In a world where emotions like anger are often shamed or suppressed, Melissa Knight stands boldly at the intersection of spiritual healing and emotional liberation. As the Founder and CEO of The Art of Anger, Melissa brings three decades of global experience as a healer, professor, and coach to her visionary work in emotional alchemy. Through Knight Vision Consulting, she has helped clients across 25 states and 9 countries transform their pain into purpose. A medical intuitive, Taoist Neidan and Akashic Records practitioner, and empathic trauma healer, Melissa’s mission is clear: to guide people home to their Sacred Selves. At The Art of Anger, Melissa invites us not just to feel our fury, but to honor it—as a sacred messenger, a catalyst for growth, and a key to unlocking deep self-love and power. In this intimate conversation with Mystic Mag, she shares how rage, when safely expressed and spiritually integrated, becomes a radical act of healing and liberation.
Can you share the inspiration behind The Art of Anger and how your holistic healing arts journey led to its creation?
The Art of Anger grew out of my professional academic research focus on sexual and other violent traumas, and the short and long-term personal and generational impact of those traumas on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies. As a women’s, gender and sexuality studies and ethic/cultural studies professor of 24 years, my review and appraisal of interventions to ameliorate these impacts revealed essentially that nothing short of a demonstrative physical release would provide the level of deeply experienced catharsis that was strong enough to rival and unseat the deeply buried pain. As a survivor of childhood and adult sexual trauma, and adult toxic (narcissistic) relationships, I knew firsthand the shame that permits fear to reign over truth! I went on sabbatical to Hawai’i in 2017 to further examine indigenous healing ceremonies and rituals, and that’s where I envisioned, wrote and developed the plan for The Art of Anger!
Many cultures use dance & movement for release, and that is usually joyful, yet sometimes interpretive dance also depicts the depths of pain. I knew that indigenous cultures also allow for and honor the full range of emotional expression, including anger and rage, unlike western cultures, which shun emotional expressions that make others uncomfortable. I’d long understood that rage, anger, grief and pain are very heavy emotions, and when forced to hide them, they get buried even deeper in the body by the layers of shame for feeling and wanting and needing to express them in order to release that weight from the core of the body. I knew that we had the longitudinal scientific research to back this up (Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale — ACES studies, which told us that trauma buried in our bodies shaves 5-7 years off of our lifespan and that every major medical dis-ease and anomaly can be tracked back to trauma stored in the body! I’d long been sending personal, spiritual and executive coaching clients in my practice to batting cages and the driving range or to thrift stores for a box of glass or an old chair with instructions on a timed, structured destruction of said item safely or set time / rounds at golf and batting spots, for this releasing. It was helpful, yet I knew I needed to create a more structured, supported, supervised and holistic releasing experience inclusive of support, facilitation and aftercare, and that’s how The Art of Anger came into being. I am deeply committed to holistic healing modalities as they draw on the natural world exist within and that surrounds us, so utilizing the natural movements, rhythms, cycles, frequencies and vibrations of the ebb and flow of life is definitely a part of the natural flow of The Art of Anger — from vibration plates and mirrors before the rage rooms to the splatter paint, trampolines and hula hoops after the rage with breakables to the power thought affirmations, dry salt booth sessions, inner child yoga or journaling after as part of aftercare. It is all connected and all in Divine flow!
Think about the sounds people make while releasing trauma from their bodies — sometimes it’s cries, screams or guttural utterances; sometimes it’s laughter; sometimes it’s low moans, whispered declarations, or too long stifled questions — regardless of the sounds emitted, they’re all sounds of release — sounds of seeking freedom from the weight of the long held and deeply buried trauma and pain. It’s all welcomed, supported and encouraged at The Art of Anger!
How do you redefine anger in your practice, and why do you believe it’s an essential part of healing trauma and reconnecting with one’s inner light?
Although I named the business, “The Art of Anger,” it is quite honestly about so much MORE than just anger! It is about any and ALL of the heavy emotions (anger, rage, sadness, frustration, loneliness, confusion, despair, desperation, regret, guilt, unworthiness, and more) — that make other people around us feel uncomfortable when we express them in any way. It is imperative that these already heavy emotions that sink deeply in the body do not get buried even deeper with shame and left to render us emotionally and physically unwell — as they attach to cells in our bodies and lead to illness dis-ease! Releasing all of that from the body through the somatic work and processes we guide folks through at The Art of Anger, helps people to engage in body resonance work once again (or do so for the first time, for many), and begin to identify what TRUTH feels like within their bodies! Feeling their own inner light shining through is a crucial part of the healing process, and this often happens during the Zen Splatter Paint Cool Down part or when they create a unique piece of art or a stepping stone from the broken pieces from their rage sessions (that is what is meant by the “art” of anger!) Sometimes it happens during the rage releasing or when they chalk graffiti on the rage room walls as their final act of defying the script they were written, instead finally trading it for the script they alone create for themselves! Deciding how they move themselves through life and on a trajectory they’ve self-determined is the ultimate in self empowerment, self esteem and self efficacy!
