About LaToya Zavala

I remember standing at the back of the church at 5 years old, thinking, "That's what I'm supposed to do. Help people."

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I grew up in a strict religious denomination, and vividly remember the moment I felt called to spiritual leadership. But when I voiced my dream, I was told women weren't allowed.

That moment planted two seeds:

A deep desire to help women…
And the belief that I wasn't permitted to.

Over 3 decades later, I finally broke free of that belief – and I now help other women to do the same.

Like I was, most women are carrying layers of religious conditioning, cultural suppression, and inherited trauma that were never theirs to begin with.

My deeper mission is to dismantle collective suppression of women – especially around spirituality, wealth, and voice – and replace it with embodied power. I want to help you. But I also want to help you break patterns for your lineage.

I do this inside the Phoenix Goddess Collective – my signature de-program experience offering spiritual life coaching and energy work.

"What the fuck just happened?!"

…that's what I was thinking after my first Reiki session

I was at a breaking point – I'd exited the military and was living with PTSD, chronic pain, and degenerative arthritis. I had tried everything I could think of: therapy, medication, acupuncture, and more. Nothing shifted the pain.

Then a massage therapist asked if I wanted Reiki. I had no idea what it was, but I was in so much pain, I said yes. (I had actually preached against energy work in the past.)

In that first session, the pain in my neck released in a way nothing else had touched. I didn't tell anyone – I was too stunned.

I went back for a second session, where I had a profound past-life experience... I didn't even believe in this, yet it changed everything. It was jarring. It was freeing. It cracked my world open – and I needed to understand it.

Around the same time, my adopted son was struggling with the unfolding of his own trauma. The medical system told us we would need to wait six to eight months to begin specialized support. I couldn't sit and watch him suffer, so I took him to my Reiki practitioner.

After his session, he looked at me and said, "Mom, that was so cool. It felt like fire running through my whole body." After checking he wasn't in pain, I realized he felt power and release.

That was the moment energy work became non-negotiable. If this could support my own healing and my child's healing, I needed to learn it properly. Within a year, I was attuned to Reiki Level 1. Eventually, I became a Master Teacher.

What began as survival became something much bigger.

I know what it's like to do all the "right" things, yet still feel like something's wrong with me…

I've been in the depths of depression after experiencing abuse and trauma, and I turned to the religious and medical systems that were meant to help.

I did the therapy and counselling. Took the medication… and still felt like something deeper wasn't being addressed.

So while in my healing process, I committed myself to helping others heal non-clinically – without falling through the same cracks I did. I earned undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in pastoral theology, became a missionary, then a hospital chaplain, and later a Military Chaplain.

I was even told that, as a woman, I'd need more qualifications than my male counterparts — so I got them. I did everything I "should." And still, it wasn't enough.

My Phoenix Moment: Life after leaving religion