About Joyce
Joyce Gasper · Founder, The Hokey Pokey Collective
From Survival to Self-Trust
My path to this work is deeply personal.
Long before I discovered AcuDetox, I was trying to understand what it meant to feel safe, not just in my environment or relationships, but within my own body.
Throughout my life, I've navigated experiences of trauma, abuse, instability, & prolonged stress that profoundly affected my emotional, psychological, & physical well-being.
Over time, I began experiencing symptoms that were increasingly difficult to ignore.
Chronic pain, persistent muscular tension, exhaustion, cognitive dysfunction, difficulty concentrating & breathing, episodes of fainting, & an overwhelming sense of physical dysregulation became part of my everyday reality.
At times, my symptoms resembled those associated with fibromyalgia, although I was never formally diagnosed with the condition.
I was committed to understand why my body seemed to be functioning in ways I couldn't consciously control.
There were moments when thinking clearly felt difficult, when ordinary responsibilities required tremendous effort, & when my body seemed unable to distinguish between an immediate threat and the accumulated stress of experiences I had already survived.
I began to recognize how much of my life had been organized around anticipating problems, navigating uncertainty, & remaining prepared for whatever might happen next.
I had become remarkably capable of functioning under pressure.
But functioning & feeling well are not the same thing.
I knew how to survive. I was still learning how to feel safe enough to rest.
That realization became a turning point in my relationship with healing.
Learning to Breathe, Rest & Eventually Relax
In June 2025, I discovered Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE), a body-based practice involving exercises intended to facilitate involuntary muscular tremoring.
I became particularly interested in the psoas muscles, their role in movement & stabilization, and how prolonged muscular tension might relate to my own physical experiences.
TRE introduced me to another way of exploring my relationship with my body, one that didn't necessarily require finding the right words, explaining my experiences, or analyzing every sensation.
Alongside TRE, I continued exploring breathwork, yoga, meditation, intentional movement, & other somatic practices.
These experiences became deeply meaningful to me.
Somatic practices are sacred to my healing.
Not because they erase trauma, cure physical conditions, or promise that life's challenges will disappear.
But because they have helped me develop a different relationship with myself.
I began paying attention to how I was breathing, where I was holding tension, how I responded to discomfort, & what happened when I gave myself permission to slow down.
I began exploring ways to ease the tension I experienced around my psoas & surrounding muscles without forcing my body into a particular response.
I began learning how to breathe again.
Not simply the involuntary act of breathing, but allowing myself to take a fuller breath without feeling as though I needed to brace for what might happen next.
I began learning how to rest.
Not as a reward for productivity.
Not because I'd finally accomplished enough to deserve it.
But because rest is a fundamental human need.
And eventually, I began learning how to relax.
That might sound simple to someone who has always experienced relaxation as something readily available.
For me, it represented an entirely different relationship with my body.
I was learning that I didn't need to remain constantly prepared, productive, useful, or responsible for everything happening around me.
I could pause.
I could recognize my limits.
I could listen to what my body was communicating without immediately trying to correct or override it.
I could practice responding to myself with curiosity rather than frustration.
Most importantly, I began developing greater confidence in my ability to recognize & discern when something wasn't safe, establish boundaries, seek support, & make decisions that protected my well-being.
I was learning to trust myself to keep me safe.
That didn't mean believing I could control every circumstance or prevent every difficult experience.
It meant recognizing that I had choices.
That my needs mattered.
That discomfort could be information worth exploring.
And that I was capable of taking meaningful steps to care for myself.
My relationship with nervous-system regulation fundamentally changed.
I no longer understood regulation as simply remaining calm, suppressing emotional responses, or becoming more capable of functioning under difficult circumstances.
Regulation should support autonomy, not teach us to tolerate harm.
To me, the goal isn't to become so regulated that we can endure anything.
It's to become connected enough to ourselves that we can recognize our needs, honor our boundaries, respond to our circumstances, & trust our ability to choose what comes next.
That understanding continues to shape my personal healing & the care I hope to offer others.
My educational background & specialized training reflect an ongoing commitment to psychology, harm reduction, compassionate peer support, & accessible community-based care.
My interest in psychology, addiction, trauma, & human behavior began long before I encountered AcuDetox.
I initially pursued an educational path toward drug & alcohol counseling before pivoting my studies towards Social Work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
In December 2024, I earned my Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) & became a member of Pi Gamma Mu, the International Honor Society in Social Sciences.
My academic education unfolded alongside my own extensive therapeutic work, including 18 months of Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.
In many ways, I was studying human behavior academically while simultaneously learning to recognize, understand, navigate, & reprocess my own experiences.
Psychology provided language & frameworks for understanding trauma, attachment, behavior, coping, & the effects of prolonged stress.
