Conversations with Joanna Tarnava

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanna Tarnava.

Hi Joanna, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Like most healers, my path is a natural culmination of lived experiences, training, mentors, and study. After engulfing myself in the world for 8 years of travel, I decided to settle down into LA and create a streamlined process for my gifts, knowledge and wisdom. Coming to LA alone for the first time, I knew instantly it was where I belonged. Every archetype of my being, sports, hobbies, arts, nutrition, and career have a place to thrive here. It only took me a few weeks to find the neighborhood to move to, which isn’t too hard on the west side. Things I needed: Organic grocery store (Rainbow Acres), I found employment in a Chiropractic and medical office across the street, surf shop near by and all the amenities I needed for my quick commute inland away from the beach. I think I’m one of the lucky ones coming to this city. I didn’t come here to get famous or do grand things, to be an influencer or big-name deal. I just came here knowing it had accessibility to all of who I was and that I could thrive in the environment. After being mostly outside of society and social media since it began ( I started my travels in 2007), it was a big shift for me to now be in the center of it all and to really decide who I was and what I had to offer to my community. Every year I have been in Socal has just deepened my path as a healer and allowed me to refine my offerings to the world.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t think anyone can confidently say they had a smooth road all the time, that’s not life. Six months after I moved to LA I suffered a spine injury which led to a failed back surgery. I quit my position as the resident bodyworker at the chiropractor, I was in too much pain to work and had been continually overlooked and misdiagnosed until it was too late and resulted in surgery. Living in chronic pain is a complete transformation of your reality. The things I value changed, my ability to live and work in the same manner changed and my outlook in life definitely changed. Without question, my business changed as well. I focused a lot of the next year specifically into my healing and learning to use my body in new ways. This of course in the long run benefited my career as I got trained in several modalities pertaining gait cycles, nervous system repair and new forms of healing I had not been exposed to before. But of course, after a 5-hour of surgery that did not resolve the pain, my “smooth road” now had many unexpected twists, turns and bumps. It isn’t the path we are on that defines us, it is how we navigate it.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My “work” is indicative of each client that I meet. My specialty is helping people remove trauma and stress from their body and soul via customized regimens of breathwork, bodywork, healing, meditation, and exposure to elements and frequencies. Most professions are very specified, where you study one skillset and that is all you offer – but of course, science and society is finally catching up to the awareness that it is all connected. Chronic injury and illness, pain and repetitive trauma are very intricately woven into our nervous systems, muscle, tissues and organs.

I don’t know if there is any specific thing I am “most proud” of. I am just out here doing my best, learning and evolving as I go in my personal and profession life. I love when I get texts from past clients sending me messages just letting me know how much our sessions still impact them. Sometimes I get messages from people I haven’t seen in five years saying “my life is still changed from our sessions” and that brings me immense joy. Recently a client txt me to let me know they are now living their dream, a house in the woods, surrounded by nature and fulfillment and was able to step out of the struggles of trying to survive and now thriving, they said it all began with our immersion session and being able to truly find their heart’s desire and the power to create it.

I think we are all completely unique and should all be set apart to our own categories of amazingness. I learn every day from other people, healers, clients and situations. We may know what is “best” based on what we’ve experienced, but there is sooooo much out there, there is no way one person has a mastery that should be honored more than others. As long as you are in 100% to your path and continually growing, it should be notably celebrated. Just as we need other people to put lotion on our backs, we can’t even reach all of our own body, so one person can’t be expected to reach every client.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is happiness, safety and joy. (AKA finding healing in our root chakra, so we can live from our heart). For every person to realize their worth, know how to ask for it, and know how to maintain it. We have trillions of moments in our life built up molding us for better or worse, and I want everyone to access what truly belongs to them and let go of everything else. Imagine the weight lifted off from decades of programming, shame and endurance. Clear our nervous systems of the yuck and align to the yum. Happiness and contentment is a luxury most are deprived of and that is a serious problem in our oversaturated society. I want people to be able to find joy from their bodies, their personalities, their relationships, art, athletics, music and sensory enjoyment and stimulation. I wish people didn’t need to impulse buy or be influenced by targeted ads, consume stimulants or dissociatives to balance energy and dopamine, try to fit in and work away exhausting themselves for food and shelter and put on fake personas to try to fit in. Imagine if we could return to a society of the person who loves to bake is the baker and the person who loves to sing is the singer and the person who loves to do art is the artist and everyone was able to thrive. That is what matters most to me. Freedom and liberation.

Pricing:

• Immersive 3-5hrs – $300/hr
• Coaching contracts – $200/hr
• Healing 1.5-3hrs – $300/hr

Contact Info:

• Website: ritualmetta.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/ritualmetta
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ritualmetta
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ritual-metta-san-marcos-3
• Other: linktr.ee/ritualmetta

Image Credits
Kelsey Orcutt Rachel Roller