Beyond the Healing: The Story Behind SoulRise Healing By Angel Thomas | Founder of SoulRise Healing

When people come across SoulRise Healing, they usually meet me as a mentor, spiritual teacher, intuitive practitioner, or business owner. They see the services I offer, the work I do with clients, and the conversations I share about personal and spiritual development. What they don’t always see is the life that brought me to this point. I have spent years helping others understand their experiences, recognize patterns, and navigate different stages of their lives, but I haven’t always been as open about my own journey. Not because I have anything to hide, but because there are parts of life that take time to understand, much less explain to someone else. As my business continues to grow, I have realized that sharing more of my story is an important part of helping people understand not only what I do, but why I do it.

My name is Angel Thomas, and before I became the founder of SoulRise Healing, I was someone trying to make sense of a life that had presented challenges from the very beginning. I was born with drugs in my system, which meant my introduction to the world was already complicated by circumstances completely outside of my control. I have often reflected on what it means to begin life that way, especially when you grow older and start recognizing how much of your early environment can influence the person you become. I don’t share that part of my story for sympathy. I share it because I believe understanding where we started can help us recognize the patterns, behaviors, and beliefs we carry into adulthood. Sometimes those patterns develop long before we have the ability to understand what is happening around us.

Growing up, I experienced things that were difficult to navigate and, at times, even more difficult to explain. Some of those experiences involved my personal circumstances, while others involved what I understood to be spiritual experiences beginning at a very young age. Around seven years old, I began having unusual experiences involving altered states of awareness, out-of-body sensations, and encounters that I could not easily explain. At that age, I didn’t have the knowledge or vocabulary to make sense of them. I simply knew that there were aspects of my experiences that seemed different from what I heard other people describe. Those early moments stayed with me and eventually became part of my interest in consciousness, intuition, and spirituality, although it would be many years before I began exploring those subjects in a more structured way.

As I grew older, life continued to teach me lessons that had very little to do with spirituality and everything to do with learning how to survive. When you experience difficult circumstances early in life, you can become accustomed to being strong because you don’t feel there is another option. You learn how to adapt, how to keep going, and sometimes how to put your own needs aside because there are more immediate things demanding your attention. For a long time, I viewed those qualities as strengths, and in many ways they were. They helped me navigate situations that required resilience and independence. What I didn’t understand until later was that the same survival mechanisms that help us through difficult periods can also influence how we build relationships, respond to stress, establish boundaries, and make decisions long after those circumstances have changed.

Eventually, my journey led me into the United States Army, where I served during the Iraq War. Military service became another significant part of my life, one that strengthened my sense of discipline, responsibility, and determination. Serving in the military teaches you to function under pressure, adapt to changing circumstances, and remain focused on what needs to be accomplished. Those lessons have stayed with me and continue to influence how I approach both my personal life and my business. At the same time, military service can leave you carrying experiences that are not always easy to process once you return to civilian life. There are things you learn to push through because the situation requires it, but eventually you have to recognize that continuing to function and genuinely processing what you have experienced are not always the same thing.

Looking back, I can see how much of my life was spent moving from one responsibility or challenge to another without always taking the time to understand how those experiences were affecting me. I knew how to keep going, and I knew how to take care of what needed to be done, but there came a point when I began questioning whether I was truly living the life I wanted or simply managing the life I had become accustomed to. That realization was not something that happened overnight, and it certainly wasn’t the beginning of an easy transformation. It was a gradual process of becoming more aware of myself, recognizing behaviors I had developed over time, and understanding that some of the things I had learned to do for protection were no longer serving me in the same way.

One of the most important lessons I have learned is that healing and personal development require more than acknowledging what happened to us. They also require us to examine how those experiences continue to influence our lives. I had to become more aware of my own expectations, emotional responses, boundaries, and the ways I approached relationships and responsibilities. There were times when I had to challenge beliefs I had carried for years, and other times when I had to accept that certain things were outside of my control. I began to understand that taking responsibility for my future did not mean taking responsibility for everything that had happened in my past. It meant recognizing that I could make different choices moving forward, even if I couldn’t change where my story began.

Throughout that process, my interest in spirituality continued to develop. The unusual experiences I had as a child had never completely disappeared from my awareness, and as an adult I began exploring different perspectives on consciousness, intuition, energy work, and spiritual development. I spent time studying, practicing, asking questions, and reflecting on what I was learning. Some teachings helped me find language for experiences I had struggled to describe, while others encouraged me to examine my own beliefs more carefully. Over time, I developed an approach to spirituality that was deeply personal but also grounded in the understanding that our everyday lives matter just as much as our spiritual interests. I began to recognize that personal development, emotional awareness, accountability, and spiritual exploration could complement one another without needing to be treated as separate parts of life.

That understanding eventually influenced the work I began doing with others. I noticed that many people were searching for clarity, direction, or a better understanding of themselves, but they didn’t always know where to begin. Some were curious about their intuition or experiences they couldn’t explain, while others were navigating difficult relationships, major life changes, or recurring patterns they wanted to understand. What stood out to me was how often people felt that they needed someone else to tell them who they were or what they were supposed to do. Through my own experiences, I had learned how important it was to develop self-awareness and trust in my ability to make decisions. I wanted to help others explore that same sense of personal understanding rather than encouraging them to depend entirely on someone else’s interpretation of their lives.

