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Meet Maisha Najuma Aza of A Life Alive Consulting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maisha Najuma Aza

Maisha, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story begins in multiple places. My life has been a non-linear road of self-discovery, healing and mastery. Although I was born in Brooklyn, NY, I was raised in Charleston, SC and Smyrna, GA. Somehow, I thought that the path was going to be more linear when I graduated from high school, as I’m sure many of us do. My desire was to be a veterinarian. I was a Biology Major, and because I like to learn from experience, I got a job working nights and weekends at Cobb Emergency Veterinary Clinic on Roswell Street in Marietta (the building isn’t there anymore).

It was such an amazing experience working with the animals and realizing how much of it involves working with family members. We dealt with everything from domestic and free animal births, to accidents, illnesses and surgeries, to deaths; and we saw non-traditional pets as well. It was fun and meaningful and it actually taught me so much about people, emotions, life and death – in my early adult life. Suddenly my dream quickly changed and I needed to leave school after 3 years of working at the emergency vet clinic and about another year or so shy of finishing my bachelor’s degree in science. Due to severe asthma and allergies exacerbated by cats and several breeds of dogs, that I wasn’t even aware I was allergic to, I was forced to find a different career path.

From there, I took a winding road from working in Corporate-America; to driving 18 wheelers across the country; to becoming a massage therapist, a Shaman High Priestess, a medical social worker, a Tantra Sacred Intimacy Practitioner and a Reiki Master.  My wandering journey took me so many beautiful and rigorous places. I saw the country, I journeyed to other dimensions, I worked in hospitals and in hospice supporting families and people of all ages, who were chronically ill, terminally ill and/or actively dying.  I enjoy being of direct service to my fellow human, plant and animal allies in the spirit of equality and equity.

While Massage therapy school opened me up to my healer’s path, my Shamanic apprenticeship deepened the journey. You never know what’s going to be the opening. I believe that we’re all healers and then something awakens us to our healing abilities one day. Whether it’s getting a massage or reiki, or experiencing a traumatic incident, the birth of a child, an illness, an accident, or even death of a loved one. The experience and the awareness are different for everyone, but we are all here to learn from our experiences.

I also don’t believe that you have to become a healer, professionally, in order to be a healer.

We all are natural healers, and we each have unique magic within us that adds to those natural healing abilities and determines our paths. Healing shows up when we are doing anything to help support ourselves, our family, friends and loved ones through tough times. We heal one another when we offer hugs when we consensually rub someone’s back when they are sad, when we consensually massage someone’s shoulders when they are tense. We heal when we listen, and when we show that we care. We heal when we apologize and when we forgive. We heal when we show someone love and kindness, and when we communicate our feelings lovingly and compassionately. All of this is healing.

My journey to live a professional healers path as a way of life was, truly non-linear. I had no idea this was going to be my journey. I never envisioned myself becoming a Shaman, although I did imagine myself being a monk at one time.

After massage therapy school, I worked in corporate America for many years doing administrative work, while also doing my social activism through art (from body-positive burlesque for all body types to spoken word, and more). As an activist, I participated in multiple social justice movements, while finishing up my undergraduate degree in social sciences (13 years after leaving college the first time).

I’ve lived in Seattle,WA,  Chicago, IL and went to graduate school to become a Social Worker in Northampton, MA, part-time (while completing my internships in Georgia). I love on-the-job-training! All of these places brought me out of different aspects of my shell and more into myself. They helped me learn and experience tremendous life lessons, social lessons, healing lessons. Most recently I lived in Peru for six months and gained tremendous insights and wisdom there. Yet, with all of the places I’ve lived, loved, healed and worked, I always come back home to Georgia.

Georgia is where the majority of my spiritual and holistic healing training occurred. It is where I became a massage therapist, a reiki practitioner, and an ordained Shaman Priestess (essentially someone who channels Ancestral and Elemental wisdom for healing). I’ve also worked in hospitals and hospice in Georgia, with both children and adults and elders with terminal illnesses. Atlanta has always been such a tremendous well spring of healing practitioners.

In fact, Georgia is where I met my now partner/love of my life of four years, and our children. I could not believe the turn my life took when I became a co-parent to two teenagers at the age of 40!  I am still amazed, and in awe of the things we cannot foresee, yet make us grow and become better people, when they arrive. I’m 45 years-old now, and becoming a parent has been a huge learning and growth process. Since I started co-parenting, I have now, countless times, said to my mother, “Thank you, Mom, for everything you have done for me.”  It truly is one of the hardest jobs I have ever had. It has been so eye-opening, enlightening, challenging, and I get to learn new and creative ways to show my love and compassion for myself and my family with a continuous focus on balance. But, my parenting journey is another story for another time.

