Good Neighbor Podcast: Colorado Springs

EP #93: From Pain to Purpose: A Therapist's Transformative Journey

• Tony Hills & Jennifer Kelly • Episode 93

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What makes Jennifer Kelly with Divine Insight Therapy a good neighbor?  

What happens when a therapist learns to heal herself first? Jennifer Kelly of Divine Insight Therapy shares her remarkable journey from struggling with anorexia and debilitating chronic pain to becoming a multi-faceted healer serving the Colorado Springs community.

At the heart of Jennifer's practice is somatic processing therapy, which she describes as "talk therapy for your body and nervous system." This approach helps clients reconnect with their physical selves, decoding the wisdom their bodies have been trying to communicate. Whether recovering from trauma, managing anxiety, or healing from eating disorders, somatic work offers a pathway back to embodiment that many traditional therapies miss. Jennifer explains how most of us only notice our bodies when things are extremely good or bad, overlooking the treasure trove of information available in between these extremes.

Beyond her individual therapy work, Jennifer hosts the Sacred Circle, a monthly gathering focused on authentic self-love that has been running for six years. She challenges the commercialized bath-bombs-and-manicures version of self-love, revealing the deeper practice of self-acceptance and refusing self-abandonment. Fascinatingly, she points to research showing our bodies produce a specific neuropeptide only when experiencing genuine self-love, suggesting we're biologically designed for this practice. Jennifer also offers esoteric services for interested clients, drawing on psychic abilities she's experienced since seeing her first ghost at age four.

Perhaps most compelling is Jennifer's personal transformation through somatic work. Once using mobility devices and unable to type due to fibromyalgia, chronic migraines, and a spinal condition, she experienced dramatic improvement through her own somatic training. Now planning a rebrand to Sacred Alchemy Therapy this fall, Jennifer's story demonstrates the profound healing possible when we learn to listen to our bodies and practice authentic self-love. Ready to begin your own healing journey? Visit divine-insight.com to learn more.

To learn more about Divine Insight Therapy go to: 

https://www.divine-insight.com/#/

Divine Insight Therapy

719-352-9771



Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Tony Hills.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a somatic processing therapist? Help might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing our good neighbor, jennifer Kelly, with Divine Insight Therapy. Jennifer, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

Pretty good. How are you today?

Speaker 2:

I am awesome. We're excited to learn about your business, so tell us about it what it is that you do.

Speaker 3:

So I own Divine Insight Therapy and I hold an office in downtown Colorado Springs. I offer a few different things in my practice, the first of which is somatic processing. As you mentioned, it's also known as somatic trauma resolution therapy, which is essentially talk therapy for your body and your nervous system. It's a really effective method for anyone looking to better have connection to their body, recover from physical harm, eating disorder, recovery, anxiety, depression. The list really is endless.

Speaker 3:

In addition to somatic processing, I also offer yoga therapy. The second thing I do is I lead a monthly group called the Sacred Circle, which is a group of people just really focused on self-love. We do a different thing every month that focuses on self-love, self-acceptance. That's also held at my office. And then the third option on my menu of services is what I call esoteric therapies. This is where I tap into more psychic abilities that I have and use divinatory tools to aid my clients and that might look like dream interpretation, tarot reading, necromancy, energetic clearings, maybe even getting a ghost out of somebody's home, and then I also teach clients or students how to use these skills.

Speaker 2:

Okay, how did you get into this business?

Speaker 3:

Oh gosh. So my journey kind of started from a sad place, as most people do, I'd imagine. I recovered from anorexia over 20 years ago, and during my recovery process I found that many of the practitioners that I found just did not really understand anorexia or disordered eating in general, and so I ended up kind of healing myself, which led me to want to become the healer that I needed back then. One of my you know, my mantra, kind of that I go with is that I'm trying to save the planet or heal the planet one person at a time, and I started with myself. So somatic processing really made a lot of sense to me, since it is such a body-based therapy and it actually found me I didn't necessarily find it For the sacred circle self-love piece.