SoulRise Healing grew from that desire. It was not a business I created because I believed I had reached some final level of understanding or because I thought I had all the answers. In fact, much of what shaped this business came from recognizing how much I still had to learn. I wanted to create a space where people could explore personal and spiritual development without feeling pressured to follow a particular path, adopt specific beliefs, or meet someone else’s expectations of what their journey should look like. I wanted my work to be individualized because I understand that no two people have the same background, experiences, or goals. What helps one person move forward may not be what another person needs, and I believe taking the time to understand that difference is one of the most important responsibilities I have as a mentor.

Today, my work includes private mentorship, intuitive readings, spiritual education, energy-based practices, and supporting individuals as they explore their own development. Although these services may look different from one another, the foundation of my approach remains consistent. I want people to feel heard, respected, and comfortable asking questions. I want them to understand that growth requires their own participation and that meaningful change often happens through the decisions and practices they carry into their everyday lives. When I work with someone, I am not interested in creating a situation where they feel they cannot move forward without me. I would much rather see someone become more confident in their judgment, recognize their strengths, and develop the tools they need to continue growing independently.

I also believe there is a responsibility that comes with offering this type of work. Spirituality is deeply personal, and people often seek guidance during times when they are feeling uncertain, vulnerable, or overwhelmed. For that reason, I believe transparency, clear boundaries, and realistic expectations are essential. I cannot promise someone that a particular session will change their life, and I don’t believe it would be responsible to do so. What I can offer is my experience, knowledge, attention, and a commitment to approaching our work together with integrity. I believe clients deserve to understand what they are receiving, have the freedom to make their own decisions, and know that their individual experiences will be treated with respect.

While SoulRise Healing is a significant part of my life, there is much more to me than the work I do professionally. I am a veteran, entrepreneur, student, gardener, animal lover, and someone who values the lessons that come from everyday experiences. I am continuing my education in business because I believe that having a purpose and running a successful organization require different but equally important skills. I enjoy learning about leadership, communication, marketing, and the practical decisions involved in building something sustainable. Outside of work, I find value in gardening, caring for my animals, maintaining my physical fitness, and spending time on the responsibilities and relationships that make up my daily life. These things may seem unrelated to spiritual development, but I see them as part of the same process of learning how to live with greater intention and balance.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about personal or spiritual development is that eventually we reach a point where we have everything figured out. My life has taught me otherwise. I still face challenges, make decisions I have to reconsider, and encounter situations that require me to look at things from a different perspective. There are times when I have to remind myself to establish boundaries, slow down, or recognize when I am taking on more than I need to. I don’t view those moments as contradictions to the work I do. I view them as part of being human. The knowledge we gain through experience becomes valuable when we are willing to apply it, and sometimes that means returning to lessons we thought we had already learned.

As I continue building SoulRise Healing, I have also started opening up more about my personal journey through my podcast. For years, I shared very little about certain chapters of my life because I knew how much there was to tell and how difficult some of those experiences could be to put into words. Now, I feel there is value in allowing people to understand the journey behind the person they see today. Some conversations will focus on my childhood and the circumstances that shaped me, while others will explore military service, spirituality, relationships, personal development, and the lessons I have learned along the way. I don’t intend to present my story as a perfect example of overcoming adversity, because life is rarely that simple. There were difficult moments, complicated decisions, periods of uncertainty, and experiences that took years to understand. Those realities are just as much a part of my journey as the accomplishments.

When I look at where I started and where I am today, I don’t see a story about someone who had everything figured out and followed a perfect path. I see a person who experienced difficult circumstances, made choices, learned from mistakes, questioned beliefs, and continued building a life that reflected what mattered to her. I see how my childhood influenced my understanding of survival, how the military strengthened my discipline, how my personal experiences encouraged me to examine myself more deeply, and how my interest in spirituality eventually developed into work that allows me to support others. None of those chapters existed independently. They influenced one another, and together they helped shape the person I am today.

If there is something I hope people take away from learning about me, it is that our lives are not defined entirely by the circumstances in which they begin or the challenges we encounter along the way. We cannot always control what happens to us, and not every difficult experience comes with a lesson we needed to learn. Sometimes life is simply difficult, and acknowledging that is important. But I do believe we can develop a greater understanding of ourselves, recognize where change is possible, and make decisions that move us toward the kind of life we want to create. That belief is not something I developed from reading a book or attending a class. It came from living through experiences that required me to discover what moving forward actually meant.

SoulRise Healing represents that ongoing journey. It is a business built from my experiences, education, interests, and desire to help people explore their own lives with greater awareness. I am proud of what I have created, but I also recognize that the business, just like the person behind it, will continue to evolve. There are more things I want to learn, more conversations I want to have, and more opportunities to develop meaningful resources for the people I serve. I don’t know exactly what every future chapter will look like, and I have become comfortable with that. Growth sometimes requires us to make plans, and other times it requires us to recognize when those plans need to change.

For those who are just discovering SoulRise Healing, I hope this gives you a better understanding of who I am beyond the services listed on my website. And for those who have followed my work for years, I hope sharing more of my story offers a deeper understanding of the experiences and values that continue to guide me.

I am not here because I have lived a perfect life or because I believe I have all the answers. I am here because I have lived, questioned, learned, and continued moving forward, even when the direction wasn’t always clear. I believe there is value in sharing what we learn along the way, especially when it helps someone else feel more confident in navigating their own journey.

That is the person behind SoulRise Healing, and that is the purpose I continue to build upon.

Angel Thomas

Founder, SoulRise Healing

Learn more about my work, explore available services and mentorship, or follow my personal story through the SoulRise Healing podcast at www.soulrisehealing.com.