Dr. Nicole Theron Parkes - Founder, BodyLove Dance

Dr. Nicole Theron Parkes

Nicole Theron Parkes is a dance witch and trauma-healing dance coach.

She believes that unresolved trauma is the root cause of most struggles and issues in today’s world. She also believes that it is possible to heal from trauma and go on to live a happy, gorgeous life of your choosing. She herself, is living proof! 

 Nicole works to help people heal their traumas and fall in love with who they are, through the process of healing, soul-guided dance. When not working on her business, BodyLove Dance, you can find her at the beach, reading a book, having a dance party, and snuggling with her dog, Hope.

I’m so excited for you to connect with Nicole, check out her work, and follow along as she continues to help other release the traumas they carry and fall deeply in love with their body through the process of trauma-healing, soul-guided dance.

I'd love it if you'd introduce yourself, what you do, and what you're working on.

Hi Sydney, thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity. And hello everyone! 

My name is Nicole and I am a trauma-healing, dance coach. I run my own coaching business, called BodyLove Dance, where I help women heal their traumas and rewrite their stories using movement and dance. 

I am currently working on hosting fun, themed, dance parties once every few months over on Zoom! As well as working 1:1 with clients, helping them heal their traumas through dance, which I love with all of my heart. 

I also am always working on some personal healing as well. Right now, that looks like healing my lifelong anxiety/OCD as well as chronic illness/allergies. So, I’m knee-deep in that personal healing journey right now, and loving all the breakthroughs and insights. 

How did you get started?

I fell in love, for the very first time, when I was six-years-old, with dance. I remember dancing on stage, in my first dance recital, thinking, “this is it.” So, I was a dancer growing up, and when I got to college I started therapy for help with my anxiety, depression, and childhood trauma. This personal healing journey led me to falling in love with the field of psychology.  

After college, I got my doctorate in Clinical Psychology, and was a therapist for several years, but my love for dance just kept coming back around. 

Over a year ago, during a healing session with my coach, I got a vision of how to combine my love for psychology and healing, with my love for dance. 

From there, I let the ideas flood my brain for a while, and when COVID hit, I was like, “here we go, I’m ready, let’s do this,” and transformed my passions into a business. 

What inspired the work that you're doing?

I loved studio dance as a kid. I felt like I could fly. But as I got older, the perfectionism and not-good-enough, not-skinny-enough etc. that I felt at dance, began to cover up the initial joy I felt. 

I struggled through my teens and all of my 20s with depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, an eating disorder, suicidality, and self-harm behaviors. I really wanted to be able to heal so I could help others through the healing process. Though I was a therapist for a while, my own struggles were so overwhelming, it was hard for me to achieve any of my dreams. 

I also have a history of chronic illness and allergies. Which has led to lots of time, money and worries around appointments, treatments, diets, supplements etc. 

Right now, I am depression-free, after struggling with depression for 16 years. My eating is in a healthy place, my trauma has been processed and I want to give people who are struggling the same gift of healing and freedom that I have been lucky enough to receive. 

I would love for other people to not have to struggle and suffer for as long as I did. For a long time, I thought that I had to suffer, and that I wasn’t worthy of health and happiness. Now I know that I am worthy of a beautiful life, I want others to know that they are worthy too. 

I absolutely love the idea of dance being a healing place, where everyone belongs, regardless of size, skin color, or old, dance paradigms and limitations. It would be my dream come true to live in a world where everyone gets to experience the total joy of loving one’s body, loving who he or she is, and getting to experience total happiness. I would love to live in a world where everyone is having dance parties all day long! 

What is your biggest passion? Do you feel like you're living your passion and purpose?

My biggest passion is definitely dance. And for me, this includes music, Nature, and movement of all kinds. I grew up taking formal dance classes and I love studio dance so much, but for me my love for dance has become about the sacred and the spiritual dimensions as well. I just love the idea of dancing through life. Of bringing music, sound, movement, freedom, expression, Nature, and spirituality all together in one big bundle of love and joy. 

I feel so beyond blessed that I am living out my passion and my purpose. I spent a lot of time working for other people’s passions, and it feels so amazing to get to live and work for my own. I am also amazed at how the path keeps winding and leading me on. I love creating, and thinking of all the ways I can use my passion for dance to make the world a happier and healthier place. I am honored to be on this never-ending journey. 

What is your joy blueprint? What lights you up, brings you joy, and makes you feel the most alive?

I love to say that I am my best self when I am listening to music. When I hear music, it is so easy for me to be in my body, to move, to let me soul shine through, and for all of my anxiety and overthinking to fall away. I feel most whole and complete when I am listening to music and dancing from my heart. 

I also find joy being in Nature, especially at the beach. I love the water. But I also love being covered in sand: messy, wild and free. Reading and writing are other deep passions of mine and being around children makes me so incredibly happy as well. I love talking with children about mermaids, unicorns, and magic, because that’s the world I live in as well. 

How do you live intentionally? Are there tools/resources/practices that you rely on to help you stay mindful and grounded?

Absolutely. I work with a trauma coach, who is absolutely amazing. Her name is Hanna Bier (www.hannabier.com) and I would not be who I am, or where I am today without her. She does energy clearings and family constellation healing. I have a session with her twice a month. And then my daily practices are a morning energy clearing from my coach, a gratitude journal practice, and right now, lots of joyful movement. 

I try to make things as easy as possible for myself. My journaling practice looks like this. Every morning, and every night I write, “I am grateful for…” and I write as much or as little as I want. It doesn’t have to be a big thing. 

Same with movement. I love to bike, walk and dance. So basically, I choose one, I do it, and when I’m done, I’m done. I also love to combine healing work with movement. So, on bike rides and walks I love to do affirmations to re-wire my thinking while I am moving. For example, I’ll say things like, “I am fearless. My business is thriving and so am I. I have perfect health. Everything in my life is enough,” over and over again as I move my body. It’s especially nice, I think, to say healing words while surrounded by Nature. It just feels like everything clicks into place and change happens so easily when I am connected to my own body and to the larger, healing flow of Nature.  

What would your younger self think about what you're doing now?

Haha. I love this question. Well, my first-grade self would be like, “Obviously.” She would literally look at me with an exaggerated, sassy, hands-on-hip look and be like, “wow, you are helping people to heal by dancing, duh.” 

I struggled in the 20s to really find my passion, or more accurately, to allow myself to admit that dance was my passion. But six-year-old me knew it all along. 

Do you have a go-to mantra or affirmation? 

Absolutely! I just love affirmations. The one I am loving right now is: 

 I am whole. 

I am enough. 

I am fearless.

I am full of love. 

What is your biggest dream?

My biggest personal dream is to get married and to adopt children.

My biggest business dream is to use dance on a global scale to help transform stories of pain and darkness, into light, through choreography, expression, and magic.  

To learn more about Dr. Nicole Theron Parkes and her dance parties, working with her 1:1, and mini healing dance sessions visit her website www.bodylovedance.org and on Instagram @bodylovedance Pinterest @bodylovedance and via email bodylovedance@gmail.com

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