Meet Chelsea Lambert

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chelsea Lambert. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chelsea, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I got my resilience from life experience. When I started sharing my story with others, I became aware that I have endured more hardships and traumatic experiences than most. At no point did I ever think giving up was an option.

My fight, flight, or freeze response was developed at a very young age. I would not discover or understand until I was well into my adult years why. My family is steeped in deep generational trauma including physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse. My mom always said she “Did the best she knew how”. It took almost two decades of therapy including EMDR and other CBT therapy to unravel and absorb what she meant by that. I am far more normal than I have any right to be and I have my ability to be resilient to thank for that. It gave me the tenacity to endure and heal. I forgive my mother for not having the capacity or capability to do better. I also know that it is best for my peace not to have a relationship with her or my family. I am forever grateful for the relationship I was able to have with my paternal grandparents. Without them I believe I would have been dead or in jail before I reached adulthood. They showed me the unconditional love and acceptance we all want and need as children.

I had a mentally ill mother, who oddly enough has her master’s degree in mental health counseling. She suffered from severe postpartum depression and I spent a lot of time divided between her care and my dad’s (along with my paternal grandparents) after she left him when I was a baby. With her untreated compound PTSD and lack of healthy parenting skills, I was often exposed to mental/ emotional abuse and sometimes physical. I survived sexual abuse, a traumatic brain injury from a severe car accident at 16. At the time (around 2002 they still handed out prescription drugs like they were candy. I became addicted to Oxycodone and Percocet to cope with life. As a young adult I survived rape, drug addiction, and homelessness. When I was twenty I became pregnant and had a daughter. I believe this was the universe’s way of getting me to get my shit together. I hadn’t been able to do it for myself. I certainly did for her. Unfortunately, her father was an abusive alcoholic and I found myself as a single mother, working, and going to school.

I met (my now ex husband) when she was two. I was just finishing college and we built a life together. I landed a great job at 3m and we were excited to start a family together. After 4 miscarriages, fertility treatments, and a few years of therapy, our family had crumbled. My second miscarriage led me to educate my understanding of the American food system and to reconnect with Nourishing traditions whole food and clean eating to heal my body. After filing for divorce I fell into another abusive relationship. Two miscarriages later, and emergent ectopic removal and a diagnosis of endometriosis I decided enough was enough. I started really healing. I took almost two years for myself. I started exploring alternative healing and studying intuitive development. I met an amazing life coach and did deep work. I was on a role, treating my healing journey like a checklist with a lateral ascend to the finish line. In 2017, for the third time in my adult life, I was raped. My world crumbled. I thought I was immune from anything like that happening again. I was thrown into a tailspin. After a few months I went back and saw my counselor. She recommended EMDR therapy. She had been trying to get me to try it for years. I always resisted. I didn’t want to go there. It was scary and unfamiliar and I didn’t want to dig anything up. I had reached a point where I didn’t care anymore. Nothing could be scarier or worse than where I found myself at that point in time. I was referred out and started EMDR treatment. I couldn’t believe how helpful it was. I did it weekly for almost 2 years. Rewiring my brain from the false narrative I had created from the family trauma that was a part of me. Two years in EMDR helped me realize no matter who you are, how “good” of a person you are, or how much you “have it together” bad things will still happen. I learned that there is no finish line to healing. It is not a destination. Life is a journey, enjoy and learn to be present.

In the beginning of 2017 I felt ready to start dating. Looking back now, I laugh at the irony. I joined all of the popular dating apps and met lots of people. I went on dates and experimented in the dating scene. Previous to this I didn’t date. I met men and codependently bonded. I met One man in particular and ignored all the red flags. I dove right into the deep end of codependency. When all was said and done I had the opportunity to heal even more of the mother wounds that became exposed. It was also the same time my daughter, now 10 years old started asking questions about her dad and interacting with her half brother. She was reunited with that part of her family. We were fortunate enough to all be able to heal and have a great co-parenting relationship until her dad died suddenly in April 2019 from his alcoholism. Thanksgiving 2019, my grandfather, my closest parental figure passed away. It was the greatest loss I have ever endured. Besides dating, grieving, and coparenting, I spent those two years learning all I could and educating myself on Endometriosis and how it is “managed” in the medical industry. I found the best doctor in the area to support me in my endo journey and she supported my own holistic path to managing my symptoms without medical intervention. In 2020, with the covid pandemic, I fully embraced the shut down and stay in place orders. I enjoyed the time at home. In May 2020 I had a hysterectomy. I gave up on trying to have any more children. My symptoms and pain had escalated to unmanageable proportions. I wanted to end my physical suffering. It has been nearly curative from my symptoms.

