Check Out Jonathan Nobleza’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Nobleza.

Hi Jonathan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My ancestors come from the Waray, Ilonggo, and Tagalog peoples of the Philippines, with an eighth of my lineage hailing from France and Germany. My mother immigrated to the U.S. in 1975 as a nurse, and my father followed in 1981 to begin his residency in Chicago as a physician. I now practice as a licensed acupuncturist and somatic guide/coach in Orange County. Giving care is in my DNA.

My older brother and I were born and raised in Chicago until we moved to the western suburbs in 1991. We were blessed to be raised largely by our grandmother while our parents worked tirelessly. Through their efforts, we slowly moved from living paycheck to paycheck into an upper-middle-class suburb.

It was then, at a very young age, that I began to feel the weight of what I would only be able to articulate decades later—in my thirties and now into my forties. In short, it was a deep sense of overwhelm and disconnection, rooted in the legacies of colonialism and untended collective grief and trauma within my ancestral lines.

My parents were like many immigrant parents—committed to finding greener pastures and establishing more security and opportunity for their family. And they succeeded. What they weren’t given was an instruction manual for navigating the complexities of raising children in a multigenerational household—where identities, personalities, and generational traumas were all stirred into the journey of assimilating into Western culture.

Needless to say, it had its ups and downs. I slowly grew more jaded, despondent, and depressed as I moved through adolescence. My first refuge was music, which evolved into an obsession with the guitar that led to countless hours of exploration and eventually several years of study in university.

My second came at the age of thirteen: I began to sit fully cross-legged in my room and meditate. Soon after, I was following along with whatever spandex-clad yoga programs I could find on TV. I didn’t have any formal instruction—just a thirst to explore whatever depths of mind, consciousness, and bodily shapes might spark a greater understanding of a very incoherent life experience.

By sixteen, I was making regular trips to the library, diving headfirst into spiritual, esoteric, philosophical, and creative material. Eventually, I found my way into a yoga class at a community college—and I was hooked.

These were the roots of a life path guided through a spiritual and healing orientation. Over the following decades, I focused on cultivating my mind, body, and spirit. I knew intuitively that in order to help others, I needed to come from a place of experiential wisdom.

I studied under various teachers and wisdom traditions, including indigenous and earth-based teachings, yoga, meditation, psychedelics, somatic therapies, Thai massage, and osteopathy. I eventually committed to Chinese Medicine school to become a licensed acupuncturist. I got married, opened my practice, and had my fair share of time in an interdependent study program in the school of life—through love, loss, marriage, miscarriages, debt, and a backlog of untended ancestral trauma, to name some of the subject matter and field trips.

Everything I do now has been shaped by this wild and beautiful curriculum. When I work with others, I’m often reminded of an archetypal story arc—like the one in X-Men. Extraordinary beings, learning to realize, accept, refine, and ultimately utilize their superpowers in service of something greater than themselves. Along the way, there’s often a bumpy road—feeling othered, harming themselves and others—until support is found, a transformation occurs, and through the wounds comes greater clarity of one’s purpose, gifts, and belonging.

My purpose now is to inspire creation. I serve others on their path toward realizing their purpose, power, and placement in life. This all has much to do with cultivating awareness and being in ongoing relationship with what is gifted on our path and with all of life. Purpose, in how we are being in relationship with our gifts and expressing them in service.
 Power, as the realization of the significance of one’s existence—and the flow of love that comes from that.
 Placement, as the recognition of our interconnectedness with the unseen, with ancestors, nature, and one another—and allowing that to lovingly shape our actions.
All of this, through the heart, the mind, and the body.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not at all! I mentioned many of the challenges in my story, but a few highlights include navigating two miscarriages with my wife—one just months before the 2020 pandemic lockdown, and the other in the middle of it in 2021. It was a period of too-much-ness on so many levels, both individually and collectively.

My being was holding and expressing an immense weight—grief and suffering that felt far larger than what could be “owned” by any one person. Every facet of our lives was impacted.

And yet, these windows brought my wife and me closer together. They deepened our relationship not only with each other but also with the unseen—our ancestors, our inner knowing, and the gifts, challenges, and invitations that these initiatory periods held.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m technically a professional because I have some letters after my name. I’m also growing a business. And I work in depth and directly with the magnificence of human bodies, spirits, and minds—which is inherently art.

I carry a very wide tool belt. On one level, I specialize in supporting people with dysregulated nervous systems—which, in truth, is most of us. On another level, I support people navigating life transitions such as loss, grief, career or location changes, aging and health challenges, therapeutic psychedelic preparation and integration, waking up to new found purposes, and spiritually rooted transformations.

At the heart of my work is a core intention: to listen wholeheartedly with all of my being and offer a nonjudgmental, compassionate presence where others feel seen, held, and heard. I help people recognize the innate value and power in being able to meet all parts of themselves with honesty and care.

Much of my work is offered virtually as a somatic guide and coach. This involves cultivating the capacity to slow down and develop a clearer relationship with our internal landscapes—body, mind, awareness, and spirit. From here, clients begin responding with life from a place of empowerment and clarity, rather than reacting from old patterns.

I offer somatic work in person as well where clients can also receive dynamic bodywork inspired from Thai and Osteopathic lineages, followed by acupuncture (optional). While the needles are in, I use long, still holds to engage the nervous system directly. This allows the body to access deep parasympathetic states—where true rest, regulation, and repair can unfold.

I also guide some clients through meditation, movement, and yogic practices. I’m trained in Aerial Somatic Therapy, where clients receive a gentle yet powerful bodywork experience suspended in an aerial hammock. I hold tea ceremonies, and I support various ceremonial and retreat spaces.

What I’m most proud of is the commitment and resilience it has taken to walk through difficult personal initiations—so that I can show up with depth, presence, and a wide range of skill and heart for other humans.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Try to surround yourself with good people who love, respect, and uplift you. Look to find mentors who can inspire and guide you. Spend lot’s of time being in and listening to nature as well as your heart. Prioritize exploring and developing your relationship to joy and what brings you joy.

I feel like if I had more of an understanding of the basics of trauma (individual, generational, collective etc.), I would have had a completely different life experience. Having a trauma informed lens can really shed light on the reality of our interconnectedness and engender more compassion. It can also help a person develop an informed and experiential relationship to the nature of suffering, which I think is really necessary to engage with reality wholeheartedly and cultivate virtue.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lifeforcesomatics.com
• Instagram: @lifeforce_somatics

Image Credits
Monisha Chandanani
Wari Om