Dr. Christy Soto-Johnson, NMD (Dr. Christy)

My cultural background influences my therapy.

Although I’m originally from California, Arizona has been my home for over ten years, and I love it! I live on what is historically one of my dad’s tribe’s ancestral lands and feel at home surrounded by my rich Mexican culture.

Here’s a little story about my life and how my culture, ancestry, spiritual gifts, and personal traumas have shaped who I’ve become as a doctor and healer. These experiences, the therapies I’ve learned along the way, and my faith have all come together to help me create Quantum Bodywork Therapy. I’m here to share it with all my patients so they can have the same kind of healing breakthroughs that I’ve had.

Since childhood, my grandmothers impressed upon me the importance of engaging and keeping nature and our cultural traditions alive, knowing our value as women, practicing folk medicine, recognizing and growing our gifts, and having faith as a central pillar of life.

Healing gifts were revealed.

When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I had a very profound, life-changing event that I only shared with my mother. I never told anyone else about it until I was in my 30s. Okay, I know what most of you are thinking – How can a young kid have a “life-changing event?” Right? Well, this event was a series of prophetic dreams that firmly set the trajectory of my life, and I vividly think of them often.

Before that fateful night, I had been enjoying helping people feel better. Whether somebody would say anything or not, I could physically see if something was wrong inside them, almost like x-ray vision, and would instinctively know what I needed to do to improve it.

Often, it would be massaging or applying pressure at specific points in the body, waving my hands over the person without touching them but in particular patterns, or just knowing what words they needed to hear and providing genuine compassion. It brought my little heart the most fantastic sense of joy and fulfillment!

Christ encourages me to help others.

Then, one night, like every other night, my mom put me to bed. I had a dream that quickly became a horrific living nightmare. The devil took me to see hell. He said THIS was the fate that awaited me if I kept doing what I was doing to people. He told me that making a difference for any of the tortured and suffering souls didn’t matter and that I didn’t matter.

I was not just able to see, but physically and emotionally feel, what these poor souls were experiencing. The horror was indescribable. I woke up crying harder than I had ever cried before. I said nothing to anyone.

The next night, I was terrified to go to bed. My mom knew something was wrong, so she prayed with me, asking Jesus and my guardian angel to protect me. I fell asleep, and Jesus came to me in my dream. He showed me the heavens and the universe. He helped me understand that my gift was to be used to help humanity and that it was a significant part of my purpose and His request of me. Jesus told me not to be afraid and that if I followed Him, hell would not be my fate. He would keep me safe.

The next day, I woke up and told my mother in detail about both dreams, and I went back to “working” on people. It was also a pivotal moment as I realized that my calling was to be a doctor and that this spiritual healing gift was an essential part of how I was to practice medicine.

My early experiences brought my heart to life.

Integrated into every breath of my life was a deep connection to service. Combined with the foundation set by my dreams, gifts, and the lessons of my grandmothers, throughout my childhood, I was serving our family, our church community, the poorest in our region, and the most vulnerable, applying these special gifts and other abilities.

When I wasn’t in school or at the family ranch, I volunteered at domestic violence shelters, migrant farm workers’ camps, soup kitchens, etc.

These acts of service filled me like nothing else and allowed me to pour my love and compassion into those needing it most. I gain the same fulfillment now at GEMC when I give wholeheartedly to my patients.

On the home front, well, life happened.

Throughout my adolescent and teen years, chaos increased around me thanks to the usual suspects of drugs, alcohol, gangs, and violence. These events resulted in the slow suppression of my gifts as I tried to survive the madness and not fall victim to it.

At the same time, my mom’s health was rapidly deteriorating. Conventional medicine could find no answers and no solutions. Nothing seemed to work, including suitcases full of prescriptions, tons of medical devices taking over her bedroom, and countless surgeries. She almost died more than once, but by the Grace of God, she survived each time.

Then, in my senior year of high school, we found hope, answers, and solutions that worked through a homeopathic doctor who utilized tools I’d never heard of before, but they made sense and felt like what I did for others as a kid! I started to learn about homeopathic medicine, rekindling the practice of my gifts, and then I suffered a severe spinal injury.

Suddenly, I went from a high-performing AP academic, athlete, dancer, musician, and volunteer to severely and darkly depressed person in excruciating pain 24/7. I could barely walk or sit for more than a couple of minutes. I had episodes of paralysis, nearly failed classes, and found no point in life. To say my world was upside-down is an understatement. My spirit felt broken, my identity taken from me.

I chose to move forward.

I went on (barely) to study anthropological, cultural, linguistic, and biological evolution at the University of California, Davis, while doing physical therapy and whatever else I could to function.

Eventually, my body healed well enough to get through the days, but my mind and spirit still felt broken. Still, studying cultures worldwide showed me how many of us have the same types of cultural or ancestral traumas and wounds, a lesson I apply today when working with patients of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

While working at the Sutter Health Institute for Research and Education as a public health research assistant, I started working with the underserved, immigrants, and indigents again. This work rekindled my childhood passion for natural medicine. It also was the impetus to heal my mind and spirit. I returned to my faith, reigniting my gifts, and experienced non-traditional healing approaches that opened my eyes to the possibilities!

After six years, God called me to step into the dream of becoming a doctor and healer on a larger scale. So, I left my budding career and relocated to Arizona to attend the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine.

My training and gifts evolved.

When I returned to volunteering with the most at-risk and traumatized individuals, I focused on acute illness, mental/emotional recovery, and pain management. At the same time, I became certified in other therapies like Mayan Abdominal Massage, Pranic Healing Therapy, Gemstone Meridian Therapy, and Applied Kinesiology, to name a few!

I started to hone my skills, blending these approaches to healing while adding new skills, expanding my gifts, and merging them into something new. Over the years, this amalgamation and their application and my faith-guided intuitive medicine have become Quantum Bodywork Therapy.

(If you are into credentials and facts, I completed a rigorous Residency Program at A Family Healing Center clinic in McMinnville, Oregon, after graduating from medical school. There, I received specialized training focused on Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Women’s Health, Pain Management, and nutritional management of Pyroluria Disorder.

I’m board-certified in Naturopathic Medicine, Minor Surgery, and Acupuncture, and I hold additional certifications in Craniosacral therapy for physical, emotional, and energetic health restoration. From 2020 to 2021, the Women In Medicine Magazine selected me as one of Phoenix’s Top Doctors in naturopathic medicine.)

My goal is to help you overcome your struggles.

All the ancestral wounds, cultural traumas, and family traumas are a story for another day ha-ha. Just know that if you’re suffering, in a dark place, if you feel stuck in your health issue, or if you’re in pain, you’re not alone, even if it feels that way.

While I’ve shared some poignant and defining moments of my life here, as with many of you out there, there are a lot more traumas that I’ve experienced and worked through. So, if you’re going through something challenging, horrible, confusing, or isolating, know that I understand.

My understanding influences my work and is personal and profound. I will listen to you because I know the difference it makes to be seen and heard.

I’m living proof that you can overcome anything, no matter how hopeless the situation may seem! You can even find your life’s purpose along your healing journey if you don’t already know it. I will hold your hand, guide and support you as you turn your life around. Your life’s potential is boundless, and I’d be honored to be by your side as you step into your happiest, healthiest, whole self!