Speaker 3:

In my time, in working with the amazing people who are brave enough to walk through my door, I've noticed that no matter who I'm working with or what bag they are looking to unpack with me, it all comes down to the same root of lack of self-love, and so that constant and consistent thread led me to want to create a more open space for people who maybe not weren't one of my clients that wanted to work on this self-love.

Speaker 3:

We heal better when we're in community, and so that really led me to opening the circle which I've actually been leading for six years now. We did have a little hiccup there during COVID, but it's been very inspiring to heal with these people. It's taken my personal self-love journey further than I could have imagined. And then, on the esoteric side of things, I saw my first ghost when I was four years old. So this has been just a very strange but very common thing for me. My whole life Started using divinatory tools when I was quite young and I have so many stories of receiving information for a client or a friend or a family member that ended up becoming true or correct later on. But the biggest lesson here is again, it comes back to that self-love piece that I have to trust myself, and that's the thing I teach my students is it comes down to self-trust, self-acceptance, which is rooted in self-love.

Speaker 2:

Okay, what are some myths and misconceptions in your industry?

Speaker 3:

So, for the somatic piece, most people hear that word trauma in the term somatic trauma resolution, which is why I usually call it somatic processing. But they hear that word trauma and a lot of them run for the hills or they think that it has to be a big, humongous capital T trauma in order for them to ask for and receive help, and I always tell my clients that if it's significant to them, it's significant to me. A lot of the work that we do in therapy session is really getting clients to listen to their bodies or even just be in their bodies. Most of us are not in our bodies unless things are really really right or really really wrong, and there's so much nuance and really vital information and signals that your body is giving you every moment of every single day. So we work a lot with you, know different tools and techniques to get the client in their body that they can take with them day to day and get them further down their path of health, whether I'm with them on that path or not.

Speaker 3:

For the self-love piece you know this is a very trendy term these days, and so one thing that I like to remind people is that self-love goes well beyond like bath bombs and treating yourself and getting manicures.

Speaker 3:

Truly loving yourself is self-acceptance and refusing to further engage in self-abandoning or self-betraying behavior. And refusing to further engage in self-abandoning or self-betraying behavior. According to the work of Candice Pert, who wrote the book Molecules of Emotion, where she really goes into how she discovered all these neuropeptides, which are the chemicals and building blocks that our brains and our bodies run on. She discovered a neuropeptide called VIP that we only experience chemically when we feel self-love. So we're actually built for self-love, the huge, huge component in everybody's healing. Um, and then for the esoteric side of things. We don't have enough time to go through the myths and misconceptions of all that psychic stuff, but I do encourage anyone who is interested, and especially those who are skeptical, ask questions of me or another practitioner. I love when people get curious and have the questions because I am passionate about this stuff. I'm happy to answer it for you if I can, or you can educate yourself if you're really curious.

Speaker 2:

Okay, who are your target customers and how do you attract them?

Speaker 3:

Um. So my target customer is anyone who is interested, invested and devoted to healing, and especially those who are willing to do the work themselves. My clients are kind of metaphorically rowing a boat and I see my piece as the one holding the light I might guide them to. You know, a dark bit of water that might be scary, but let's just go take a look and see what's over there. Or, you know, let's go, let's go finish up this piece over here.

Speaker 3:

Everyone's path of health is different, as it should be, and you know, somatic processing isn't for everyone, but for those that it works for, it can be truly life changing. Thus thus far, I've only advertised in one place and that is the app and website, the free app, um, everywhere is queer, which guides people in the queer community to businesses that are safe for them to use. Other than that, literally every client, except for one that I can think of, has been a referral. So it has all been word of mouth of people, you know, coming in and experiencing my work and then telling their coworkers or their friends or family about the work and then coming to heal themselves.

Speaker 2:

Okay, outside of work, what do you do for fun?

