Julia Paulette Hollenbery - Author, The Healing Power of Pleasure: Seven Medicines for Rediscovering the Innate Joy of Being
Julia Paulette Hollenbery
Julia Paulette Hollenbery is a bodyworker, therapist, mystic, healer and facilitator. For more than 25 years she has guided countless clients into deep confidence and self-authority.
She is passionate about sharing her life-long love of the mystery, real sensual relationship, and the life of the body.
In her book, The Healing Power of Pleasure: Seven Medicines for Rediscovering the Innate Joy of Being, Julia explains how how pleasure is all around us, and she explores seven easily accessible spiritual “medicines” to discover more sensual pleasure and delight in your body, relationships, and way of being.
I’m excited for you to connect with Julia, check out her work and new book, and follow along as she continues to help you activate your sensual potential, trust your deep knowing, and embody your joy.
I'd love it if you'd introduce yourself, what you do, and what you're working on.
Hello! I’m Julia Paulette Hollenbery, a bodyworker, therapist, facilitator, mystic, author and speaker. For over 25 years I’ve worked with people, guiding them back to body and soul, to being at home in their own life. My book, ‘The Healing Power of Pleasure: Seven Medicines for Rediscovering the Innate Joy of Being,’is being internationally published in September 2021. It is about trauma and healing, science and spirituality, relationships and the earth. I am now teaching my wise way and hoping to spark a Pleasure Movement. I love to dance wildly and spend time by oceans and in forests.
How did you get started?
As a small child I loved to join in with my mother, a physiotherapist working from home, who often gave me, with her clients’ permission, an arm or a leg to work on. She thought I was playing, but I always felt serious and clear.
As a teenager, I loved to give massages and found that I understood the people around me.
As a young adult, through the process of healing myself, I found great positive change. I wanted to share this good stuff with others and then trained as a bodyworker and therapist.
What Inspired the work you’re doing?
As a child I felt free in the garden, underneath the willow tree and big blue sky, with wide golden wheat fields up to the horizon, surrounded by colourful flowers and buzzing insects - but confused and constrained by the human unhappiness I felt in school and in houses.
I knew that a great deal more pleasure and joy is possible for us all.
At times I have felt very sad, lost and alone. I have moved through breakdowns and breakthroughs, and have been on a huge transformational journey of healing and therapy, spiritual practices and paths. I found the techniques that worked for me and for my clients.
I want other people who are struggling now, to know that they too can heal and thrive. That life is not just obligation, blame and stress, delight can be enfolded within ordinary life too.
What is your biggest passion? Do you feel like you're living your passion and purpose?
I want to wake people up to the rich sensuality of life, to the magic of the mystery and the infinite possibilities of real relationships. Now I am teaching this ancient way to a happy life.
I have always known there was something for me to do, a book to write, a message to share. Sometimes achieving it seemed impossible. Yet I wanted to become who I really am!
I stayed true to my sense of potential and destiny. Half a life-time ago, I wrote the first part, raw and emotional, knowing I would write the second part when I was healed and evolved… A few years ago I began to write again, and the words poured out of me… Now I am excited my book is being internationally published and will I hope reach and help a lot of people.
I love sensing my body’s sensitive intelligence, translating sensations upwards into ideas and actions. This is a rich valuable way of life everyone can learn, that supports wise choices.
I do feel on-track – aligned, guided and blessed – happy, fulfilled and grateful.
What is your joy blueprint? What lights you up, brings you joy, and makes you feel the most alive?
Connection. Connection with people, nature, animals and elements. There is something about contact that is deeply satisfying, whether it is a smile across a room, throwing a ball back and forth, or the toot of a train driver’s horn in response to a wave! And sometimes it is a really subtle sense.
Creativity is an extension of that for me, articulating, giving form to some inner impulse that is then later seen, heard, tasted or felt by another.
I also love sensing and moving my body, whether that’s walking or dancing, kickboxing or meditating, yoga, kayaking or love-making.
How do you live intentionally? Are there tools/resources/practices that you rely on to help you stay mindful and grounded?
By now, after decades of personal and spiritual work, presence feels like something that lives in and around me, integrated into everyday life, rather than practices I must do.
I love to sit quietly, to be in nature, especially in sunshine and by water; to meditate on my belly centre, to dance, to inquire, to reflect, to breathe, to sleep, to bathe; to spend time with friends with whom I can be honest and who also feedback to me when I’m ‘off’; being kind to myself, finding moments, clothes, meals, music, people, et al that really delight me; following my impulse, guidance and passion. I also value bodywork and spiritual sessions.
What would your younger self think about what you're doing now?
Wow, such a great question to answer. My younger self, so very lost, would be delighted I have achieved/am achieving what she knew was possible for me in the future. She would be very happy and proud that I found my way through great difficulty and into contented balance and happiness in relationships, work and everyday life. Not so-called perfect, sometimes now also frustrated, lonely or sad, but so grounded, responsible and capable. She would think, ‘I knew you could do it!’ ‘Well done!’ and ‘I Love You!.’
Never doubt the promptings of your soul.
Do you have a go-to mantra or affirmation?
Not really… my way is not a fixed repeating sentence, but spontaneously responsive through the body and feelings, dancing with life. Could describe that as, The only way out is through!
What is your biggest dream?
My heart knows something that it wants to share. My dream is to ignite widespread self-worth, kindness and enjoyment. So we can shift our social suffering into ease and delight for all, me and you, and for the animals, plants and insects too. May all beings be well. Xxx
To connect with Julia visit her on her website https://universeofdeliciousness.com on Facebook @juliapaulettehollenbery Twitter @JuliaHollenbery Instagram @Julia.paulette.hollenbery and LinkedIn @Juliahollenbery
Joy Corner is an interview-style blog series brought to you by Seek The Joy Podcast. Our mission continues to be a desire to share your stories, truths, joys and inspiration in your words. We invite you to join our corner, and share your joys, passions, and moments of inspiration as we continue to seek the joy, together. Join this series here