“Beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference but by its affirmation, by each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that shape who we are and how we live in the world.”
– bell hooks
Soul Guide · Somatic Coach · Ritualist · Group Facilitator
My name is Joanna. I am a relational somatic coach, guide, and facilitator devoted to the work of remembering—soul, spirit and our place within the living world.
I support people in reconnecting with themselves in relationship to body, culture, land, and lineage. My work is rooted in the understanding that healing is not separate from the world we live in, but shaped through our relationships with family, community, history, and the more than human world.
“What we suffer from most is culture failure, amnesia of ancestry and deep family story, sham rites of passage, no instruction on how to live with the world around us or with our dead or with our history”
– Stephen Jenkinson
We are living in a time of unraveling. Old ways of being are no longer holding. Many are feeling this as burnout, grief, disconnection, or a loss of meaning. This work offers a place to slow down and listen. Not to fix what is breaking, but to stay in relationship with what is changing, and to begin remembering more grounded, relational ways of being.
I guide empaths, creatives, and those moving through transition, grief, and rupture. Many who come to this work are navigating burnout, disconnection, or the quiet sense of having adapted to systems that ask them to leave parts of themselves behind. Together, we slow down and listen to the body, to dreams, to what has been held in silence.
Where do I belong?
Where is my place in this world?
Who are my people?
I facilitate relational spaces, including circling, dream circles, and grief rituals, where what has been carried alone can be met in shared presence. These spaces are not about fixing, but about allowing what is true to be seen, felt, and integrated.
As a queer, first generation Filipina American, I carry an awareness of living between worlds. My path has been shaped by illness, heartbreak, wonder, and the living earth. The work I offer is the work I am in relationship with—one of listening, remembering, and returning.
If you are longing for depth, connection, or a way back to yourself, this work begins by turning toward what is already here. From there, we learn to live in closer relationship with the body, the soul, and the world that holds us.
Joanna Bartolome
Who I Work With & How I Work
My work is devoted to marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC individuals and adult children of immigrants navigating identity, belonging, and the tension between ancestral roots and modern life. I support those moving through major life transitions, grief, shame, anxiety, depression, and the layered impacts of intergenerational, racial, and systemic trauma. I have also worked with veterans navigating trauma and reintegration, as well as children with Down syndrome, bringing a grounded and compassionate presence to diverse experiences of embodiment and care.
My practice is relational, slow, and deeply attuned. I meet each person where they are, honoring the intelligence of protective patterns while creating space for grief, anger, and aliveness to emerge safely. My approach is informed by somatic practice, depth psychology, liberation psychology, and a decolonial lens.
As a queer, first-generation Filipina American and highly sensitive person, I create spaces that are warm, spacious, and grounded in presence, where depth and levity coexist, and where healing is approached with humility, reverence, and care.
Soulcentric Ecology and Creative Expression
I approach this work through a non pathologizing, ecological lens.
Rather than seeing distress as something to fix, I understand it as a meaningful response shaped by family, culture, history, and environment. Influenced by Bill Plotkin, I hold that healing is not about returning to normal, but about listening for the unique expression of the soul.
Nature is a teacher in this process. Awe, beauty, and contact with the more than human world help restore a sense of belonging and orientation beyond the ego.
Within this frame, I understand art as a form of prayer. Not something we produce through effort alone, but something that moves through us. This same listening extends into ritual and movement, where the body becomes a site of expression and integration, allowing what is held to shift, release, and find form.
I guide empaths, creatives, and visionaries in listening to what wants to emerge, both individually and in relational spaces such as circling, dreamwork, and grief rituals. This work invites a shift from fixing to listening, and from isolation to relationship.
Land Orientation, Acknowledgement & Prayer
I live and practice in Berkeley, on unceded Ohlone land, holding reverence for the original stewards of this place. Her work is shaped by living between worlds, where modern systems and ancient ecologies coexist, often in tension.
Among the native plants of the hills, the eucalyptus groves, and the redwoods of places like Tilden Regional Park, I am continually reminded that healing does not happen in isolation. The land carries memory. So do our bodies. Many of the struggles people carry are not only personal, but shaped by histories that have been silenced, displaced, or forgotten through colonization and modernity.