Speaker 3:

Oh, I am an avid reader. I read about 50 books a year and I always have at least two going. I have what I call my spinach salad book, which is full of nutrition, and maybe it doesn't always taste so good, but oh, do I need it. And then I have my hot fish sundae book, which is just fun, no nutritional value. I'm also a writer. I'm actually in the editing phase of two of my books, one of which is going to be a series of the work I've been doing with the Sacred Circle. My partner and I love to travel, especially to warm beaches. We also love food. We love cooking together. We have two dogs that we take on hikes whenever we can. I am very lucky to have two wonderful teenagers. I love to spend time with them when they let me. I create quite a bit. I enjoy sewing, knitting, I create items that I sell in my office candles, oil, sprays, jewelry even. And then I am a child raised in the 80s and 90s, so I love my TV and movies. Can't get away from that.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, let's switch gears. Can you describe a hardship or life challenge you overcame, how it made you stronger and what comes to mind?

Speaker 3:

Sure, I mean. I've had many struggles in my life that have definitely shown up in my body. I live with chronic pain in triplicate. Unfortunately, I have a spinal condition called spinal lysis, which includes a broken vertebrae that will likely never heal. I have chronic migraines that I've had since I was seven years old and then, just for fun, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about 11 years ago. So, depending on the day, I'm fighting one or all three of those dragons at the same time.

Speaker 3:

Back in 2014, 2015, my spinal condition was so advanced that I was using my mobility device pretty often. My fibromyalgia left my left hand pretty unusable, to the point that I had to quit working as an administrative assistant because I could no longer type and I could barely take care of my kids at the time. So it was around this time that who would end up being my mentor reached out to me and told me about the somatic processing training certificate program that she was offering, and she really pursued me. I mean, over the course of two months, she hounded me, telling me that she thought it would be great for this program. She knew that in 2009, I had attempted to go back to college to pursue a psychology degree, but then, with the pregnancy of my second child, ended me in bedrest. That just kind of ended my dream of college and trying to go to college with chronic pain and two kids just wasn't in the cards. So she really pursued me to do this somatic training, and my ex at the time wasn't really part of it. But I am determined, I'm a Capricorn, I will do the thing if I have to.

Speaker 3:

And so I did the training and it was 18 months of really intense learning, very intense therapy. Had no idea that that's what it was going to be, but through the course of the training I watched my health improve dramatically. My migraines went from having three to four a month down to once a month. Down to now I might have one a year maybe. My fibromyalgia pretty much vanished. I have full use of my left hand, no problems whatsoever. My spondylolisthesis still doesn't bother me, but not to the degree that it used to. I mean, my chronic pain was so bad At one point I almost ended my life and I now celebrate that day that I chose as my second chance day, because it's my of my strength that I still climb these mountains even with that big burden on my back.

Speaker 2:

Wow, awesome journey, awesome testimony. Glad that you were able to overcome that stuff. So, jennifer, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about divine insight therapy.

Speaker 3:

So one thing that they should remember is if there's anything on my menu of services that they are not interested in, I'm never going to force them to order something they're not hungry for. So if someone comes in for somatic processing, I'm never going to pull out the tarot cards. If someone comes in for tarot reading, I'm never going to ask them how that feels in their body. I pride myself on my integrity and I follow what the client wants, not what I think they need.

Speaker 2:

Okay, Okay, Jen for police officers. How can our listeners learn more about Divine Insight Therapy?

Speaker 3:

So right now they can go to my website, which is divine-insightcom that's D-I-V-I-N-E-I-N-S-I-G-H-Tcom, and there they can even schedule an appointment. They can learn more about me or more about the things that I offer. My phone number, my email is all on there. Information about Sacred Circle is on there as well. We meet on the third Saturday of every month at my office downtown. I do want to mention that this fall, my business name will be changing to Sacred Alchemy Therapy and I will be reclaiming my maiden name. So I will no longer be Jennifer Kelly, I'll be Jennifer Riger, but only the name is going to change. Everything else stays the same. I built my practice in 2016. And so it's all going to be the same, just the name will change.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Well, Jennifer, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business much success moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpcoloradospringscom. That's gnpcoloradospringscom, or call 719-679-4720.