Georgia is where my healing began, and where my life journey continues. Why do I talk about healing so much? Because I think that living in a world that tells us to deny who we are at every turn, that tries to harm us when we don’t comply or assimilate, requires that we all work diligently to heal ourselves, challenge the status quo, and disrupt the current paradigm with our ability to heal with conscious love, compassion, sensuality, strength and power.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

Though it has not been a smooth road, it has been an adventurous one! There have been multiple lessons along the way, and the lessons came from experiencing personal hardships. Or what some might call “the dark night of the soul” – when we go through something so challenging that we either curl up and die or come out wiser on the other side. Some of us (raises hand) experience this more than once in our lifetimes.

I believe that we all experience a childhood trauma in one way or another, it’s a part of our initiation, and is what drives us to take the paths that we do when we grow up. If one did not experience anything that felt like a childhood trauma either in the household, or in school, or in the medical system, it may be something that happens later, in a relationship that changes the course of our lives forever. It’s something that we cannot foresee, but according to West African elders Malidoma Somé and Sobonfu Somé, our initiation is something that our souls must go through in order to awaken ourselves to our life purpose. Each person’s soul path is unique even those who came into the world within the same womb (i.e. twins, triplets quadruplets…). Though some paths may look the same to someone else on the outside we each add our own unique flavor.

The initiation that put me on my path as a sexual healer and shaman, in this life, was experiencing childhood sexual trauma, which exposed my family’s dysfunction, and led to an internal upheaval within myself, that showed up in the form of clinical depression. Looking back, I am grateful because in the 1980’s we were just beginning to talk about sexual trauma, in public, thanks to Oprah Winfrey. She bravely spoke about, her own sexual abuse and family secrets; and shared what the “symptoms” of those who experience child sexual abuse look like; how to get help etc. This kind of open talk about such a taboo topic in our culture, and on national television, was a pivotal role in my sexual liberation and emotional healing!

As a child, I experienced a lack of open emotional communication within my family.

Because the trauma occurred in my home on a regular basis, I felt unprotected, and unsafe in my own home and felt like I did not have a voice. I was often teased, bullied and was seen as “the sensitive one”. Though my voice wasn’t strong enough at the time, I found the strength to tell my mother (in writing) about what happened to me. This got me on the road to healing mentally, through psychotherapy (at 15 years old).  It would take many more years, and attempted suicides (by the way, prozac made teens suicidal but they didn’t know that at the time), and my personal spiritual journey, as an adult, for me to find the strength and power in my voice, in my body, and in my spirit.

When I was a teenager, my voice would sometimes be so slight, so low that people would have to strain to hear me, and tell me to “speak up”. I wish they knew how difficult that was for me, at the time. This particularly happened to me with people in authority roles or people older than me or who were more outspoken than me; because I didn’t feel, heard or seen and felt so silenced because of keeping this family secret and trying to heal within a bubble.

But believe me, I am a talker. I’m friendly, gregarious as many Sagittarians are and I learned to put on a happy face for everyone else. To look at me during those times, you may not have known what I was going through; that I had low self-esteem and a very low self-image. I hid it well, most of the time. Only people truly paying attention noticed. Most of us see what we want to see rather than what/who is right before us. We’ve been socialized this way.

Tantra Sacred Intimacy and Erotic Embodiment and indigenous spiritual practices helped me heal my trauma in the parts of my body, muscles, cells, spirit and psyche that psychotherapy was not able to access. I am so grateful for all of the kinds of embodiment practices from spiritual singing, sound healing, to dancing, to movement, to yoga, to tai chi, and Qi gong, to erotic body work and more. They all helped me connect to all of the parts of me so that I could work through my trauma in profound physical, energetic and emotionally conscious ways.

Besides my childhood challenges, I have had my share of adult challenges. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t. It’s life after all. My biggest physical challenge was having endometriosis. It was discovered in my 20’s, when I had two surgeries a year apart, from one another, to remove, what they call “chocolate cysts” from my ovaries. These cysts were so painful that when they would surface, I could not walk without severe pain. For years I used a combination of holistic methods, lifestyle changes, along with western medicine such as birth control to keep the endometriosis at bay. None of these were “cures”, because it is a “woman’s” disease that has no “known cure”, but I used what I had access to.

At the end of the day, my ultimate healing was about gathering the tools necessary for me to heal the “root” cause of my endometriosis. But because the root cause had permeated my physical state for so long, something had to give.