Therapy challenged me to examine how those concepts applied to my own life.
But as valuable as that understanding was, I began recognizing a distinction between intellectually understanding my experiences & feeling more connected to myself physically.
I could explain psychological concepts.
I could identify patterns.
I could recognize why certain responses might have developed.
Yet my body continued to experience symptoms that understanding alone didn't resolve.
I began asking myself a different question:
What does healing look like when understanding what happened isn't enough to change how I'm experiencing life in my body?
That question led me deeper into somatic practices.
In July 2025, I completed the Zendo Project's Sitting & Integration Training (SIT), which introduced approaches to supporting people navigating challenging or non-ordinary states of consciousness.
The training emphasized grounded presence, nonjudgmental listening, harm reduction, & respecting an individual's experience without imposing interpretations or attempting to control its direction.
It reinforced a principle that continues to guide my approach: Presence before performance.
Sometimes the most meaningful thing we can offer another person is our attention, respect, & willingness to sit beside them without requiring anything in return.
In April 2026, I completed my Auricular Acu-Technician (AAT) training through Boulder AcuDetox & became registered with the People's Organization of Community Acupuncture (POCA).
My training included the five-point auricular AcuDetox protocol, treatment safety, sanitation, informed consent, & community-based care.
Learning about AcuDetox's history within grassroots responses to addiction, harm reduction, & barriers to conventional care helped me understand that the needles are only one part of the offering.
The environment matters.
Accessibility matters.
Consent matters.
How someone is welcomed matters.
And the people sitting together matter.
In November 2026, I earned the Be There Certificate®, developed by Jack.org in partnership with Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation.
This mental health education program strengthened my skills in recognizing signs of emotional distress, approaching difficult conversations with compassion, listening without judgment, respecting boundaries, & helping people connect with appropriate resources.
My commitment to harm reduction extends back to 2012, when I began receiving training in opioid overdose recognition & naloxone administration.
I've also pursued education in emergency preparedness, including Stop the Bleed & active shooter response training.
Across these experiences, one lesson remains consistent:
Supporting someone is not the same as being responsible for saving them.
I can offer support, share resources, respect someone's experiences, & recognize when another form of care may be needed.
I cannot make another person's choices, resolve circumstances beyond my control, or determine what healing should look like for someone else.
Recognizing those limitations is part of practicing responsibly.
Education, Training & the Practice of Presence
In August 2025, I encountered AcuDetox during an incredibly chaotic & traumatic period of my life.
I was navigating an increasingly abusive relationship complicated by substance use, instability, & violence, including an experience of strangulation.
At the time, I was searching for resources to help someone I cared about.
Through a metaphysical shop in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, offering free & donation-based community AcuDetox, I unexpectedly discovered a resource I needed for myself.
I arrived carrying the emotional & physical weight of circumstances I was struggling to navigate.
What I encountered was remarkably simple.
A chair.
A practitioner.
An opportunity to receive support without having to explain anything.
For a brief moment, I didn't have to organize my experiences into the right words, justify why I was overwhelmed, or provide a complete account of what had happened.
I didn't have to anticipate, protect, solve, or prepare.
I could simply sit.
Breathe.
And exist without being asked for anything in return.
I cannot attribute my healing to one treatment or claim that AcuDetox resolved what I was experiencing.
But that particular experience offered something I deeply valued: an opportunity to pause & receive care on my own terms.
When the practitioner explained that AcuDetox was something I could eventually learn to practice & treat myself with, something clicked.
I wanted to understand it.
I wanted to learn how to offer it responsibly.
And I wanted to help make that opportunity available to others.
What began as a moment of personal vulnerability eventually became the foundation of The Hokey Pokey Collective.
The Experience That Changed Everything
Honoring Culture, Community & Our Shared Humanity
My educational foundation is rooted in Western psychology & social work, while my understanding of wellness continues to evolve through my exploration of traditional healing philosophies, somatic practices, harm reduction, & community-centered care.
As a first-generation Filipino American, I am also interested in reconnecting with my cultural heritage & the Filipino concept of kapwa, an understanding of shared humanity & interconnectedness.
For me, kapwa offers a meaningful perspective on how we relate to one another.
It invites consideration of our individual experiences alongside our responsibilities to the communities & relationships that shape our lives.
Although I do not claim formal training or authority within Indigenous Filipino healing traditions, these cultural perspectives influence how I understand mutual support, dignity, & the importance of human connection.
I believe it is important to acknowledge the cultural origins of healing practices, honor the communities & knowledge holders who have preserved them, & distinguish between formal training, personal exploration, and inherited cultural knowledge.
My approach continues to develop through education, lived experience, curiosity, & a willingness to recognize how much I still have to learn.
Psychology taught me to remain curious. Life taught me to remain humble about what I think I know.
