”. It means the message we are conveying has an agenda and a palpable energy. We need to be more vulnerable, centered, to lean back, and to open our hearts to unconditional love and acceptance. This is where understanding how our energy impacts others is helpful! If people ask us what we think, invite them to tell you what they feel inside when they are living with the question they’ve posed. If you give them space, by holding a field of trusting in them to discover their answers within, it is far more valuable to them, to have that guidance wash over them than for you to be telling them what to do! Hence, I help those in the helping professions or business to “unlearn” how they have become accustomed to running their energy which leads to feeling resisted or defeated by clients, employees, or students.
5. For clients that are people pleasers, they may tell you what they think you want to hear, and then enter an unhealthy alliance with you- fearing your disapproval if they don’t do as you have suggested. It can lead to feeling disempowered for both of you! When you want to build a practice or platform, give something away that is free so people will get a sense of you. A free evening talk and demonstration. Show up for yourself, even if you’re shaking. Talking about why you love your modality will fill you with passion. End with a collective, gentle demonstration of a skill, so people can experience it for themselves. You will build a practice from this. You’ll connect with others, some will seek you out for assistance, many will refer you, and the next thing you know, you are booked months in advance. It works. I’ve built full practices in many different places and built them quickly by offering free informational chats and demos. People will connect with you and want a session straight away. People in groups will seek consulting.
6. Also, realize that opening to support can bring people back to their childhood wounding, or their “authority issues” and trigger their transference with you-“the authority”, one could surmise. We can get into tricky relational dynamics with those who seek our support if we don’t trust in the inner guide that can lead someone if we learn to ask the right questions, and then use silence effectively. Imagine asking while grounded in our hearts, rather than “telling” others what to do. My teacher Barbara Brennan taught us that it is in our deepest wounds that we discover our greatest gifts to give humankind. She shared that there is no short path to that-only our own transformational journey from pain to triumph. Hence my advice is to get the best training you can. Get the most comprehensive training, and realize that no six-month course will get you to the places that you really want to go. They will bring you to the places you need to go and then you realize as you try to become the best counselor, therapist, coach, or healer that the path is to heal oneself, for that is where your specialty lies. We cannot put the “cart before the horse” so to speak.
Can you share a moment or experience that had a significant impact on your career?
Wow, that´s hard to synthesize after 32 years in this business! I feel immense gratification in watching my students graduate and walk the stage, knowing the challenging healing journey they took to be at that moment of triumph. Seeing their smiles radiating, and witnessing their inner power and self-esteem restored, brings me immense fulfillment. Hearing how they end up integrating all that they are, all the careers they began, after healing themselves, and having the blessing of watching them help others and or the earth, is the pleasure of a lifetime. I like to see people getting on the path of what it is that they´re really meant to do because I know if they follow that longing it will bring them to their greatest pleasure, as my teacher once taught me. I believe it is possible to have a lifelong fulfilling career in the healing arts, I’m living proof of that.
A second thing I could add is it´s so important to work on our egos. I had an experience when I was leaving a state where I had served the community for many years. So many clients that I had worked with came to a concert I gave. People stood in line, they had gifts for me, as they patiently waited to share the impact I had on them, as I was signing their CDs. I learned that I meant a lot to them, and they were grieving me leaving their area. I tell you that I had no idea of my impact. There is beauty in being humble, but in this case, I underestimated the positive effect I had on their lives and the grief they felt upon me leaving. It was a beautiful awakening to support others.
Therefore, it’s imperative to understand as we grow in power, (for we will if we walk this path and heal ourselves), we have immense power from where it was formerly blocked. People will sense that power and “tune in”, people will listen. I think one of the most blow-away things for me is that people can remember what I said to them 5, 10, or 15 years ago. It’s very humbling, and it reminds me to be kind, to be centered, to “walk my talk.” I try to always communicate from my heart because people listen to those of us who are so-called leaders in the field. We have to be careful of our narcissism, we have to be conscious of feeling ‘puffed up’ from people giving us their power because they will try to.
Yet our job is to help them to find their power. I love listening to your podcasts, and hearing so many professionals say this in their own inimitable ways. I too would say the recognition that something that I said or suggested may have served to “move” a person in the direction of their dreams from many years ago, is a beautiful realization or reflection, and with it comes immense responsibility.
Recognizing the impact that those of us who are leaders, educators, and healers have on others, requires us to learn to center our power and ground it deep into the earth with humility, integrity and immense goodwill. It is a foundational quality that those of us who are looked to as leaders need to genuinely achieve, otherwise we can hurt people and abuse that power given to us, because they listen, and they may take our advice or suggestions-which can have lasting implications. I am forever grateful to those who have taught me that they avidly listen and follow suggestions or guidance that may have washed over them in their session.
