Carly Jo Carson

We all are healers and when we step into that understanding that every interchange is an opportunity to inspire something in somebody, we can tune into our capacity to help others.

Can you describe the work that you do? 
I call myself a journey designer, which is a name that a friend gave me after experiencing my work. I was happy to hear it because I don’t know how to explain what I do! I offer breathwork experiences for people to heal traumas, these can be anything from physical to emotional pains. 

How do your journeys compare to other breathwork practices? 
They are really so much more than a breathwork journey because I create musical arcs to stimulate an optimal healing session that calls on traditions I have studied.  It is different because I work with breath and sound. 

How did you find breathwork?
I had a lot of addiction with people in my life and attracted a lot of relationships like that. As I was working with plant medicine, I realized I was starting to be reliant on it, and I needed to start looking at that in myself. So I took a break for years with plant medicine, but I love catharsis, and needed to find a process to keep me bright and hopeful.  So I went with a friend to a holotropic training with Stanislov Grof and I couldn’t believe that in the first session it was just like plant medicine, but just with breathing. I had this vision of the kind of journey and experience that I wanted to create for others. 

How do you feel about plant medicine now? 
I don’t think you are supposed to be doing it all the time, but everyone has their own healing journey. I think there is a reason so much medicine is moving through right now, so I just try to remember that there is something divine happening. Plants are incredibly healing when used in the right way - it helped me open up my ears and hear for the very first time. I am very much still in service to that plant as I am working with grandmother energy. 

What is the most impactful part of the breathwork?
I think with this work you really need to listen to the powerful messages that are coming through and then take action. So much spirit comes through with the breathwork and smacks you over the head with the answers, little tweaks you can make in your life. But you have to listen and make the changes, which is not always easy! 

Do you follow a specific lineage? 
I’ve done so much breathwork with many different practitioners and I love that everyone brings their own flair to it. A big part of my path has been putting one foot in front of the other and trusting spirit. The fact that I don’t have a particular training can make some people uncomfortable, but so many people I work with have said they appreciate how open I am and how they love being part of my own evolution.

Why is music so important? 
Music is crucial to the journey because it has a magical power to open a secret door in time and reach into the eternal. The compositions that I record with Paul Butler are heart songs that build in intensity to bring us into an energy of reverence, love and remembrance.  They help us tap into ancient wellsprings of human imagination to activate purpose and revive connection in our lives.

Do you call yourself a musician?
I still struggle with that, but yes I record all the music with my partner Paul Butler, he is an incredible musician and producer. I mostly play the Charango, a 10 string Bolivian guitar, a rattle and a drum. But part of what we learn on my retreats is that we can all make music - you don’t need to be a musician. 

What are ways can people work with you? 
I offer monthly in person breathwork sessions in Topanga Canyon and other locations in Los Angeles and occasionally in New York City as well as monthly virtual sessions via Zoom that are always donation-based. For a deeper exploration I offer a few retreats per year. The Heart Song retreat is a deeply immersive journey into the self through breathwork and song. People can also sign up for  Infinite Crescendo, a new portal that I just launched with Paul. 

What is Infinite Crescendo?
It is a new collaborative music project that Paul and I are working on together. It’s about finding ways to sustain a peak experience through music and prayer. We are about to launch a new subscription-based portal that offers people access to our breathwork Arcs, as well as a growing library of ‘microjoureys’. The longer breathwork Arcs are intended to simulate a plant medicine experience, whereas the microjourneys are like a micro dose for people to experience laying down with headphones to take them deep within. We’ve developed these microjurneys in collaboration with creatives from all walks of life that share the wisdom gained from their own healing journey, and how it informs their work and art. These conversations will then also be shared through the Infinite Crescendo Podcast. 

Tell us about your retreats? 
I call them Heart Song retreats. As people connect with the music, I invite them to vocalize while they are still in an altered state, to open their channels and to sing or play music. Through this practice it connects people with their true heart song. It has really become a metaphor for how we can connect with our true purpose, and then how we can go back into the world and ignite others to find their purpose. 

What role does community play in your practice? 
We all are healers and when we step into that understanding that every interchange is an opportunity to inspire something in somebody, we can tune into our capacity to help others. This work is like lighting someone’s candle, and then they can go out into the world and light other people’s candles. 

What does it mean to be a healer to you? 
I came from a lot of trauma and addiction, but we all have versions of feedback loops we hold onto around feelings of unworthiness. To me healing is to break through all of those loops and rewire ourselves again so we can feel at home in our bodies and lives. When I have gone through any experience that is healing, I come out feeling more at home in myself and more comfortable as me - not needing to be different.

What does that feel like to you?
It’s getting to a space where you can live in the vibration of love and compassion. Where we have self acceptance and self love, and even humor, around our traumas. 

What are some of your daily rituals and practices? 
If I said I had a daily routine that would be a total lie. I have tried so many times and it just never works for me. I try to swim in the ocean as much as possible, even for 5 minutes feels like a spiritual practice. I like to make gratitude lists, positive affirmations for life and my partnership. 

What do you keep on your bedside table?
A lot of poetry books. I don’t think I understood poetry until something shifted and now it's all I want to read. My instruments. A shruti box that I love to sing with. 

What is the best advice you've ever gotten?
Leap and the net will appear! I really believe that and I am always trying to get people comfortable with that. 

What are the three things that bring you joy?
Family, music and the ocean

Photos from Carly Jo Carson