I am Dr. Deepa

I am an internationally recognized public speaker, licensed marriage and family therapist, author, and researcher specializing in Wholeness-Based Eudaimonia—a practice that restores kinship within, between, and beyond us, fostering co-flourishing as one Nature Family.

Guided by my East Indian heritage, Dharma (righteous living), and Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism), I developed TRIP—a radical movement born out of my meditations and wish to fill the gap in accessing and sustaining wholeness as both a therapist and a woman healing from painful life challenges.

TRIP shifts the pursuit of wholeness from a human-centric view to a collective, Nature Family-inclusive journey. TRIP blends ancestral wisdom with modern therapeutic practices to address ecological, social, and personal crises as interconnected challenges.

TRIP’s mission is to heal the rifts that separate us from ourselves, each other, and the natural world. Our call to action is to reconcile as one Nature Family and co-create a future where all life co-flourishes—not as a distant hope, but as a restored reality we rebuild together.

Welcome Home. We have been eagerly awaiting your arrival. We are honored to be a guide in your quest for wholeness.

Thank You - Dhanyavaad - Mahalo

My Pain to Purpose Story

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.

My Roles & Responsibilities as Nature Family Kin

As a Therapist...

...I provide weekly therapy to individuals, couples, families, and communities.

I teach my clients to shift from a pathogenic (disease-focus) to a salutogenic lens (health-based approach). This radical approach to healing allows them to gain access to unactualized potential waiting dormantly in their angst from ancestral, childhood, and adulthood life challenges.

As a Cohort Facilitator...

...I provide weekly synchronous online sessions to community groups.

Level 1 - we engage in six domains of wholeness through tailored meditations.

Level 2 - we apply those six domains to a grief to resilience approach called Nature Family Therapy.

Level 3 - we rally around apprenticeship to support fellow community members in their wholeness journey.

As an Advocate...

...I provide local, national, and international presentations to bring awareness to the socio-ecological gap plaguing our Nature Family.

I aim to shed light on the misperceived polarization between humans and Nature as an unaddressed systemic wounds that require urgent therapeutic attention, with far-reaching multigenerational and multispecies implications.

Ready to Join TRIP?

Official Bio

Vishwani (Deepa) Ram-Souza, LMFT, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized public speaker, integrative licensed marriage and family therapist, author, and researcher specializing in Wholeness-Based Eudaimonia—a practice-based approach for restoring interpersonal, intrapersonal, and transpersonal kinships and co-flourishing as one Nature Family (NF). Of East Indian ancestry, Dr. Deepa practices Dharma (righteous living) and Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism), two philosophical traditions that guide her approach to transforming obstacles into opportunities for the flourishing of the whole.

To actualize the collective potential resting dormant in unresolved pain, Dr. Deepa developed The Re-Indigenization Project (TRIP)—a radical movement that shifts the pursuit of wholeness from an anthropocentric focus to a collectivistic one. TRIP blends pan-global ancestral wisdom with modern therapeutic practices, enabling the treatment of ecological, social, and personal crises as interwoven and inseparable.

Born within the nourishing space of her daily meditations and inspired by her beloved Bombay cat and spirit kin, Dr. Velvet, Nature Family Therapy (NFT) emerged as the healing practice that brings TRIP to life. NFT offers a countercultural path to reconciliation, resubjectifying all lifeforms as kin and guiding humans back into co-flourishing participation with the greater living world.

Today, NFT is delivered through the TRIP Trifecta—Chapters, Coursework, and Cohorts—an approach that has shown statistically significant impact in transforming ancestral, childhood, and adulthood adversities into actualized purpose and enduring legacies.

Dr. Deepa’s mission is clear: to guide the healing of relational and ecosystemic rifts that distance us from ourselves, one another, and the myriad lifeforms that sustain us. Her call to action is simple but profound: to reconcile as one Nature Family and co-create a future where all life can thrive—not a distant dream, but a living reality we rebuild, step by step, together as kin.

Approved Photos