What type of services do you offer?
We offer rage releasing services, holistic spa services, energetic healing services, organizational and business consulting services and personal and spiritual coaching seevices!! Our rage releasing services include regular releasing with breakables and a unlimited weapons of choice, as well as low and no impact releasing— all of which can be customized to an individual’s unique needs — from accommodations for physical limitations or emotional triggers to curated items to help facilitate the release of specific traumatic experiences. Sometimes those carefully curated items may be weapons of destruction utilized to destroy random breakables and sometimes it’s the breakables themselves that have been specially selected for a client/customer. For example: there have been nurses who requested medical supplies to use as weapons (canes, crutches, metal oxygen tank holders) and breakables (c-pap machines, and other portable medical equipment). We’ve provided gospel albums and sermons (vinyl, cassettes and cd’s) for individuals recovering from religious trauma. We’ve met requests for French provencial bedroom furniture for women who were healing childhood sexual trauma. We also offer a full selection of spa services to further augment holistic healing and provide additional modes of sacred somatic releasing, such as: inner child, restorative and gentle yoga, African dance classes, drum circles, along with a variety of workshops, seminars and retreats, through our network of Healers In Residence, including: Sacred Feminine Divine womb wound / mother wound healing; Reclaiming Sexual Autonomy & Agency; Living into the Sacred Divine Masculine; Breaking and Becoming for Parentified adults; licensed acupuncture and functional medicine sessions and educational workshops; Using Essential Oils and Flower Essences for Holistic Wellness; community yoga classes, community acupuncture and sound bath day retreats; Akashic Soul Records Healing and coaching Sessions; Pranic, Cranial-Sacral, and Neidan Energy healing sessions; and Mace energy sessions — all with certified and/or licensed practitioners. We offer personal and spiritual and executive coaching and strategic planning and team building sessions for corporate clients as well.
In your work, you focus on helping clients reclaim and heal their Divine Feminine and Masculine. How does this balance play a role in addressing anger and trauma?
Often clients have strong feelings / sense of disconnect from their Divine essence, caused by the life traumas they’ve endured. Moreover, when these traumas were sexual in nature, or occurred during times of critical identity development, there can be a sense of self-disownment that disconnects them from their ability to develop a healthy, mature core feminine or core masculine essence which they can innerstand and integrate as ultimately Divine in origin and Divine in day-to-day existence. Furthermore, recognizing that we all as humans possess both feminine and masculine qualities, traits and characteristics, and embodying an empowerment around the integration of such knowledge into self-determined lived experiences — ie how we choose to show up in the world once we begin to feel healthy, whole and unencumbered by decades of personal trauma as well as family lineage and ancestral trauma — is an absolute game changer! This integrated wholeness is what empowers people to embrace their Divine calling and pursue their soul’s journey of fulfilling their life’s purpose as they now discover, define and refine it!
Many people feel shame or fear around expressing anger. How do you help your clients give themselves permission to process anger in a healthy and empowering way?
Absolutely EVERYTHING at The Art of Anger — from the garden of succulents on the porch along with framed affirmations that greet them as they approach the entrance, to the luxurious spa and cozy healing space vibe that meets them upon entrance is all designed to set a tone — a tone that reminds them of the truth of who they are as respected, revered, and loved safe and sacred souls who are having a human experience that has been mired in trauma — yet now they are in a place that recognizes their truth that lives beneath the weight of the trauma — a place staffed with healers and holistic tools to help them rediscover and reclaim their own sacred truths. That feeling of being SAFE while also being SEEN is an essential component for securing their trust, which is what empowers them to give themselves the permission to release what no longer serves them, so that they can finally free themselves from the trauma & move themselves forward in ways only they can determine. They come to recognize within our space that they are indeed the superheroes who have come to save themselves! When someone begins to see themselves as their own superhero for the first time ever, there is an immediate shattering of the false lens of shame and unworthiness that occurs, and that is truly powerful and magical to witness!
What advice would you give to someone just beginning their journey of self-discovery and self-love, especially if they feel “stuck in the mud” of unresolved emotions?
First, I would congratulate them on showing up for themselves as their own superhero — because by virtue of sharing where they are on their journey and how they feel about themselves at the moment i.e., “stuck in the mud,” it is a statement not of their status, but of their desire to get themselves UNSTUCK! That is the work of heroes, so it’s a good thing that a hero has shown up for them! And that’s when I walk them over to a mirror, located next to a sign that I’ve asked them to read aloud, with the words: “Here comes the love of your life!” So the advice is: know that it is your job and yours alone, to save yourself, because you are the only one who can. Know also that you already have everything inside of you to do just that — it just may be buried beneath some layers of personal, familial and ancestral lineage trauma and shame. Know finally that you can do this work and that my team and I are here to support you. And on the other side of the stuck feelings and the trauma experiences is a FREEDOM that is gloriously indescribably beautiful and well-deserved!!!
