Welcome to My Blog! I am Dr. Sonya M. Kelly, a Psychologist, author, and spiritual healer (shaman).
Let me tell you a little about myself. I am a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Spiritual Healer in Northern California. I received my Bachelor’s Degree at "Pacific Union Collage," a Seventh-Day Adventist Christian School, in 1986. From there, my formal education continued at the "California School of Professional Psychology" (CSPP) where I earned my Master’s Degree in 1988 and my Doctorate in 1996.
I began experimenting with adding meditation to my personal Devotional Practices in the mid-1990s and began practicing meditation daily in 1998 using Nichiren Buddhist Chanting. In 2013, I began studying Americanized Peruvian Shamanic Practices under Dani Burling, in Sonora County California. Then I expanded my Shamanic and energy healing knowledge under the tutelage of the “Twisted Hair Counsel of Turtle Island” Native American tradition.
In the 1970s, Harvey Swift Deer was asked by the "Twisted Hair Counsel" to teach non-Native Americans how to tap into Shamanic energies and bring the practices into the modern era. I began studying with Lynda Caesara (one of Swift Deer’s direct students) from 2015 through the present as well as Ms. Caerara’s student of over 20 years, Norma Ramos-Ott, CMT, both in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. I have also begun to study with another branch of Harvey Swift Deer’s students, “The Deer Tribe,” of Arizona.
My personal meditation practices have led me to develop incredible resilience and miraculous guidance that has assisted me in maintaining an active lifestyle in spite of what otherwise would have been debilitating childhood abnormalities, auto-immune illnesses, and structural injuries. Through these same meditative practices, I became aware that it was time to share ancient knowledge with a new generation and the western population on a much broader scale via audio recordings; subtly adding them to my psychotherapy practices and techniques; and now with this blog.
Professional Work Experience
Taking an adventurous view of my career, I have worked in any and every psychotherapy setting that I thought I might like and/or learn from as well as some I never dreamed I would work in. I have worked as a school psychologist intern and a family clinic psychologist intern as my practicums in graduate school; in a university clinic, an inpatient hospital settings, and a day treatment (i.e. groups and individual therapy during the day and patients go home at night) settings as part of her Per-doctorial internship as Hahnmann University in Philadelphia, PA; a Community Mental Health doing individual, group and family psychotherapy; my Private Practice doing individual, couples and family therapy in the early 2000s; and was a Prison Psychologist doing individual, group and crisis work first as a traveling contract psychologist for 3 years and then as a staff psychologist for over 11 years were part of what I did was teach those inmates who wanted to learn meditation techniques to enhance their ability to manage their anxiety, anger, impulsiveness, and depression as well as improve their judgment, goal setting skills and delay of gratification (ie. Work and save for what you want instead of steal). Although I am adept at helping people manage/demission their depression, my specialties are stress management, goal setting and implementation, and helping people achieve and maintain a balanced life.
I opened my private practice again after taking early retirement from being a State Prison Psychologist in 2018. Currently, I see a few clients in my offices in Santa Rosa and Petaluma, CA. in the USA. However, currently, I am mostly doing Video-Telehealth for California-based people while writing, recording, and now blogging through my business Golden Temple Meditations.
Golden Temple Meditations Mission Statement (GTM)
GTM strives to teach people fun and “user-friendly” ways to enter the world of meditation. Then goes on to help individuals create happy, healthy, high-energy, balanced lifestyles that can ebb and flow with the currents of life. GTM helps a person create the life they want and then…UPGRADE IT! That is…”Living in Alignment”
The Focus of this Blog, "Creating the Life You Want using Therapy and Meditation"
In this blog, I will be discussing different components and topics of designing, manifesting, and building the happy, healthy, purposeful life of your dreams. An intricate part of this will include time-tested therapy and/or meditation techniques. I will also share my knowledge, insights, and personal experiences surrounding a particular component of a consciously designed life.
Products and Services
To get a copy of my audiobooks, eBooks, and products, as well as future offerings, or to contact me for psychotherapy (California-based people only) click the button below. Be sure to subscribe to my list at the bottom of the Marketplace page to get an email of my latest blog or offers sent directly to you.