Since I was a child, I have been curious about questions that don't always have easy answers.

Where were we before we were born? What happens after we die? What gives our lives meaning?

Looking back, I can see how these questions have quietly guided my journey through life, work, and learning.

My Professional Journey

Social Work → End-of-Life Care → Psychotherapy → Healing Touch → Massage → Hypnosis → Soul Journey

My professional journey began with social work and a desire to support people through some of life's most difficult transitions.

When I moved from Japan to study in the United States, I met a classmate who openly shared that he was gay and living with HIV. His bright spirit and untimely death from AIDS deeply affected me. At the time, I knew little about HIV/AIDS or the LGBTQ+ community, but his passing inspired me to volunteer with an AIDS organization.

It was the mid-1990s, when HIV/AIDS carried significant stigma and many people were still facing the end of their lives. As I wondered how we could support people living with an illness that could not yet be cured, I discovered hospice care.

I was drawn to hospice's holistic approach—the understanding that caring for someone involves more than physical needs. It can also include emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions. I began volunteering at a hospice and learned the importance of simply being present with someone at the end of life.

I later moved to Hawaiʻi and earned a Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Hawaiʻi. Over the years, I worked with AIDS organizations in both Hawaiʻi and Japan and spent many years in hospice care, supporting individuals and families through illness, loss, and transition.

Being present when someone takes their last breath has profoundly shaped how I see life. Those experiences taught me about presence, compassion, impermanence, and the importance of being fully here with another person.

Discovering Healing Touch

While working in hospice, I had the opportunity to learn Healing Touch, an energy-based approach that emphasizes relaxation, presence, and the whole person.

I was especially drawn to the idea of healing presence—being fully present with another person while holding a compassionate intention.

What began as another area of learning gradually became an important part of my own path. I continued my training for many years and eventually became a Certified Healing Touch Practitioner.

I also became a Licensed Massage Therapist, deepening my understanding of the body, relaxation, and well-being.

Exploring the Inner World

Alongside my work with the body and energy, I spent more than ten years working as a psychotherapist.

Psychotherapy taught me a great deal about the mind, emotions, relationships, and the ways our experiences shape how we see ourselves and the world.

Over time, I became interested in ways of exploring our inner experience beyond talking alone. This led me to study hypnosis, guided imagery, and other approaches to inner awareness.

Each part of my journey has given me something different:

Social work taught me compassion.
End-of-life care taught me presence.
Psychotherapy taught me about the mind and emotions.
Healing Touch taught me about energy and intention.
Massage taught me to listen to the body.
Hypnosis and guided imagery opened new ways of exploring the inner world.

Together, these experiences eventually led me to Soul Journey.

What I Believe About This Work

My understanding of life has been shaped by both my professional experience and my own spiritual exploration.

I resonate with the belief that we are more than our physical bodies, that energy continues to move and transform, and that the soul may be part of something larger than this one lifetime.

I also believe that each of us has an inner wisdom that can sometimes be difficult to hear beneath the noise of everyday life, expectations, past experiences, and the many roles we carry.

For some people, exploring their inner world may involve memories, images, feelings, symbols, or sensations. For others, it may bring a new way of understanding something they have been carrying. And for those who are open to it, the experience may feel connected to something beyond this lifetime.

I don't believe I need to have all the answers for you.

My role is to create a supportive space where you can become curious about your own experience and discover what feels meaningful to you.

I trust that your inner wisdom—and, in the way that resonates with you, your soul—can guide you toward what you are ready to explore.

Why I Created Soul Journey

After many years in clinical and end-of-life settings, I wanted to create a different kind of space.

A place where people could slow down, step outside of their usual roles, and reconnect with themselves without being defined by a diagnosis, a problem, or a particular outcome.

That is where Soul Journey began.

Today, I bring together what I have learned through social work, end-of-life care, psychotherapy, Healing Touch, massage, hypnosis, guided imagery, and my own ongoing spiritual exploration.

Soul Journey is a non-clinical space for self-awareness, rest, reflection, and reconnecting with yourself.

You don't need to arrive with a specific problem to solve.

You may simply be curious.
You may need a place to rest.
You may be going through a transition and want some quiet space to reflect.
Or you may feel ready to reconnect with a deeper part of yourself.

Sessions are available in Honolulu for local clients and visitors to Hawaiʻi, as well as remotely through Zoom.

All Soul Journey services are offered as complementary, non-clinical wellness experiences. They are not psychotherapy or medical treatment, diagnosis, or a substitute for professional healthcare.

If you're wondering which session might be right for you, please feel free to reach out.

Wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome here.

Mimi