Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Southerland.
Hi Sara , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Sure. I’ve always been what I call a “Type A empath” – highly driven, but also highly sensitive. When I was young, I began to “see things” – people, energies, glimpses of a future situation, but growing up in a strict religious household, I often felt ashamed of these gifts and hid them away.
In my 20s, these gifts came knocking on my door again through a challenging season of health issues and professional burnout. I began to receive clear messages about my path forward, and though at first I was incredibly resistant (intuition isn’t practical and callings can be inconvenient), I began to listen.
I sought out mentors and guides to support my path, and through out work together and years of deep personal growth, I began to feel a calling to hold space for others moving through challenges, and stepping into their gifts too.
I started my coaching practice, and soon after came sound healing. I had always sang in choirs and was very into Gregorian chant, Renaissance Polyphony music, and Enya, haha. Years ago I was performing as a lounge singer, and I heard a call to “use my voice to make change” – and I knew in my bones… it was a call to use my singing voice as a healing instrument.
Now my practice, Future Self Healing Arts, is a what I call a modern day temple for sound, somatic embodiment, and stepping into our soul’s work and gifts. I primarily work with feminine leaders who are moving through transition to step more into their gifts, voice, inner knowing to live and lead with more clarity, ease, and impact. I host women’s circles, teach a sound healing & voice mentorship and certification, a women’s circle facilitator training, create unique sound healing experiences and rite of passage events like weddings, mother’s blessing way gatherings, menopause ceremonies, and work 1-1 with feminine leaders called to step into a new chapter and share their gifts with the world.
I’m a very practical person, so I always let people know my work is a weaving of the mystical and the practical. I believe true spirituality is the act of being more here, being of service to the earth and those around us, and living our values out loud every day.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My journey through chronic pain was a massive catalyst in bringing me to this work.
Through the challenges of all that – it brought me to energetic work that relieved so much pain, and opened the door for me to step into this path as a healing practitioner.
If you had asked me 15 years ago, I never would have imagined I would be doing this work. I was a successful nonprofit manager and director. The leap of faith it took to leave my job of 10 years to start my own healing and coaching practice was massive.
It was a journey to overcome the fear, self doubt, overwhelm, people pleasing of walking this path – but I’m so glad I listened to this knowing because now I get to walk beside other powerful women leaders who are stepping into their paths in new ways, and get to support them in their big leap journeys too.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Future Self Healing Arts is a hub for sound healing and spiritual + leadership coaching and mentorship.
As a multipassionate mystic & mentor, I walk with soulful feminine leaders to ignite their path forward, step into next chapter, and embrace their callings and spiritual journey with a renewed sense of purpose, hope, and deep trust.
My work is guided by the earth and her cycles, and the frameworks I love to incorporate and teach include: archetypal wisdom, elemental magic, feminine embodiment, somatic experiencing, opening your intuition and gifts, energetic sovereignty, voice activation, ancestral connection, channeling, emotional regulation, visioning, visualization, meditation, journey work, soulful business frameworks, brand clarity, and so much more!
My core offerings are:
1-1 Spiritual Life Coach journey called Ignite
Sound Healing sessions + custom Sound Healing events & ceremonies (think birthdays, bachelorettes, I’ve even done a wedding!)
Sound Healing Certification & Voice Mentorship program
Women’s Circles & Circle Facilitation Training
The women I walk with leave our journeys together feeling on fire for their life, purpose, and path – rippling out the work we did together to their communities. I think the ripple effect is the thing I’m most proud of. Liberated women liberate more women. We don’t have to play small, stay the same, keep going the worn path – and the women I serve are living proof of how powerful it is when we reclaim and remember who we are, and live and lead from that powerful place.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I don’t believe that anyone is self made. I have a long line of mentors, coaches, and supporters that have supported my path and I am so grateful!
It’s cheesy, but my husband, Joshua Davis, first and foremost. He makes sure I’m fed and supported through all of the passion I have for my work. He is also a videographer, video editor, and podcast editor – so it makes us the dream team. We finally started a YouTube channel last year and it’s super sweet to share sound healing and this work with folks all over the world.
I’ve had many spiritual mentors and life coaches, and I’ll especially name my Indigenous mentors Meg Vellejos McCoy, a soul friend, and Dra. Rosales Meza, a spiritual and decolonial teacher who I’ve learned (and unlearned) so much from. I’m also very grateful for my first life coach in my mid twenties – Cindy Brooks, the first women’s circle I was a part of led by Marli Williams, and two elders Thérèse and Tere Charvet on the land of Sacred Groves in WA state, who generously shared so much of their wisdom about holding sacred space for women, and the women’s mysteries.
As much as I’m here to teach and serve, I am a forever student – and am so grateful for the women who have walked before me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.futureselfhealingarts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_sarafuture_
- Youtube: www.futureselfhealingarts.com/@sarasoutherland
Image Credits
Studio images: Samia Nasir
Forest images: Samia Nasir
Red/women’s Circle images: Peyton Quinn Baker
