Our Origin Story

Hi there! I’m Chelsea Horton, and while I founded Healing Embodied in 2019, the seeds of this mission were planted in 2014, when I met my husband Matt. 

That relationship was the catalyst for my massive awakening.

When we started dating, so many dormant fears, traumas, and unhelpful beliefs came to the surface.

I wanted to feel secure in this relationship, but as a child of divorce, the idea of commitment sent me into panic. 

I also experienced religious trauma in my early teens and 20s, that made me so deeply afraid of not picking the “right” partner, and thus god being so disappointed in me.

Within the first 5 months of us dating, I got accepted into grad school for Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling at Columbia College Chicago in 2015.

I thought that was my convenient ticket out of the relationship, which would mean I wouldn’t have to face the things that the relationship brought up in me.

But life had other plans. 

In this program, I had to dive deep into my body. I had to feel and process the pain that my mind was trying to get me to avoid. 

Through this, the fears and worries of my mind quieted. 

Through this, I met the Divine in me and felt my inherent worthiness and wholeness.

I no longer feared life. 

I no longer feared god.

I no longer feared love.

In 2017, I graduated with an engagement ring on my finger, enthusiastically saying YES to what my heart truly desired. 

After graduation, I worked full time as a dance therapist in the mental health field for 2 years. I saw the immense impact that bringing people safely home to their bodies had on hundreds of people.

But the system was burning me out faster than an IKEA tea light candle. 

The work I could do with clients felt limited and restricted. It had to fit into the neat box of the system.

I knew I couldn’t stay in the system forever, but I had no idea if I could really carve my own path. 

With the moral support of my husband, and the security and trust I had in myself and my relationship, I took the leap to start my own company, Healing Embodied. 

I applied the same somatic principles that helped me trust in my relationship to trust that I could carve my own career path. 

Within the first year, Healing Embodied was a successful 6-figure company. 

I wanted to bring embodiment work to others who also struggled with the fears and insecurities I had experienced, and the response was overwhelming.

There were so many others out there like me who just wanted to feel solid in their relationships, without all the fear, trauma, and unhelpful beliefs stopping them. 

Through supporting hundreds of people, my team and I created our own methodology.

It is grounded in our clinical education and experience, but expands beyond that to transform lives on all levels. 

We had countless clients tell us that they’d never experienced anything like what they experience at Healing Embodied.

Not with other somatic therapists, not with energy healers, not with the top cognitive therapists. This was something truly unique.

And from this, we created the Healing Embodied Practitioner Training Program in 2023.

We train students to be the embodiment of the transformation they want to lead others through.

We help them connect to their unique, purpose-led expression of the work in their industry.

Healing Embodied has become more than a company. It’s a movement of deep healing and transformation.