Outside of AcuDetox, I work as a freelance audiovisual technician in the live-event & entertainment industry.
My work has taken me behind the scenes of corporate conferences, festivals, concerts, conventions, & community gatherings.
I've experienced the demanding schedules, physical labor, occupational pressures, & unpredictable circumstances that often accompany production work.
I've also witnessed how easily the physical & emotional needs of artists, technicians, touring professionals, hospitality workers, & event crews can be overlooked.
It's an industry where people are often expected to remain adaptable, resourceful, & composed, even when they're exhausted.
In many ways, my professional life has reinforced the same lessons I've encountered through my personal healing.
Being capable of functioning under pressure doesn't mean we're unaffected by it.
And being good at taking care of everyone else's needs doesn't mean our own needs disappear.
One of my longer-term goals is to help expand mental health awareness, harm reduction resources, & accessible community wellness opportunities within the live-event industry.
Production work has also taught me something that translates beautifully into community care:
The most meaningful experiences often depend on the preparation, coordination, & consideration that nobody sees.
Prepare the space.
Make the resources available.
Explain the process.
Welcome people without judgment.
Respect their choices.
And let the experience belong to them.
Bringing Community Care Behind the Scenes
Throughout my life, I've witnessed the effects of addiction, overdose, domestic violence, family instability, trauma, financial hardship, isolation, housing insecurity, poverty, & burnout.
I've watched people navigate circumstances far more complicated than any single intervention could resolve.
I've experienced the frustration of searching for support while already overwhelmed.
And I've seen how easily people can fall through the gaps between needing care & being able to access it.
Over time, I became tired of feeling helpless in the face of suffering.
But I also came to understand that caring about someone doesn't mean being responsible for rescuing them.
I cannot erase another person's experiences.
I cannot make their choices or guarantee their safety.
And AcuDetox cannot replace medical treatment, mental health care, substance-use treatment, crisis intervention, safety planning, housing assistance, or other forms of essential support.
What I can do is help make another resource available.
One more place to sit.
One more opportunity to pause.
One more connection to community.
One more doorway toward support.
Sometimes, one more option matters.
I founded The Hokey Pokey Collective to help bring accessible, community-based AcuDetox into spaces where people already live, work, gather, create, celebrate, & connect.
My hope is to make care easier to encounter, particularly for people who may face financial, social, cultural, or practical barriers to accessing conventional wellness services.
To me, community care means looking out for the homies, including the ones whose stories I may never know.
It means recognizing that we are all navigating circumstances that aren't necessarily visible to others.
It means sharing resources, building relationships, respecting individual limitations, & contributing what we reasonably can.
Most importantly, it means recognizing that someone shouldn't have to tell me their entire story before their well-being matters.
Why the Name?
I'll be the first to admit that The Hokey Pokey Collective is a slightly ridiculous name for something I care deeply about.
That's intentional.
Humor, satire, playfulness, & a little absurdity have helped me find moments of connection & breathing room throughout difficult experiences.
I believe care can be meaningful without being intimidating.
That professionalism doesn't require emotional distance.
And that sincerity doesn't always need to look solemn.
I wanted to create something approachable, welcoming, & human.
A space that invites curiosity without demanding vulnerability.
A place where people can encounter care without feeling as though they need to become someone else to deserve it.
I take the responsibility of providing care seriously.
I just don't believe I need to take myself quite so seriously.
After all, sometimes we really do need to put our whole selves in, shake things up, & turn ourselves around.
What I Hope People Take Away
My relationship with healing continues to evolve.
I've learned that understanding trauma intellectually is different from learning to recognize & respond to its effects in my own life.
I've learned that rest is not something I need to earn.
That relaxing can be something we gradually learn to experience.
That boundaries are an expression of self-respect.
And that trusting ourselves doesn't mean having control over everything that happens to us.
It means developing confidence in our ability to recognize our needs, seek support, make choices, & respond to our circumstances.
Healing isn’t linear.
I believe meaningful care should preserve dignity, create opportunities for connection, encourage autonomy, & respect the complicated realities of being human.
I hope The Hokey Pokey Collective can be one of many resources that make care easier to encounter.
A place where silence is welcome.
Where consent is respected.
Where someone can rest without needing to earn it.
Where financial circumstances don't determine someone's worthiness of care.
Where people are welcomed as they are, without pressure to explain their experiences or demonstrate a particular outcome.
More than anything, I hope someone leaves knowing:
My body was still mine.
My choices mattered.
I didn't have to prove anything.
I was treated with dignity.
And my well-being mattered, simply because I'm human.
Community care doesn't have to solve everything to mean something.
Sometimes, it begins with a chair, a moment of rest, & the simple recognition that none of us should have to navigate being human entirely alone.
With care,
Joyce Gasper