As a result, and from my training, I make certain to be very clear about providing an environment where I ask questions, give space, and use silence effectively for others to open to their inner guidance. These are some of the skills that we teach in our advanced studies program at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. It encourages us to trust that the person sitting before us, or the many participants that follow us have all of the intuition that they need within them, and we need only ask questions to have them consider what their inner guidance may be. This to me, is the most empowering thing that we can do as leaders-as helpers. I always tell my students that they are the greatest healers that they know, and my job is to remind them of that.
Lastly, I will say a defining moment that had a lasting impact on me was my mentor, an Indian Chief and Medicine Man, with whom I went to study in the Southwest. He knew me before I knew myself, I was so wounded. He looked at me as I approached him and said “You are Goldenvoice that Heals. You have stopped singing and you will begin again, I had a dream of you.” I reared up like a stubborn 3-year-old and retorted, “I am not a singer, I don’t sing.”
His confident and playful assertion challenged my steely defense that I had erected to protect my wounded heart from the aforementioned trauma. He went on to say “When we are in the sweat lodge, you will chant after me- the words I sing, in my language. And you will come to remember who you really are, and you will open to your medicine song that will heal you from your past life traumas and the slaughter of your tribes that haunt you.” I was in shock, I felt he had answered a question that resonated deeply within me.
That was the beginning of the healing of what was really stopping me from teaching and singing. As I chanted beside him in the lodge, the language came easily to me, like it was from a fresh lifetime. There in the desert, claiming and healing began. This was indeed a defining moment in my life that informed my path thereafter.
Are there any exciting projects on the horizon for you?
Yes! I’m looking forward to beginning our new podcast this Autumn with a wonderful colleague and fellow musician, Dan Zavadil. It’s called; Energy Diagnostics Podcast, Where masters of energy and music to heal your body, mind and soul meet. My first job hosting a television show on holistic health was in 1997. I have also done a lot of radio, and over the years have been invited as a podcast guest. Our podcast is a bit of a full circle- combining music, energy, and the arts and interviewing talented healers, therapists and coaches as well as sound healers from around the world. Having graduated thousands of people all over the world, there is so much to offer from professionals in this field, and from this platform to get out to a larger audience. Of course, Dan and I will be on Spotify!
Tell us more about the "Online Training: Empath/Co-dependent vs. Narcissists, Ancient Methods for a Modern Pandemic".
I’m also happy to launch our larger symposium of teaching those in the helping professions the necessary shamanic tools to support people who are “haunted” by the wounds and C-PTSD that can be the result of narcissistic injury. These are no ordinary wounds, they are a “holy war” for our souls, which require much retrieval of the power we have given away in such relationships. There is a reason why people may feel as if they can’t “move on” from a job, a boss, a toxic relationship, or a friendship. It requires ancient skills to deal with this modern pandemic. Hence our title. It feels hard to “move on” after such traumatic injuries, even with modern therapy. This course offers keys for those that know there is something deeper they must see, in order to move forward in their lives.
Naturally, this is a specialty due to having suffered the tragedy of it myself. I was fortunate to seek out several mentors from indigenous tribes during my healing journey, some had been teachers at BBSH. They helped me come home to myself and release ancestral trauma that led to me attracting similar relationships later in life. I learned so much about the “unseen” world and the dynamics of the astral world, to help myself, and support others to find new ways of relating, from out of old unhealthy ways of relating they may have been taught. I was able to train our staff at BBSH in the Advanced Studies program, so our teaching team will be leading this effort in November. I feel blessed to offer skills from what I learned, knowing that the pain from my wounds and all I’ve learned and experienced was not in vain- and that it can really help people to move forward.
Last but not least, if you could share one valuable piece of advice or insight with our readers today, what would it be?
Follow your dreams, you can have what you want. You can make a great living and have balance in your work and life. You can heal. You are not broken. Your greatest gifts are from your deepest wounds-and there is no one like you. There is no one with your exact blend of talents to help this world become a better place. We need you to risk being you. You have a sacred mission. You need only align with it and ask for the right teachers and resources to come to you in support of your being on the path of this grand mission. “Ask and it shall be given,” and then open to believe. Open to receive and watch the magic, miracles, and opportunities that are meant for you, come to you. What if you risked opening to miracles as you did when you were a child? What if now was the time for those miracles to come to fruition? Believe, receive. You are the miracle you have been waiting for, remember that everything you need for fulfillment lies within.
Discover more about Joy Adler at her website!
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