Bio
Israel Elijah Joy
I want to bring compassion, integrity, and presence to the spiritual and therapeutic work that I offer.
For over twenty years I have been immersed in the exploration of healing, not as a concept, but as my lived journey. I understand healing as being holistic by nature, involving the physical, emotional, psychological, relational, and spiritual aspects of being, moving together as one system. When one aspect is excluded, healing will be incomplete.
Integrated Wholeness is not only a concept, it is the direction my life has taken me, and continues to do so every day.
A little of my healing journey
In 2004, my life turned inside out. At that time, I was living out patterns of addiction, self-harm, and chronic depression, as I had done for many years. Alcohol and drugs had offered moments of escape, humour, hilarity, torture and relief, but the deeper dis-eases of my mind remained embedded. A series of deep spiritual experiences intervened and my life veered onto another path entirely.
This shift was immediate but...
The healing was clearly not.
What followed were many years of sincere practice, searching, stumbling, crying, hating, opening, avoiding, remembering, forgetting, and beginning again, and again, and again. A pattern of growth and learning that continues to this day.
Initially I devoted myself to Tai Chi and Qigong, Reiki, Breathwork, and to cultivating a direct relationship with Spirit.
In time, The Way of Mastery entered my life. Its expression of divine nature, responsibility, love, and the creative power of consciousness resonated deeply and clarified my spiritual direction. It spoke to something I already knew, deep in my Heart, it sang to me as it still does. And yet, despite genuine growth, something remained unresolved, a sense that its Truth was clear, but my human system could not truly grasp it as a reality. Very much still a work in progress.
Alongside spiritual practice, I began experiencing the unconscious layers of my own past, so many moments of fear, shame, trauma, and the strategies my system had adopted to survive. I learnt much about forgiveness, presence, breath, and Self-Love. I experienced catharsis, insight, and healing. And still, something fundamental was skewed within.
A part of the missing piece revealed itself through Internal Family Systems therapy.
IFS opened the inner landscape of mind in a way nothing else had. It turned many lights on, offering clarity, precision, and a new sense of compassion to what I had previously understood only in abstract terms. I came to recognise my psyche as a multiplicity of parts, each carrying burdens, each acting in what it perceives to be the only way to create safety. And I came to know, directly, that I am not those parts, nor the pain they carry. I discovered through un-blending to know my Self more clearly and have a path to reconnect when I got lost again. A gift beyond measure.
Healing shifted more directly into relationship.
Through this perspective, responsibility became possible without the violence of blame. Innocence became palpable rather than theoretical. Spiritual truth moved from aspiration into embodiment. The parts of me that had been striving, resisting, judging, or protecting could begin to rest, as they learnt they were not in charge of the process. I had discovered how to bring the aspirations of the Way of Mastery into a more defined and lived experience. I was, and still am, un-shaming my system.
Yet even as inner clarity deepened, I began to realise where insight did not automatically translate into integrity in outer relationship dynamics. I could understand my parts, rest more often as Self, and still sense the tightening in my chest, the knotting in my belly, the familiar leaning away from my own truth in contact with others. The compromise and the sacrifice, as well as the rage and the blame.
The Wheel of Consent really helped illuminate this layer with profound simplicity: Who is this for? What do I want? Is this a true yes? Is it a no? In the asking, I could feel where my body collapsed, where it performed, where it reached outward while leaving itself behind. these simple practices exposed the contortions I had made to preserve connection and avoid conflict; giving in order to receive, softening a no into something more palatable, disguising need beneath spiritual language (a huge one for me). All very much still a work in progress, I doubt this work will ever end, whilst I have a body on earth.
The wheel helped and helps me to clarify how I distort my own integrity to appease and avoid.
My work now arises from the ongoing integration of spiritual truth with psychological reality, and into authentic embodied expression.
I draw from spirituality, trauma-informed understanding of the psyche, nervous system awareness, breath, touch, consent-based relational practice, and embodied inquiry. I work with what is here, as it is, meeting each aspect of the system with curiosity, compassion, and respect.
I am an IFS Counselling Association Trained Practitioner. I am trained in Clarity Breathwork and Reiki, and have trained with The School of Consent, including Like a Pro and Working With Groups. I continue to study embodied spiritual practice and serve as a channel for Jeshua within my own devotional life.
The essence of my work is sustained and focussed Presence, the willingness to be with what arises, without agenda, grounded in my own ongoing practice and process.
From this place, I support individuals and groups in settling their internal systems, restoring trust and innocence to wounded parts, clarifying relational dynamics, and accessing Self-leadership, from which genuine choice, responsibility, and freedom can emerge.
Experience and Life
I have over fifteen years experience working therapeutically with individuals and groups, both locally and internationally, and currently offer private sessions, online courses, and in-person retreats.
I endeavour to remain a constant student.
I am blessed to journey with a loving life-partner who continues to teach me about healing relationship, repair, and intimacy. I am also a father to a beautiful twelve-year-old boy, whose presence has taught me more about humility, patience, and love than any teaching ever could.
I am happy to answer any questions that may arise. Please feel free to contact me below.
