About Me | Emma Smedslund, JoyBeing Guidance – Somatic Therapist, Hypnotherapist & Nervous System Regulation in Stockholm
My purpose, and how I remembered it
My name is Emma, and I am the founder of JoyBeing Guidance. I know how invaluable a safe space can be when you feel lost, overwhelmed, or in need of a place where you are allowed to let go. Carrying everything on your own can be a survival strategy – until it no longer is.
And that is when you may find a safe space here, where you are invited to release what you no longer need to carry.
Together, we follow your process back to inner safety, freedom, and peace – qualities that often already live within you, but sometimes need the right conditions to emerge.
‘The war is over. You don’t have to struggle any longer. You can lay down your weapons and exhale. You are safe. You are enough, simply by existing. You are worthy of well-being, and you deserve to live in safety, freedom, and harmony.’ This is what I wish I could have said to myself when my body began to say no – both physically and mentally.
My Story
‘I have to be good, agreeable, and helpful, and not take up too much emotional space in order to belong. I have to take care of others, adapt, and keep the peace – that’s how I stay safe.’
This survival strategy formed early in my life. As children, we depend on our caregivers for survival – food, shelter, safety, and love. When those caregivers are emotionally unavailable or unsafe, the nervous system experiences it as a threat to survival.
I learned early on to overadapt. What is often mistaken for being kind, capable, or easygoing is, in the body, a stress response.
As a highly sensitive woman, this gradually developed into codependency. I absorbed other people’s emotions like a sponge and felt exhausted after social interactions and long workdays. I could never truly be myself – because that would have gone against the entire system I had built to stay safe.
‘I have to carry it all myself, take responsibility for other people’s wellbeing, and put my own needs last – then I am worthy of love.’
The more I focused on pleasing others in order to feel a sense of worth, the more disconnected I became from my body, my needs, and my will.
Instead, I let external voices define who I was supposed to be, how I was supposed to act, and what was expected of me.
This was not a conscious choice. It was my body trying to protect me.
From Survival to safety
Living according to other people’s expectations instead of my own left me feeling lost and invisible. My inability to set healthy boundaries meant that I gave away my time, energy, and life force.
In the spring of 2019, I had gone full circle with an eating disorder that had emerged after the shock of my father’s sudden and far too early passing. Five years earlier, I had lost the excess weight that food – used as a way to avoid painful and overwhelming emotions – had led to. When that didn’t bring happiness, the weight loss continued, along with my search for wellbeing and meaning.
In the autumn of 2021, I reached my lowest point. Despite experiencing nearly every physical and mental symptom of stress, I refused to see myself as stressed. I didn’t feel stressed. I had everything under control. I was doing everything right. I was disciplined, organized, and helpful – and deeply unhappy.
Eventually, I could no longer deny that I was facing the most important choice of my life: to continue living in a disconnected survival mode driven by fear – or to choose life. In that moment, I stopped fighting my body and began listening. It wasn’t dramatic, but it was decisive.
I allowed myself to surrender. To let go. And to trust that I would survive.
The combination of somatic therapy and reflective conversation became the key to deep healing for me. By listening inward, staying present in my body, and meeting myself with compassion, my nervous system slowly began to regulate.
Today, I live with a fundamental sense of safety – within myself, in relationships, and in life.
I am free.
Free to live from the heart.
Free to be my true self.
This is not something I had to create.
It is something I slowly remembered, as my body learned that it was safe again.
The somatic experiences also led to a spiritual awakening that gave my life meaning once more. I now remember who I am, where I come from, and why I am here – my purpose – and it is the greatest gift I have ever received.
I am here to give back by creating a safe space for healing.
A space where you can exhale, soften, and explore how you truly feel and what you need.
In small, gentle steps.
I don’t believe in being ‘fixed.’
I believe the body remembers, when given the right conditions.
That is the space I create here.
I am especially supportive if you want to explore:
Stress & nervous system regulation
Worry, anxiety, and control
Attachment trauma and relationships
Feelings of inadequacy and self-criticism
Boundaries and codependency
Highly sensitive personality (HSP)
Living from the heart, not only the mind
Self-realization and meaning
Spirituality and inner development
You are warmly welcome just as you are. All parts of you are welcome here.
