Melissa Michaels, Ed.D., is the Founder and Director of SomaSource® Educational Programs, Surfing The Creative® International Rites Of Passage Programs, and Golden Bridge, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving and empowering the lives of young people through rites of passage, mentoring, and community support. She creates movement based cross-cultural educational opportunities focusing on the potential that is available at major life thresholds. Mapping the journey from trauma to dynamic well-being, her work utilizes the expressive and social arts to establish body and heart as resources authentic expression. Rooted in rhythm and fueled by breath, this work inspires the sacred union between Spirit, flesh, psyche, and deed.

Melissa creates safe and provocative learning environments that support communities in the embodied exploration of how creativity serves awakening and connection. Recognizing the essential need for the body in our conversations about how to serve the next generation, she has developed comprehensive programs for assisting youth, and the adults who serve them, as they access their kinesthetic intelligence and their capacity to move with grace, focus, and freedom. Melissa mothers two daughters along with mentoring youth across the globe as they navigate their way home to themselves and their unique life gifts.

Melissa is a social artist, dancing and dedicated to our collective renewal through the liberation of the creative spirit.