Though I eventually was able to energetically heal myself, and understand multiple avenues of energetic and spiritual causes from many traumatic experiences in this life (as well as past lives), I ultimately had to say goodbye to my uterus. After I received the spiritual lessons I needed, and as my quality of life was going downhill fast, I had my uterus, cervix and one ovary physically removed in 2014 after a very long and debilitating year of pain. It was my longest and darkest night of the soul yet, and another type of initiation that helped me see another aspect of my purpose for healing.

Too many cis-gendered women have been having hysterectomy’s and it is not our fault. I believe that women’s pelvic ailments are a physical manifestation of the energetic, physical and spiritual harm done toward women in our society for generations. The experience of surgically removing my uterus, which also included me creating my own ritual, with family and friends, to say goodbye to it, gave me deep and lasting insights into the direction my life was to take next.

During that year of pain, I was actually going through my Tantra Sacred Intimacy training. This was not a coincidence, as deeply personal and societal trauma was surfacing to be healed. The amazing and wonderful thing is that the removal of my physical uterus did not stop me from traversing my sacred path and erotic healing mission. If anything it has made my passion to do the work of sexual healing and erotic empowerment work with black women, non-binary, gender non-conforming and queer identified people even stronger. Living in the society that we do, and being a Cis-gender, Fat, Black. Queer/lesbian, Woman, and Shaman who practices BDSM and Tantra put me in multiple marginalized groups. But I would not ever wish to change who I am.

I also exist in some privileged groups as well, because I am not transgender (who’s bodies still to this day are feared and physically attacked and killed more than anyone in our society); and I do not have a disability (who people pretend are invisible and asexual); and I have a post graduate degree (which is educational privilege). Even with those privileged parts of myself, just living in this society as a fat black queer woman, puts my body in harm’s way – energetically and physically on a regular basis – but my body is exactly where my power comes from.

Being my authentic self, regardless of what society, individuals, family, or dogmatic religions say or attempt to do about who I am, makes me powerful! Having to face discrimination, racism, sexism, sizeism, homophobia, and fat-phobia on a regular basis has made me stronger.

Most of us in this world have to face some kind of adversity.  Though each of our experiences may be different, how we deal with them helps us to see who we are, and where we are going. Sometimes we are so set on thinking that it is “our fault”, that there was something else that we “could have done”, that we forget that the majority of the time, it actually is NOT our fault. That the many views, values and practices our society holds dear, contributes to the harmful ways that we see ourselves, the debilitating ways that we feel and the in humane way that we treat ourselves and others. The unlearning of all of that and the remembering of who we innately are, is a huge step in healing our own wounds, our Ancestor’s wounds, our family wounds and our society’s wounds.

So, yes there are so many stories of obstacles and challenges throughout my life, which I’ll save for the book, but each one ends the same way. They end in me acquiring new wisdom; and re-affirming my sense of self, my ability to heal myself; and rejuvenating my joy, and my desire to help support others on their healing journey.

Please tell us about A Life Alive Consulting.
My business is more of a healing practice than a “business”. After my 20 + years of practicing healing work, the “business” part of it is still not my favorite. I don’t suppose it ever will be. I wish that we could go back to the days of offering our services for a cow, a goat, a chicken or some fruits and vegetables. But today we live within capitalism. So, until we shift the paradigm together, I must utilize capitalism to help me pay for food, water, electricity, rent and my physical and emotional wellness needs. Which means that I charge for my services, just like everyone else.

What I thoroughly enjoy about my practice, is the healing work! I am an Integrated Healing Artist. I use all of the healing methods I’ve practiced on myself and others throughout my journey, to teach and support individuals and groups for their healing. I also offer guidance, and teach a variety of self-healing methods from meditation, to movement, to erotic embodiment practices, to Tantric breathwork, meditation, reiki and more.

I am certified in Integrative Massage Therapy (including NMT, Swedish Massage); Integrated Healing Arts, Shamanic Reiki, Tantra Sacred Intimacy, and ordained as a Shaman Priestess. I also have a Master’s degree in Social Work which helps me understand the mental health and trauma aspects of individuals and groups, and I’m a certified reiki Master/Teacher. I help support people through their personal growth and direct them toward their own inner wisdom, often times by helping them access their own erotic energy that has been suppressed due to trauma, and/or societal conditioning. Erotic energy does not mean sex, but it can mean sexual energy. Erotic energy is essential to us all, because it is our Life Force Energy; our creativity.

