After a failed suicide attempt as a child, I realized that I needed serious help. Feeling rejected and confused about being given up and being adopted, I decided to do self therapy on myself as a 16 year old girl. By doing the unorthodox shock method of becoming a model.
It was very painful going for auditions after auditions, alone, as a timid and self conscious teenager. However I was determined to redeem my lost self and forced myself to keep at it.
Along the way, I stumbled upon dancing and quickly fell in love with it. It became my saving grace. I redeemed some level of faith and passion for life. I had a reason to live.
I became a professional dancer after studying dance for a year with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). I also became a volunteer dance teacher at Andrew & Grace Home.
With a desire to share what has gave me confidence to other women, that gave birth to my first work of love, SensUal Joy Lifestyle Studio in 2005.
Pole dancing
and hen parties
became my imperial business.
Some of my clients came in afraid and uncertain. To relax the nervous ones, I bought a cute Shih Tzu, who has been the mistress of my heart for the last ten years, to be the studio’s spokesperson and called her SensUal.
It worked like a charm. 🙂
Teaching in SensUal Joy gave me many unexpected encounters with some of my clients. I noticed that they have regained their confidence after some time in the studio. Others seem to experience a new-found exhilaration for life.
Most important of all, SensUal Joy gave me back to myself. Through the journey, I succeeded to shred off many painful growing up years living with the ‘I’m not good enough, that’s why I was given up’ story on constant replay in my head.
My observation of their behaviour gave me surprising insights about the power of movement and dancing for women.
Curious, I went to take a Movement Therapy course to investigate further on this new revelation.
My 3 years of exposure as an arts dancer with Professor John Matthews in NIE also opened me to the concept of movement as a therapeutic device.
I blogged frequently to share dance tips and techniques hoping to encourage more women to take up dancing.
But it was insufficient to quell the call in my heart. Hence I started my second work of love, an online coaching program – Way Back into Love.
My association with good friends such as Dr Tan have inspired me to move towards the helping industry and to be a coach to help other women, using the methods I did on myself to overcome my self esteem issue.
Spurred on by good influence, I took a Practical Certificate in Counseling to improve on my counseling skills.
Realizing the importance of using the right language in my coaching program prompted my next choice of study, a Diploma in English (University of London).
In 2012, I went for training to become a volunteer helpliner with Aware to have a feel of the real situation in Singapore for women.
Wanting to value add as a coach, I took up a Degree in Psychology (ECU). Thanks to y deep interest in the human psyche I was able to score distinction average grades. I hope that one day, I will have the opportunity to pursue my Masters to gain more insights on positive psychology for women.
Meanwhile I continued my coaching education by embarking on a Choice Theory/Reality Therapy (CTRT) path. CTRT helped me to finally close the remains of the chapter of a traumatic childhood, healing the emotional wounds I have been carrying inside my heart.
Today, I am a proud member of the International Coach Federation (ICF) and am currently still upgrading myself with a Practitioner Certificate in Coaching Psychology.
I am extremely passionate of my new life as a empowerment coach for women. Many plans are in the works to develop empowering online coaching programs and live empowerment workshops.
However, I also thoroughly enjoys intimate one-to-one coaching where I can also learn from my clients while sharing my skills and knowledge.
I am excited about being a certified DiSC consultant helping my coaching clients to speed rocket their growth and understanding of themselves.
Being a lover of languages, I could not resist but to take up Cambridge CELTA certification subsequently and started learning Japanese and German.
Being a model, I wanted to be more versatile with my make up skills so I took up a Diploma in Make Up Artistry with Cosmoprof.
I am delighted to have the capability now to use make up to help build the self confidence of women.
Sometimes clients will be so moved when they see their pictures because they have never been able to see themselves in that light. Whenever that happens, it is so precious to me, to be able to be a part of journey of a goddess awakening.
I am always humbled and surprised by the experience. I realized that the power of make up and photography to help a woman review her identity as a woman cannot be underestimated.
What thrills me greatly was also the new found ability to bodypaint other models.
Having dabbled in modeling and make up artistry, photography was the natural next curiosity for me. Also, I noticed that some women are shy to have their pictures taken by male photographers. So I began to explore the art of making beautiful pictures, often assisting in photo-shoots after I am done with the models’ make up.
In fact, I am honoured to be one of the 2013 National Day Parade (NDP) photographers. 🙂
I believe it is the birthright of every woman to feel beautiful, inside and out.
Enters my third work of love, SensUal Wear (for the Goddess Within).
And no, I am certainly not stopping anytime soon. 😉
In 2015, I decided to give back to society. I began to sell my modeling calendars to raise funds to rebuild Ongkrong Primary School in Kampong Trach District in Cambodia together with Tabitha Cambodia.
Together with a fund raising event, I managed to raise S$12,000 to contribute to the school building fund.
More importantly, I started a fund raising initiative, For Our Children (FOC) and formed a team to help build/rebuild schools in Cambodia together with Tabitha Cambodia.
*** For 2016/2017 , FOC’s goal is to raise US$28,000 to build a 3 classroom school for 580 Cambodia children.
Some of my coaching programs and materials proceed goes towards this cause.
You can also support the cause by buying FOC 2016 calendar. 🙂
Empower yourself and the children at the same time. 🙂
Seeing is believing. Check out the video highlight for the launch of 2016 goal.
BeautifUl Women, Beautiful World.
One woman at a time. 🙂
p.s. Please take the time today to tell the significant women in your life, they are beautiful and important to you.
Check out my podcast interview! 🙂
Here’s to your soul elevation!
Thanks for reading.
*** The most important relationship you will ever have in your life is with yourself. I dare you to take on the Self Compassion 7 Days Challenge. Let’s start flexing our self-love muscles. Are you in or out?
Your Transformational Coach,
Joy Leng
~~~~~~~
‘Empowering heart-centered women since 2005’
“I met Joy and was immediately struck by her vibrant energy.
She is a compassionate person with a quick mind, and I found her coaching to be skillful and intuitive.
If you ever need coaching, I would recommend you see her: not only will she help sort you out, she will be your cheerleader every step of the way!”
– Rimi Yoshida
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10% of my net profit goes to support For Our Children (FOC).
Joy Leng 
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