I want to be careful with the word pleasure. For many people, pleasure has not felt free. It has come with expectation. With performance. With the sense that if something feels good, you are supposed to respond a certain way—or want more. The Venus gong does not ask that of you. It does not require enjoyment. It does not chase comfort. It does not assume ease is the goal.

Venus is often spoken of as love, beauty, softness, and connection. For many bodies, that language has not felt gentle. It has felt like expectation. Like pressure. Like being asked to become permeable before safety was established. The Venus gong does not ask that of you. It does not ask you to drop your armor. It does not ask you to soften your edges. It does not ask you to become emotionally available.

Julie Jules Smoot’s work as a sound alchemist did not emerge from theory or technique alone. It grew slowly—through years of personal healing, careful listening, and learning what it means to live inside a body again after trauma. Before sound became an offering, it was a companion. Julie’s healing path has included many modalities, each meeting her at different moments, each teaching something distinct about safety, choice, and timing.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not only a condition of memory or thought. It is a nervous system response shaped by overwhelm, threat, and loss of safety.

You don’t need to remember every moment. You don’t need to carry meaning forward. You don’t need to decide what this was.

If you’re new here, you may be wondering what trauma-informed sound actually means. You may be curious, cautious, hopeful, skeptical—or simply tired. You may be drawn to sound but unsure if it will feel safe. You may have tried healing spaces before and left feeling unseen, overwhelmed, or like you didn’t belong. This orientation is not here to convince you of anything.

People often ask what is supposed to happen during sound healing. They want to know what they should feel. They want to know if they’re doing it right. They want to know how they’ll know it’s working. These questions make sense. Many of us have learned that healing looks a certain way—calm, emotional release, insight, lightness, peace. But trauma-informed sound begins with a quieter truth:

If you’re here, you may be curious about sound healing—but unsure if it’s for you. You may be living with trauma, grief, exhaustion, or a nervous system that doesn’t easily settle. You may have tried meditation, breathwork, or sound before and felt like it didn’t work—or didn’t feel safe. This space is different. There is no right way to be here. There is nothing you need to fix. You are welcome exactly as you are.

If you come to sound seeking escape, you may be surprised by what you find. Sound will not carry you away. It will sit with you. It will listen with you. It will invite you into the body you already inhabit and the moment you are already in. Sound alchemy is not about leaving this life behind. It is about meeting it fully—one vibration at a time.