My whole life has been devoted to helping others find their voices.

What I have rarely done is ask for help myself. I am asking now.

After decades of using sound to guide others through grief, trauma, and healing, I find myself standing in the middle of my own. A life I built with love has collapsed around me. And for the first time, I need someone to hold the frequency while I find my way back.

As a vocal embodiment coach, singer/musician, author, educator and sound healing facilitator with decades of professional experience, my life's work has always been about one thing: using music and creativity to help people heal. Some of you may know me as the author of Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan, written out of deep love and admiration for one of jazz's most treasured voices.

After nearly twenty years together, a hidden web of deception and betrayal shattered my marriage without warning. The trauma of that sudden rupture left me starting over without the promised support or the future I thought I had every reason to count on in my retirement years. As a result, I am forced to rebuild in the later years of my life, navigating real uncertainties around work and income, housing, healthcare, along with the vulnerability of doing all of it alone.

In the process of calming my own shattered nervous system and in an attempt to find solid ground again, I created Elemental Essence. This musical recording and neurosonic journey through the five elements of nature is woven with precision brainwave entrainment frequencies to support deep healing, from grounding to transcendent awareness. A project born directly from that journey, with the hope that what helped me might also help others working through their own personal traumas. Having survived cancer in the past, I understand the importance of support during the renewal process. It is not a concept. It is a daily practice.

And what has carried me through my personal trauma is purpose.

For me it's the act of creating, through music, writing, teaching, and building community. Through my music and writing, including my Substack Sound Creativity Journal and a new book to be published by Bloomsbury about how singing transforms us, Healing, Harmony and the Voice, I have found ways to give meaning to an experience that could have completely broken me. My podcast Hodge Pod and its Feminine Frequencies series has become a gathering place for people navigating the complexities of our world, a community built around ideas, solutions, and the collective vision of a more just, conscious, and compassionate future.

I am not trying to make the pain disappear. I am trying to plant something from it that will outlast it. Something that brings beauty and healing to the world long after this difficult chapter has closed.

If any part of this story reflects something you have lived or are living right now, then you already understand why my work matters. I would love to have you support me in whatever way is possible for you on my journey.

Your support goes directly toward three areas of genuine need:

• A stability bridge to cover the gap between my current income and my actual living expenses while I rebuild sustainable income through teaching, writing, and my creative projects. This includes current dental and medical expenses that directly affect my ability to show up fully as a vocalist, teacher, writer and creator.

• Production and ongoing promotional costs for Elemental Essence, so this healing music can reach as many people as possible.

• Dedicated research and writing time to complete Healing, Harmony and the Voice: How Singing Transforms Lives (Bloomsbury Publishing), and sustaining Sound Creativity Journal, a free community resource exploring music, voice, vocal education, and creativity as pathways to restore balance and move us through life's challenges, and Hodge Pod, including its Feminine Frequencies series, as a gathering place for ideas, solutions, and the vision of a more just and compassionate world.

Asking for help does not come naturally to me. But I have learned, perhaps through music more than anything else, that receiving is also an act of grace. That allowing others to give is a gift you offer them.

So, I am asking. With honesty, with gratitude, and with the full intention of turning everything I am going through into something that serves others.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading this far.

And whatever you are able to give, whether it is a donation, a share, subscribing to my YouTube channel or Substack, or simply a kind word, I receive it with a full and grateful heart.

You can share this campaign and subscribe to Sound Creativity Journal (SoundCreativityJournal.substack.com) which includes Hodge Pod and Feminine Frequencies, and my YouTube channel @VocalVisions

With love and gratitude,

Ellen Johnson