Life and Work with Rita Oliveira Turner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rita Oliveira Turner.

Rita, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My mom always told me that I had a big pair of wings. From an early age, she knew I was going to leave, that I was going to fly the coop in search of something bigger, different.

Honestly, I never really understood what she meant by that and why she was always saying it, until one day…
growing up in a very small town in the northern part of Portugal, my childhood was very happy, very in contact with nature in all forms. Luckily enough, I had great parents that always cared and always filled up my days and weekends with a lot of extra activities. One of them and the most important for me was music.

I started studying music at a very young age, I was 10 years old, and the Bassoon caught my attention.

The first thing was that the instrument was bigger than me. Second, I got captured by the rich, smooth and deep wood tonalities. Lastly, I was drawn in by the comic character that the Bassoon can illustrate so well. I’ve been fascinated ever since.

By the time of high school, I was studying Art in school and bassoon on the side at the music academy. When I finished high school, my mom once again reminded me of “my musical wings”, and she pushed me onto a train to Lisbon with a small bag of clothes and my Bassoon on my back to audition for the University of Classical Music in Lisbon, E.S.M.L.

There, I was going all alone, not really knowing what to expect from the “big city”, to audition for the university, to pursue my dreams of becoming a professional bassoon player. By the time, I finished my degree in Lisbon, I decided to move to Sweden to study with one of my favorite Bassoon players, and there, I really saw my mom’s “prophecy” become reality.

After continuing two years of education in Sweden, I returned to Lisbon and, there, I started my career as a Bassoon player, as well as a music teacher for young kids.

That’s when my perspective shifted and the way I approached music took a turn. Seven years of teaching young children definitely showed me another side of “thinking music”. I emerged myself in sounds, frequencies, colors and textures, and all ways to explain and make music. For my classically trained brain, this was a new and transformational skill set that I gained.

By the time, I bought my first Tibetan singing bowl, I was around 27 years old, and I fell in love immediately. I use it while teaching, on my personal practices, in fact, I use it every moment I can. I knew those frequencies and sonorities had to be present in my daily life.

Long story short, I ended up moving to Los Angeles the summer of 2015 and a year later decided to study Sound Healing and Therapy at the Globe Institute in San Francisco.

This is how my physical journey toward the healing powers of sound started, though I know my emotional journey started way before. Since I was very young, I knew I had insights, visions, almost premonitions, and a huge sense of spirituality; I have always been an empath and a seeker for divine connections.

At the age of 19, I had an important mark, a transformational insight during sleep paralysis, where I deeply connected with my guides and a divine source. I got a very strong sense of my future path and how it would involve serving and helping others find their path — to serve as a tool and help others to connect with their own spiritual self and their own healer within.

Still knowing that I have a long way to go, I’m now working as a musician and sound healer facilitator in Los Angeles. Holding space for others to grow, to connect, and to allow healing to happen, both on a physical and emotional level.

I can say, I’m in a very happy place both inside and outside. I love life. I love the life I have chosen and all of the connections and opportunities it brings every day.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I essentially started a new journey recently, so, no, I would say it hasn’t been that smooth. I moved from Sweden to Los Angeles three years ago now, and I still have the sensation of getting lost at any time. LA is such a huge city, I’m still looking for my tribe, my people, for my community. That has been my biggest struggle. It’s also very easy to get distracted and lose focus on our purpose and mission sometimes.

I have a long way to walk on my personal, and on the collective, healing journey, though I feel very grateful for all of the opportunities and lessons that came along the way. It is a beautiful journey and a very challenging one too.

My advice:
Always work hard and dream big.
Have your heart wide open to learn and adapt.
Believe in yourself, stay true to your own beliefs, and appreciate what is already there.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with RitaSoundYoga – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
As a sound healer, I consider myself a mediator, a facilitator. My priority is to help people to find their spiritual self. For me, music and sounds have the ability to write new memories, the ability to unite both present and past memories creating new ones. When healing traumas from the past, we are healing our present moment, too.
I facilitate sound healing journeys, private and group sessions; and sound bath sessions, which helps you to provide for yourself and to be your own healer.

I specialize in working as a sound healing facilitator, musician, and freelancer bassoonist.

To answer your last question, I like to think that my many years of classical music education, experience, and knowledge that I gained along the way sets me apart from many sound healer practitioners, though I strongly believe that we all have a healer inside of us and its also up to us to do the inner work necessary to awake that healer.

Do you think there are structural or other barriers impeding the emergence of more female leaders?
I believe one of the biggest barriers in my industry and in general is knowing how to deal with competition.
The abundance of sound practitioners and sound healers nowadays is huge, and, unfortunately, there are not always mindful and educated people behind it.

It is a call and for me, the challenge is to always find ways to be more creative and to stand out by being innovative while also staying true and loyal to your motivations and beliefs. To achieve that, it requires a lot of hard work, intense dedication, passion, creativity, and good principles.

I don’t have to be better than anyone, nor step on anyone’s toes, because there will always be a place for each one of us.

It takes mindfulness and virtue to be able to live a good life, to be able to be a good leader. For me, in our current society, that is quite hard to find.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 213-709-9980
• Email: ritasoundyoga@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/ritasoundyoga

Image Credit:
Luis Macedo, Jordie Turner, Anastasia Vishnya

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