FOREST ALETHEA
Wisdom, Resilience, Healing,
and the Art of Presence!
Full audio interview available here
Forest Alethea is a gifted sound healer, intuitive reader, and retreat facilitator whose work is deeply rooted in the serene landscapes of Southern California's high desert.
Inspired by the region's expansive skies, ancient rock formations, and profound sense of stillness, she has created a practice that invites people to reconnect with themselves through healing, self-discovery, and mindful presence.
Drawing upon years of experience in holistic wellness, Forest guides individuals and groups through immersive sound baths that use crystal singing bowls, chimes, gongs, and other therapeutic instruments to promote deep relaxation and energetic balance. Her sessions are designed to calm the nervous system, quiet the mind, and create space for emotional release, inner clarity, and personal renewal.
As an intuitive reader, Forest combines heightened intuition with compassionate guidance, helping people explore life's transitions, reconnect with their inner wisdom, and gain meaningful insight into their personal journeys. Her approach is gentle, empowering, and grounded in the belief that every individual already possesses the answers they seek—they simply need the space and support to hear them.
Forest is also an experienced retreat facilitator, curating transformational experiences that blend meditation, sound healing, nature immersion, mindfulness practices, and authentic community. Whether held beneath the star-filled desert skies or within intimate healing spaces, her retreats encourage participants to slow down, restore balance, and cultivate a deeper relationship with themselves and the natural world.
THE INTERVIEW
DEZERT LIGHT: Where were you born, and what was your early environment like growing up?
FOREST ALETHEA: I was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I was raised in Madison, Wisconsin. To a single mom. I was raised Buddhist, which is, you know, not something I feel like you usually hear, but um I feel like that. Kind of gave me a foundation for what I do today. We instead of going to church every week, we went to sangha. And I had the choice to sit and meditate, or kind of do my own thing. I was an only child.
DEZERT LIGHT: When did you move to the desert, and what drew you to Joshua Tree?
FOREST ALETHEA: Yeah, I moved to the desert. It’s been coming up on three years now. And it was not a plan. I had never been here before, and I didn’t know anybody before I moved. Um, I was living in Northern California in Mount Shasta, and the place I was living was amazing. I had every intention of staying up there. However, the place I was staying at, the landlord wanted to move back in, and so she gave me a few months. And I was like, okay, no problem. And something in me had heard about Joshua Tree, but I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t even know that it was really a desert; I had no idea. So I kind of like checked things out on Facebook Marketplace, and the first place I saw.
It looked almost like too good to be true. It was like everything that I was calling in, and I was like, “Whoa, okay, let me just see.” I was like, “This could even be a scam. I am not sure.” And I called the woman up, and it was like synchronicity after synchronicity. I got full body chills, and she was like, “Can you move in in like a couple weeks?” And then I was just like," Okay, let’s just do it." And so we took the leap. I packed everything up in my car. I drove down here, and yeah, I moved here.
" I just had the bed that I had ordered online, um, and so I.
Brought my singing bowls in and I just played my bowls for about an hour and I channeled and I energetically gridded the space."
" There is a lot of ancestors that I am connected with here. And I work very closely with the trees, with the land, and that’s actually part of why I do the cacao ceremonies now monthly."
DEZERT LIGHT: How does the desert landscape influence your retreats, ceremonies, and healing work?
FOREST ALETHEA: There is a lot of shedding that tends to happen when people first get here, and then what is revealed is this like true self, this almost like needing to be honest with yourself, like layer upon layer down where. You learn who you truly are, and the desert is also this like infinite creative Place where you can access your potential and those big dreams that maybe you’ve been dreaming of, but weren’t sure how to get there. It’s like the desert has the amount of space for you to create that, and so it’s a really special place. There is a ton of artists out here, all different types: musicians, artists, painters, writers.
" Yeah, and the energy here too. Just speaking about the elements alone, there is a lot of fire just with the sun alone, and a lot of wind. And it’s like the energy that is here. You can sense that things happen very rapidly. Whether you are conscious of what you are manifesting or you are not, they happen very rapidly and very."
"I wouldn’t say forcefully, but just powerfully. Everything just opens up in that way for you."
"It’s almost like an accelerator here."
DEZERT LIGHT: The idea of a zone of genius is powerful. How do you help individuals recognize and step into their unique gifts and purpose?
FOREST ALETHEA: Yeah, so first it’s really just about an exploration, getting to know and recognize. Your different areas where things light you up, that you feel a spark, that you feel excited about. And sometimes it’s a little more challenging just because the way society is structured. We’re not. We’re not trained to recognize our zone of genius necessarily. We’re trained to, you know, go to a nine-to-five or do the thing or work harder for something. When we access our zone of genius. We are actually working in flow, and we actually work less because instead of working, we’re just playing. To everyone else, it would be work, but to us, it’s just playing. And so for people finding their zone of genius, we start to get creative. We start to get, you know. We start to explore what.
Areas really light them up, and they get excited about like, what’s something that you would talk all day about? What’s something that you could do all day? And you are like, I feel energized by the end of it. So one sign specifically is if you are feeling drained by the end of doing something that’s not going to be your zone of genius if you are going to do something and you.
" The sweet spot is finding those multiple things, putting them all together, and you’ll see really successful people who are living in their zone of genius. And that is why they’re successful. That is why they are able to."
DEZERT LIGHT: How does your own process of self- exploration inform the practices you share with others?
FOREST ALETHEA: I have a lot of practices. I’ll start there. I have a lot of practices that, one, keep me in my alignment, and two, because I have lived those practices and lived that experience, it gives me a place to facilitate from because I’ve experienced it in my own being, in my own body. And then as soon as I am not necessarily teaching, it’s almost like I am opening up a space for people to. Start to explore and experience it themselves through their own path, through their own journey. And then I am able to give kind of touch points and guidelines for them to be able to access those parts of themselves in their own way.
"Get to that expansive place within myself because I know myself so deeply, and I can share, you know, my lived personal experience. And that can be a kickoff point for people. And it’s really about them feeling inspired to explore themselves that deeply."