Melissa (Mellie) Artema

I came into this world energetically sensitive and naturally aligned with a kind of language that goes deeper than words. I have always had a profound interest in holistic ways of seeing and exploring the human experience. 

I became fascinated by the human body and the world around me as a child and began diligently studying herbal medicine, learning to identify plants, practicing reflexology, and studying everything I could find related to holistic healing in the late 1980's. I found yoga in 1993 which sparked my love for embodiment practices. I have continued to develop and focus my skills through the present, extensively studying, practicing, and integrating numerous healing modalities into my own life for both personal and professional development. I have studied dozens of bodywork styles, energy medicine modalities, acupuncture techniques, trauma healing approaches, and methods of working with plant medicine with many prominent acupuncturist, herbalists, bodyworkers, qigong masters, shamanic practitioners, somatic psychotherapists, various other psychologists, anthropologists, and many other integrative healing professionals.

My professional background is heavily focused on wellness and healing arts, providing body-centered therapies, services, and education to promote holistic ways of thinking, building self-awareness, and creating conscious personal growth. My work uses multiple, eclectic modalities to offer opportunities to slow down, connect, reflect, learn, holistically process, and expand our human experience. 
I use a collaborative approach, encouraging a high level of personal responsibility and taking action in support of one's own well-being while also honoring mystery, paradox, less "doing," and the more intangible and subtle ways in which personal growth, transformation, and integration happens. I tend to attract people who identify as empathic, introverted, highly sensitive, neurodivergent, or trauma survivors. Sessions are offered through the lenses of somatics, bioenergetics, acupuncture theory, transpersonal psychology, yoga philosophy, and other integrated perspectives. I offer supports focused on holistic trauma resolution, somatic practices, bodywork, Eastern methodologies, peer support values, and soul tending from a grounded, body-based framework. 

While I love learning, I also acknowledge that our education systems are broken and unhealthy in many ways. I have an even greater appreciation for lived experience, integration and reflection work, contemplative practices, and intentional personal growth work. It is this kind of consistent and ongoing work that allows us to truly gain wisdom through experiencing the wholeness of our humanity. I love exploring ideas and finding the common threads across modalities. Formal education can enrich these experiences but can never be a substitute for them. My formal academic studies include a master's degree in acupuncture and a bachelor's degree in ecopsychology-focused integrative health. 

Experience Highlights

Somatic Bodywork
  • CranioSacral Therapy courses through Heartwood Institute of Integrative Medicine and Upledger Institute International for supporting organization in the nervous system, tissues, and substances of the body
  • Zero Balancing courses through the Zero Balancing Health Association
  • NeuroAffective Touch®, courses with Dr. Aline LaPierre, for healing the relational matrix, working with developmental trauma, and supporting body-mind integration
  • Reflexology
  • Cupping Therapy
  • TuiNa Chinese Medical Massage
  • Thai Yoga Bodywork


Yoga, Movement, Embodiment Practices & Trauma Care
  • Yoga Alliance Certified Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 200®), practicing yoga since 1993 & teaching since 2005
  • Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider
  • ​Somatic Experiencing®, courses through Somatic Experiencing International®, developed by Dr. Peter Levine, for post-trauma growth and nervous system regulation support
  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) courses with Dr. Richard Schwartz, Dr. Frank Anderson, and Robert Falconer 
  • ​Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Body-Mind Centering® courses include Exploring the Embodiment of Cellular Consciousness Through Movement, Embodying Muscles, Free the Vital Energy and Illuminating Presence of your Spine, Releasing Patterns of Stress and Uncovering Patterns of Ease, Perception as Key to Embodying and Repatterning the Nervous System
  • HeartMath courses including The Resilient Heart™: Trauma-Sensitive HeartMath Certification
  • ​Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., 2 Day Trauma Conference: The Body Keeps the Score​​​​
  • Dr. Diane Poole Heller, How Trauma Shapes our Attachment Style
  • ​​Viniyoga
  • Tantra Yoga
  • Trauma-Informed Yoga
  • Yoga for Transformation
  • Restorative Yoga
  • Yoga Nidra
  • Yoga Therapy for Anxiety
  • Yoga Therapy for Depression


Energy Medicine
  • National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Diplomate of Acupuncture, NCCAOM® National Board-Certified Acupuncturist & State of Wisconsin Certified Acupuncturist with a specialization in Trauma Recovery & Eastern Medicine Psychology (offering needle-free energy medicine practices)
  • ​The Four Winds Light Body School, courses with Dr. Alberto Villoldo and Marcela Lobos in Energy Medicine practices and Advanced Master Practitioner courses to support personal and planetary healing, Certified Master Practitioner of Energy Medicine through The Four Winds
  • Working with and teaching/passing the Munay Ki rites, the Nusta Karpay rites, and the Rite of the Womb 
  • Lorie Eve Dechar, Alchemical Acupuncture, courses including The Seven Po and the Wisdom of the Body Soul, Wu Shen - A Technology of Transformation, A Five Spirit Approach to Treating Shock and Trauma, and other studies including using flower essences and essential oils based on Chinese Medicine principles 
  • Pranic Healing® classes with Dr. Jason Calva, Chandan Parameswara, Master Stephen Co, and Kim Fantini
  • ​Bruce Burger, Polarity Therapy for Somatic Emotional Clearing: A Unique Synthesis of Transpersonal and Somatic Psychology
  • Multiple Qigong Styles
  • ​​Reiki Master & Teacher


Nutrition Coaching & Education
  • Institute for Integrative Nutrition® Certified Health Coach, specialized in working with The Wahls Protocol & The Biology of Trauma


Peer Support
  • State of Wisconsin Certified Peer Specialist, specialized in supporting neurodivergent women and trauma healing
  • Certified group facilitator for Alternatives to Suicide and Hearing Voices Network through Wildflower Alliance
  • Wellness Recovery Action Plan® (WRAP®) Certified


Creativity Practices
  • Intentional Creativity® Teacher in Training through Musea, bringing the deep feminine and inner wisdom into consciousness, story, and image / self-expression through the arts / accessing personal insights


Plant Medicine Studies

Ordained Minister (Interfaith-Identifying)
  • Soul tending & spiritual mentoring for people of all faiths and backgrounds, including those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious, those who feel a deep connection to "something greater" but don't consider themselves spiritual, and all other life paths and identities
  • Spiritual healing practices
  • Spiritual care & counseling
  • Supporting grief work
  • Ancestral healing practices
  • Ritual guide and retreat facilitator
  • Death doula
Artema Somatics LLC
800 Wilson Avenue, Suite 51
​Menomonie, WI 54751