Conversations with Joy Shaw

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joy Shaw.

Hi Joy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In many ways, my first pregnancy and the birth of my first daughter was the impetus for my evolution into becoming someone who supports and facilitates others on their holistic healing journeys. After the beautiful homebirth of my third daughter, I felt called to learn how to support other women/womb bearers to be able to have empowering birth experiences. I thought that maybe I would one day become a midwife, and it seemed that becoming a doula would be the best place to start. I had been a doula for a few years, when (January 16, 2010) I had a stroke from a brain aneurysm and nearly died.

What followed were some very difficult years, but with my children as my anchor and motivator, I was determined to heal. When the doctors insisted I would need to remain on blood pressure medicine and possibly other medications for the rest of my life, I refused to believe it. There was something inside of me that felt certain I could figure out how to bring my body back into balance and wholeness. That motived me to learn more and more about ways to naturally and holistically heal my traumatized brain and cardiovascular system.

Within a handful of years, I was able to get off of medication and support my health naturally through my nutrition and lifestyle. During this time, I was also building a massage therapy and energy work practice, while still supporting many families through their birth experiences. I was personally experiencing the effectiveness of a holistic approach to healing, and my passion for learning and helping others to heal similarly continued to grow. Over the years, I acquired more tools and knowledge, while I was discovering ways to heal on even deeper levels (mind, body & spirit). As I evolved, so did the work I was able to do with my clients.

My work in childbirth and holistic healing, as well as my experience of finding my way through my own personal trauma history brought me an understanding of the profound value and beauty that can be found in exploring these challenging spaces of healing, where the journey to healing often begins with a crisis moment or in a stuck place. Because, it is then that we are forced to recognize that a change must be made, and we often need someone to help us figure out how to begin that process. I get the beautiful privilege of shepherding people through these transformative spaces and supporting them on that path in a variety of ways.

My own journey taught me that discomfort, which we often prefer to avoid, is really a gift that life offers us. Experiences that get us outside our comfort zone offer us an invitation into personal expansion and evolution, where we can better share the innate gifts that we each possess. Rather than approaching healing as a systematized process, I see it as an ever expanding, unfolding journey. It’s a dance that you learn how to do, and as you get further into it, the moves refine and become more fluid and graceful, the steps more intricate. When we are healing holistically – addressing all the parts of the whole human – through the entirety our being, that process eventually just becomes a dance… until that process is just you, as an ever-evolving creative expression of life. I often joke these days that I spend 15 years helping women give birth to babies, and now I help people give birth to themselves.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A near death experience + a major health crisis, 2 divorces, and some childhood trauma… those were just a few of the more significant hurdles I faced. But, I wouldn’t be who I am today, if I had not had those experiences. I can honestly say, I am grateful for each and every part of this journey.

I think we all have to learn how to alchemize the ingredients of our unique human experience and the contrasting components of our reality in order to become the conscious creator of our own stories. Some of us just have more ingredients to work with… but think of all the things we can make with that!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I would definitely identify as a creative soul… There are many people in Nashville who watched me perform on stage for years in a popular local 80’s cover band that I was a part of. I also used to write and sing my own songs, but these days most of my creativity is expressed through what I like to call “The Artistry of Holistic Living” in the work I do as a Holistic Coach & Transformational Facilitator.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
My 3 daughters, who are now all adults, have been my biggest teachers and my biggest inspirations in this life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joyshaw.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awakenwithjoy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joyshawholistic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@awakenwithjoy