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, and methods of working with plant medicine with many prominent acupuncturist, herbalists, bodyworkers, qigong masters, shamanic practitioners, somatic psychotherapists, and 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, 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. Formal education can enrich these experiences but can never be a substitute for them. My formal academic studies include transpersonal counseling, acupuncture, and 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
  • 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

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 Eastern Medicine Psychology (also offering needle-free energy medicine techniques)
  • Pranic Healing® classes with Dr. Jason Calva, Chandan Parameswara, Master Stephen Co, and Kim Fantini
  • ​The Four Winds Light Body School, the teachings of Dr. Alberto Villoldo and Marcela Lobos in Energy Medicine practices and Advanced Master Practitioner courses to support personal and planetary healing 
  • Working with the Munay Ki rites (authorized to teach/pass rites by Alberto Villoldo), the Nusta Karpay rites, and the Rite of the Womb (authorized to teach/pass rite by Marcela Lobos)
  • 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 others
  • Dr. Slate Burris, Neoclassical Acupuncture 
  • ​Bruce Burger, Polarity Therapy for Somatic Emotional Clearing: A Unique Synthesis of Transpersonal and Somatic Psychology
  • Multiple Qigong Styles
  • ​​Reiki Master & Teacher

Yoga, Movement & Embodiment Practices
  • ​Somatic Experiencing®, courses through Somatic Experiencing International®, developed by Dr. Peter Levine, for post-trauma growth and nervous system regulation support
  • ​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
  • ​Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., 2 Day Trauma Conference: The Body Keeps the Score​​​​
  • Yoga Alliance certified yoga teacher and continuing education provider
  • ​Viniyoga
  • Tantra Yoga
  • Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider
  • Trauma-Informed Yoga
  • Yoga for Transformation
  • Restorative Yoga
  • Yoga Nidra

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
Artema Somatics LLC
800 Wilson Avenue, Suite 51
​Menomonie, WI 54751