My practice supports a gentle remembering of these histories as they live in the nervous system, in relationships, and in the stories we inherit. My work with ancestral trauma alongside present day experience, honoring both what has been endured and what continues to move through us.
I understand healing as relational and ecological. I believe that we are participants in a living world, shaped by our families, communities, cultures, and the systems we move through, as well as by the more than human world that surrounds and sustains us. Her work invites a return to connection, dignity, and belonging within this wider field of life.
The Nature of my Work
I hold a special affinity for artists, creatives, decolonizing spiritual seekers, neurodivergent individuals, people living with chronic pain, and queer late bloomers. Many of the people I work with arrive at points of rupture. This can look like burnout from high pressure environments such as Silicon Valley tech culture, healthcare systems, or academia. It can be moral injury from workplaces that compromise integrity, or a quiet disconnection that comes from adapting to systems that reward performance over presence.
Often, there is a sense of feeling estranged from one’s dignity, voice, or inner coherence, alongside a deep longing to return.
My work is a weaving of trauma informed therapy, somatic wisdom, nature based ceremony, and the soul rooted path of Wild Yoga. I guide you to listen to the language of your body, the messages that rise through dreams, and the voices of the living earth.
These are not just practices, but portals. Doorways into a deeper life rooted in courage, devotion, and soulful alignment. I honor the mystery of each unfolding, meeting you where you are and trusting the wild intelligence that lives within you.
Joanna’s approach is rooted in reverence for the lineages, ancient and modern traditions, and lived experiences that inform this work. I honor the inseparability of mind, body, spirit, and psyche, while recognizing that each person’s inner world is shaped in relationship to family, culture, history, and systems of power. My practice weaves somatic work, depth psychology, relational practice, and earth based ways of knowing. I draw from Relational Somatic Healing as developed by Shirley Dvir, as well as traditions of dreamwork, active imagination, and parts work. I am guided by lineages of thought and practice that honor psyche, ecology, and grief, including the work of Gloria Anzaldúa, James Hillman, Francis Weller, Joanna Macy, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David Abram. I also draw from contemplative traditions such as Theravāda Buddhism, and from Filipino and diasporic lineages that center relationality, community, and the sacredness of everyday life.
Rather than isolating symptoms, my work attends to the full ecology of the self—where personal healing and collective context are deeply intertwined.
Modalities I draw from…
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Relational Somatic Healing (RSH) – body-based, attachment-informed work rooted in co-regulation
Somatic Practice – nervous system regulation, embodiment, and tracking sensation
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Active Imagination – engaging inner figures, symbols, and the imaginal realm
Dreamwork & Image-Based Inquiry – working with dreams as portals to the unconscious
Parts Work (IFS-informed) – honoring protective strategies and integrating exiled parts
Psychodynamic & Depth Psychology – exploring unconscious patterns, early attachment, and intergenerational themes
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Relational Practice – healing through attunement, co-regulation, and authentic connection
Gestalt Therapy – present-centered awareness and experiential exploration of relational dynamics
Liberation & Decolonial Psychology – contextualizing personal experience within systems of power, culture, and history
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Ecosomatic Practice – reconnecting body with land, ecology, and the more-than-human world
Earth-Based Ritual – working with nature, rhythm, and ceremony as forms of integration
Mythopoetic & Narrative Work – engaging story, symbol, and imagination to re-author personal and ancestral meaning
Workshops & Trainings
Relational Somatic Healing: Relational Touch Training with Shirley Dvir
Relational Somatic Healing: Beyond Attachment Training with Shirley Dvir
Loving-Kindness Meditation Workshop with Anam Thubten
Innerdance Facilitation with Serena Olsen
Dragon Dreaming Facilitation with John Croft
The Ecological Self / The Work that Reconnects
Vipassana with Goenka
Neo-Reichian Workshop
Somatic Holistic Health Navigation with Luis Mojica
Authentic Movement Workshop with Lysa Castro
Neo Anger Release Workshop with David Manning
NVC Reclaiming Life Training with Aya Caspi
Joanna Macy: Coming Back to Life Workshop with Lydia Violet
Vinyasa Yoga Training Instructor
I bring a holistic and integrative approach to healing, drawing from diverse movement, psychodynamic, and spiritual modalities. Below is a list of trainings and workshops I incorporate.
I charge sliding scale between $80 - $150 per 50 min session.
Training / Professional Background
