Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenna Gessay.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
The eldest of three children, I grew up in a little suburb outside of Sacramento with a storytelling, dogma-averse spiritual, creative mother who happens to be a medium, and a hard-working, hilarious landscape architect father who raised their children to be independent thinkers. My parents were raised strict Southern Baptist and Irish Catholic, and so while the church was important to my family, there was certainly an emphasis on freedom to find what lit our hearts up and helped us feel connected. Spiritualists and psychics were frequently visiting our home, and I remember my first guided meditation lying with my mother in bed when I was very young. To say intuition and psychic capacity was in my essence and in my bones from birth would be accurate. My ancestry is full of Native American medicine people, my great grandmother was the town “seer” in Napa, California and if you look at the Salem witch trials, you will see my lineage. I have been asked when my earliest intuitive experience was, and I can recall them from the age of two. But I honestly wanted nothing to do with my spiritual life outside of religion until my late 20s.
Financial challenges for our family led to being raised as creative problem solvers and ambitious kids, I started working at a community pool at 12 and had my first real job at 14. In high school, I was the straight-A kid, playing multiple sports, a member of all of the clubs and Student Body President. Naturally academically inclined and very future-oriented, I was driven to be an independent woman. I was the first in my family to attend and put myself through college graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a Marketing emphasis. Leadership and helping others have always been core to my endeavors, but that (as passions and purposes do) has evolved significantly over time.
An internship right out of college at a media agency led to being a very young hire into a pharmaceutical sales position which escalated into a successful career in biotech in San Francisco. Simultaneously, my ambitious career in healthcare led to lots of personal growth and discovery when I was having crushing migraines on a weekly basis, my adrenals were shot, I was stressed and overdoing it, and every day when I walked into a different patient environment I could feel their collective pain, their medication, and their fear.
Overwhelmed with the empathic load, I sought help from therapists, healers, energy workers, shamans, etc. to help turn this energetic intensity down. Of course, their encouragement was in quite the opposite direction, I needed to accept this part of who I was, and allow this to unfold in a way that helped me open my heart to learning to be comfortable with who I truly was. And then a professor and top physician at UCSF stopped me one day while I was sharing a clinical trial with him in his office and he said, “This is not you, you are a writer and an intuitive.” It stopped me dead in my tracks and from that moment forward I knew I couldn’t keep forcing something that wasn’t my highest calling any longer, I couldn’t keep my soul in the closet.
My (then) fiancée and I decided to move to Encinitas, where he is from to get married and start a family. I also left my biotech career behind, and we started TUNE | Chiropractic, Health & Healing together in Solana Beach, he is a chiropractor who is very versed in metaphysics and energetics. Together we taught workshops, and I offered Reiki and Intuitive Wellness sessions, and within the first year, we were blessedly bursting at the seams with patients and clients. Happily serving our community is a sweet spot in hearts, and we hope to guide our two very young sons with this value of connected, loving service.
People have believed in me along the way because I believed in myself. And, I would add that there have been numerous “angelic encounters”, mentoring moments, along with hours and hours in therapy, meditation, lying on healing tables and with my nose in books researching to help me learn to trust and have faith in my calling as an Intuitive. The experiences I have had, the witnessing space I have been privileged to hold and the utter bliss and beauty that comes from connecting as a vessel (channeling) is worth every shred of fear I have ever experienced. I am still constantly learning, it is often way over my head, but I understand now, 8 years into a career as an Intuitive that this is the most aligned place for me to be: in a career that I created on my own, where learning and growth are part of the expectations, (I learn right along with my clients) where I am invited into the deepest layers of someone’s existence, holding space for both of our souls to connect and offering my heart in service to the Divine on behalf of my clients.
Please tell us about your art.
As an Intuitive Consultant, my art resides in the capacity of inner listening: helping others to honor and trust their own intuition and to uncover the truth of their souls. I am passionate about helping people dance in alignment with their truth.
In personal sessions, we work together to find clarity, to open the doors of our spiritual selves and listen to our inner wisdom and soul voice. Channeling, soul coaching, listening, guided meditation, intuitive guidance and creating an energetic connection are all a part of my work.
I also think of my art as any calling or creative endeavor that aims to raise awareness, make connections and open doors. In that sense, the possibilities are endless. I have worked intuitively in corporate arenas, with start-ups and small businesses, groups of women, with preschoolers and officiated spiritual wedding ceremonies. Intuitive Wellness to me is about being well with our souls, being more of who we truly are, listening to our inner wisdom, understanding our soul’s callings, and bringing more of who we truly are to work.
I have worked creatively in the past in the name of Intuitive Wellness with people age 3-99 in countries and cultures all over the world. I am often called into businesses to work intuitively, as well as with children, and a big portion of my work in individual sessions is dedicated to adults who are looking to connect more deeply with their truth.
I created Worldchanger Workshops for children ages 5-18, broken into age groups where we discuss topics and participate in exercises specifically designed to enhance inner knowing, self-awareness and to empower truth seeking. Judgment, fear, love, anxiety, etc. are all topics we visit in the safe space of the workshops. We work on emotional intelligence, strengthening compassion and empathy, and we explore and respect our innate gifts.
Projects like creating training on Intuition for The Knickerbocker luxury lifestyle hotel in NYC where I worked with everyone from housekeeping to the executives on Intuitive Service, and creating meditation videos for hotel guest in-room wellness experience are really fulfilling for me. Innovative and soul-based businesses like San Diego’s Marrow Fine Jewelry have asked me to come in for day trainings focused on Intuitive Wellness from a business standpoint, working individually with employees and also offering insight around business energetics and how we can bring spiritual alignment and metaphysics into the workplace. Mini Market by Van De Vort in Del Mar recently asked me to offer a workshop for their mama clients on Intuitive Self-Care.
Leading women’s circles have also had a deep and lasting impact on my heart. I recently started a new project called NURTURE. It will be a virtual guided circle for mothers who want to connect with one another in a deeper way, a safe space to talk about what we aren’t necessarily hearing in the media about motherhood and that attempts to bring us together in support of one another, back to the village. It will focus on the joy and challenges that are experienced in motherhood in a way that allows for each mother to process her experience spiritually in the collective headspace of other trusted mamas. Now that I am a mother I see how much support is needed, and how this serves humanity as a whole.
Workshops and retreats are a focal point for 2019, as I am really inspired by gathering people together to connect spiritually, so stay tuned!
The most important thing I can share as far as a takeaway is that I truly believe we are all wildly intuitive and that it is just a matter of aligning with this voice that gives us access to the Divine and Universal flow. Intuition to me is a language between us and our true essence, our home and our light. In other words, it offers access to Love. And who doesn’t need more of that?
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
Well as an Intuitive Consultant, my defining success is based on love and alignment. How aligned am I with my truth? How well am I listening to my soul? Am I dedicated to my spiritual practice? Am I showing up as the most true expression of myself? (I believe our truest expression at its core is love itself.)
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can check out my website: jennagessay.com and they can also find out about upcoming events through my IG @jennagessay and my monthly guidance newsletter where I tune in on behalf of my community and where I share details about upcoming events.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://jennagessay.com/
- Phone: 9162079906
- Email: info@jennagessay.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennagessay/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennagessay
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennagessay
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/jennagessay/
Image Credit:
Shane and Lauren Photography @shaneandlaurenphoto, @roseandrattles
Lindsay Rene Photography @lindsayrenephotography_
Vanessa Bryce @vlbfilm
Alysse Gafkjen @alyssegafkjen, @gentlemanandaginger
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