About Dr. Deepa

Dr. Deepa Ram-Souza is a licensed marriage and family therapist, AAMFT Approved Supervisor, educator, researcher, and creator of Nature Family Therapy® (NFT). She earned her Ph.D. in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where her dissertation explored wholeness, resilience, and co-flourishing among adults navigating childhood adversity. Her work integrates family systems theory, transpersonal psychology, spirituality, and kincentric perspectives to help individuals, couples, families, and communities transform pain into purpose.

Dr. Ram-Souza is the founder of Elemental Guidance, LLC, serves as a Lecturer in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and leads international research and training initiatives exploring wholeness-informed approaches to healing. She currently serves as Spirituality Special Interest Group Leader for the Systemic Family Therapy Association of Kenya (SFTA-K), where she collaborates with mental health professionals and students on research, education, and clinical innovation.

As the developer of Nature Family Therapy®, Dr. Ram-Souza's scholarship, teaching, and clinical practice are guided by a simple vision: restoring wholeness by reconciling kinships among self, loved ones, community, ancestors, place, and the wider Nature Family.

Thank You - Dhanyavaad - Mahalo

The Origin Story of Nature Family Therapy

Pain

From the pain of adverse ancestral, childhood, and adulthood lived experiences...

Grief

From this pain came grief - a witnessing of how our wounds reflect the state of our disengaged bonds with one another and with the beyond-human world.

Resilience

And from this grief emerged resilience when these wounds were re-imagined as pathways back to restored wholeness, and reconciled co-flourishing as one Nature Family.

1880's

My PLC - Prior Life Challenges

Ancestral diaspora as indentured servants/slaves from India to British Guiana on S.S. Balniev

1977

My arrival as third generation Indo-Guyanese in Anna Catherina, Guyana

1983

Great Grandpa Raghunandan passed on

1985

My ELC - Early Life Challenges

Age 8, I was inappropriately touched by a male relative

1990

Relocated to Minneapolis, MN

2003

I married my best friend and soulmate, John

2004

The birth of our little light, Jyoti

2008

John and I graduated from our Master's program in Marriage and Family Therapy in Minneapolis, MN

2010

The liberation of my archetypes as FyreSnake

2011

The liberation of my archetypes as FyreSnake

(Photo by John Lombardi)

2012

I began to push to edges as I learned to walk barefoot on snow (Photo by Tawamiciya Photography)

2013

I portray Kali Ma in Stromboli's Medicine Show in Minneapolis, MN (Photo by Liz Nieves)

2014

Relocated with my family of creation to Hilo, HI

2015

Opening of our private practice therapy office Elemental Guidance, LLC in Hilo, HI

2016

Standing by my maternal grandmother's pyre during MukhAgni in Guyana

2017

Co-organized "Coming Home" conference with Dr. Gay Barfield as presenter on O'ahu, HI

2019

Following my grandmother's death and entering into studenthood, strange things started to happen. I had many beyond human messengers: moth, hawk, crane, dragonflies, butterflies, snake, Grandmother Moon...

2019-2022

Here are "The Twins" at Earthrise in Peteluma, CA where I attended intensive retreats for my doctoral program with California Institute of Integral Studies. I didn't know it then but this sacred moment was calling me to reawaken to my purpose. I wrote about it in my dissertation.

2020

Entering Studenthood (Sanyasi) to reconcile through liberation (of hair, old interpretations of lived experiences, and sanctioned societal standards of beauty)

2021

I sat at George Floyd Square and wrote my dissertation's abstract on Wholeness-Based Eudaimonia in Minneapolis, MN

2022

Defended My Dissertation on Wholeness-Based Eudaimonia (Ram-Souza, 2022)

2023

Commencement Ceremony - Ph.D. in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology in San Francisco, CA

2023

Introducing Nature Family Therapy at the HBHWC Convention on O'ahu, HI

2024

Introduced TRIP with Dr. John Souza, Jr. at AAMFT Leadership Symposium in Phoenix, AZ

2024

I made the hardest/kindest decision - Dr. Velvet transitioned on Dec. 28. My grief is being transformed into resilience, thanks to her divine guidance and companionship to this day. She left us a message: "Love Never Dies."

2025

"One Nature Family: Restoring Wholeness by Reconciling Kinships" is being written as a responsibility and an answer to my life purpose.