Often times I will use Shamanic Reiki and Tantric practices to help access this in clients. Tantra is often mis-represented, in our western society, as a way to have greater, longer lasting sex. While this is true – it can definitely do that – this is not the whole story. Tantra is a much deeper and integrated mind body spirit practice that helps you to access and heal each aspect of your spirit and human self, by learning to be conscious in every aspect of your being (using breathwork, yoga, meditation, and other conscious self-healing, self-centering practices).

And Reiki is a simple healing method that allows anyone who receives an attunement to access the universal life force energy for their own healing and the healing of others; and you do not just have to be a healing practitioner to use it.

I’m continuously learning about myself, because I grow, change, get older, meet new people, have new relationships, and experiences, and heal in non-linear and deeper ways each time I face human challenges or energetic blockages. In doing this I have the ability to share what I’ve learned with others. Because no matter how much or how little we enjoy sex and intimacy; or how much we know about our sexuality; or how much we know how to authentically and compassionately communicate with others, I have found that there is always more to learn, or to deepen, about each of those aspects of ourselves.

One of my passions is to help people on their journey to understanding their authentic self, their authentic boundaries, and their authentic answers to consensual activities – be they sexual, emotional, mental, physical, energetic, or spiritual. We live in a culture that has a lot to learn about shifting the mindset and conversation about consent. The more we know what our authentic “yes”, “no” or “maybe” feels like, the more we will feel empowered to hold others accountable, if they do not choose to respect those boundaries. Our society is moving beyond the times of allowing people who cross personal boundaries to play ignorant.

My goal is to help everyone I work with to delve deeper into what their personal boundaries truly are; offer them tools to maintain them; and recognize how their boundaries may fluctuate and change with time, energy and growth. An important aspect of that is how to honor and respect other people’s boundaries. These are things that we have not truly been taught in school – authentic communication, desire, emotional intelligence, true consent, how to lovingly accept others boundaries, deep respect of ALL people and their authenticity.

My other passion is to let everyone know that their body is beautiful, important, and sacred and also has its human limitations. And that their body does not have to look a particular way that is narrowly defined as “beautiful” or “healthy”, by our culture. That you have a right to practice things like Tantra, Yoga, Aerial classes, hiking, Burlesque and all the things that usually come with visual images of very specific body-types that don’t apply to most people.

You have the right to eat what you want in public without being ridiculed. You have the right to go to the doctor without being blamed for your body shape size or weight. You… fat, black, brown, trans, kinky, queer, short, tall, person with a disability, person with street intelligence and person with hood magic, person of color, are allowed to be sexy, brilliant, sexual, asexual, alive, free, wild, awkward, magical, weird, strange, a parent, a healer, a teacher, an artist, an entrepreneur, and so much more than I have named. You have the right to live your most authentic lovable life!

What sets me apart from others is my unique ability to see past the lies we tell ourselves to the truth of the matter. I’ve been told by friends, clients and class participants that just sitting and having one conversation with me is a profoundly intimate, accepting, loving and healing experience. This is because my energy invites people to come as they are.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood was visiting my grandmother when she retired to Florida. I’m one of five siblings (3 girls and 2 boys) and each summer, my sisters and I would spend the summer with our grandmother. We’d have the best time, being away from our parents and being spoiled by “grandma”.

The best times were going to the beach, and to the local swimming pool, and getting ice cream after. These are the times that we would also bond as sisters, our bond strengthening with each passing year. Don’t get me wrong, we also love our brothers, and were able to bond with them in other ways, at other times. We’re a tight-knit family – even more so as adults – as we all have grown together and emotionally healed together over the years.

To this day, my sisters and I still have a very special and strong emotional bond as the middle three; and as cis-gendered black girls who grew up in the same house together who supported, protected, and loved each other the best we knew how. Our sisterhood bond is so tight, that we all have the same tattoo, which one of my sisters drew.

We got the tattoos on the same day, in Little Five Points at Sacred Heart Tattoo in Atlanta, GA. The artist, Collette, is no longer there, I believe she started her own shop years later, but she was amazing and did most of my tattoos. Now that I think about it, the tattoos that my sisters and I have, are most certainly over 20 years old now, and still looking good! Time for new ones to represent our growth as black women and sisters! Though I’m not an expert on this matter, I have to say, you’re never too old to get a tattoo!

Pricing:

  • $150 Erotic Embodiment Coaching
  • $150 Shamanic Reiki Healing Sessions, Tantra Sacred Intimacy Coaching
  • $350 Reiki Certification classes
  • $750 + for Public Speaking engagements

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Adrienne AcoPhotagraphy Jenkins

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