Covid stay at home mandates gave me a lot of time to think. I finally had time to be with myself and reflect on how I was showing up in the world. I decided I wanted a different life for myself and for my daughter. Corporate lifestyle does not bring me joy. It’s a paycheck. Since the end of covid, I have spent a great deal of time learning, growing, and immersing myself in energy work, bodywork, and yoga training. I stumbled across Devanadi school of yoga and wellness on social media. I first took Reiki 1 as a one day training. Reiki II soon followed. During this training I was talking about the Thai Yoga Bodywork program with a classmate. Tanys heard us and whispered “There’s still room in level one starting in a few weeks. At the end of Reiki II I was all in. I took all five levels of Thai training and also pursued my 235 hour Yoga teacher training. I completed everything in 18 months. At the end of 2023 I studied in Thailand and completed three new certifications. My business is growing. I know I would not have made it this far without resilience.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I started my business at the end of 2022 as a Thai Yoga Bodyworker. I work with clients 1:1 and in small groups. Thai yoga bodywork is unique from other types of bodywork and massage, Thai Yoga Bodywork also combines rhythmic massage, assisted Yoga poses, acupressure along pathways of movement in the body known as the “Sen,” healing energy work, and meditation. The first spiritual roots of this ancient system date connect to over 2,500 years ago at the time of Buddha in India, and were carried through the Buddhist teachings into SE Asia. These teachings merged with traditional therapies of the region at that time and because what we now call today “Traditional Thai Medicine.”

I integrate Thai bodywork with the other training and modalities. I am also certified in Chi Nei Tsang (abdominal massage), Tok Sen, and Reiki. Combined together I create a custom experience for each client to receive the treatments they are seeking to help support them in reaching their goals.

One of the priorities for my business is to create accessibility and equity to “luxury” services like Thai bodywork, yoga, acupuncture for those who would not otherwise afford it. I am developing collaborations within the community as well as the Maternal and Child Health Task Force of MN and other DHS programs. As a healer, I want us to follow the true tradition to these medicines and modalities by providing this work to heal our communities. Traditionally healers give bodywork etc. to those that need it. Money is not the motivating factor for the work. We in America have been forced to do that as a result of capitalism. In my opinion that has been a detriment to our society and the people in it.

I have helped clients get relief with Neuropathy, opening up their hips and shoulders, digestive issues, and in other cases releasing body trauma.

I am on the board of directors (Vice President) for Abundant Yoga Community. We are a non-profit that provides free yoga to people in the St. Croix River Valley. I also partner with Anything Helps MN to bring yoga into the recovery community in the Twin Cities.

I am the events host for Devanadi Yoga and wellness. I coordinate and host for the school I attended for most of my trainings.

I co-founded a land stewardship group up on the Bad River Reservation (Ashland, WI – check out the movie “Bad River” released earlier this year) in 2017 with Chef Peter Halfaday to help care for a private camp ground. He and I are also collaborating to bring teachings of food sovereignty and other oral traditions to the Hudson area to help educate the community.

I am building my own foundation “HEResilience” to educate and create a community to support women and girls with Endometriosis. I suffered with it from the time I was in middle school until I was almost 30 before I got a diagnosis. I want to empower women and girls with the resources I have gathered through my experience so they don’t feel as alone as I did and can receive support.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Letting go of expectations, timelines, and how I saw things going. One of the best lessons I have learned was letting go and enjoying the experience. Learning to be present rather than trying to reach a goal has deepened my experience and abilities as a practitioner.

Identifying like minded people to learn from. To me carrying authentic teachings has always been important. It ties into integrity which is a moral value I hold in high esteem. I didn’t want a watered down run of the mill training experience. I researched a ton and followed and an still following prospective teachers on social media to see if their values align with mine. Devanadi did and does that for me.

This journey has been a challenge. I have been challenged to go in with everything I have been learning in all of my trainings and apply them in my own life and put them in to practice to heal myself – first to be the best and experienced practitioner I can be. I can now speak from my own experience how these teachings and tools have helped me in my own life.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Our education system is broken along with the medical industry, and many government entities have just started to shift and identify issues within the long standing biased systems. I am looking to collaborate with other like minded people are getting involved. Too long we the people have suffered from deficient systems that do not serve us,

Preventative care like bodywork, yoga, acupuncture, and sound healing (just to name a few) are just now starting to gain traction and get recognized in the West as beneficial services. It is so much more than just a “spa day”. These deeply rooted medicines are healing and go hand in hand with medical practices to help support people holistically.

Once of the main reasons we see such high rates of drug addiction in this country is the lack off community connection and support. Creating accessibility to these types of services creates that sense of community and support we have all been missing since colonization took over. We have forgotten our humanity and need for connection. We are so much more than the cogs on the wheel of the labor force.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chelsealambertenterprises.com/
• Instagram: chelsealambertenterprises