Essential Soul Care: How to Design an Expansive Life – An Interview with DeeAnna Merz Nagel

Discover how Essential Soul Care® can help you heal and experience a more expansive life.

In this conversation, Dr. DeeAnna Merz Nagel shares her profound journey as a psychotherapist who began integrating holistic, intuitive practices into her work with clients. She takes us through the multifaceted benefits of essential oils and introduces the Essential Soul Care® Playbook and Oracle Deck, designed to engage both sides of the brain with creative activities, affirmations, and journal prompts. Plus, get ready to explore the concept of a wellness wheel and discover how tracking synchronicities can enhance your intuition and connect daily experiences to spiritual growth. Watch, listen, or keep reading! (Interview has been edited for readability.)

Why is soul care so important, and why should we all be concerned about it?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel:  Well, there’s the mind, body, and the trinity, I call it, and I think the soul embodies all of that. So if we want to reach our highest potential for the greater good of ourselves and others, it makes sense to take care of the soul.

What happens if we don’t take care of our souls? What’s the downside?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Well, the downside is, a lot of people come to me, and I was one of these people too, asking, what is my soul’s purpose? They’re searching, they don’t know, they’re in some sort of existential angst, questioning the meaning of life. That’s what I mostly see. If we don’t take care of that whole trinity, and none of us are perfect, it’s a lifetime job, it will show up in our mental health, physical health, and spiritual health. So looking at the entire picture holistically, psycho-spiritually, is important.

I always want to hear from our guests about their story of awakening. Was spirituality part of your life as you were growing up. How did that all unfold for you?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: I don’t know that I was mindful of the journey early on. I think many of us could say that. But I was one of those children who had—I didn’t know what to call it, nobody talked about it—a sort of sixth sense about things. I didn’t have anyone to talk to about it. It’s not something you discuss at the dinner table when you’re 8 or 9, or 15 or 16. It was a little overwhelming. I didn’t know what it meant or what to do with it, and of course, it made me feel different.

How did that show up for you? When you say sixth sense, did you see things or hear things?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Mostly, I have a knowing—it’s just a knowing. I don’t know why I know it or what the purpose is sometimes. I also have empathic responses to situations and people. I can walk into a room and get a bad feeling, or meet someone and get a bad feeling.

When I became a therapist, it was as if my skill and training as a therapist made me a medical intuitive. I could meet with a client and, before knowing their history or backstory, I had a sense of their struggle or diagnosis. Over the years, I realized this was a gift. I tried to shut it down. I went to graduate school, I think, to justify my intuition and become a counselor—because how do you hang your shingle as a seer?

During my first decade in mental health, I still had the intuition but kept tamping it down because I didn’t know what to do with it. But I also realized that intuition was working with me, for me, and for my clients. About a dozen years ago, I came out of the pixie closet. Many of my colleagues crinkled their noses at me.

Why did you come out so to speak? What led up to that?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: I think what led up to it was that, about 25 years ago, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, sarcoidosis, and exposed to black mold. I already had a congenital disability from birth, and during that first year of treatment, I realized I couldn’t stay in the medical model. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew that wasn’t it.

Early on, I was searching for a holistic approach that would bring me better health, and I’m still searching. It’s a full-time job sometimes, especially with a chronic disability, to take care of yourself in a way that moves you forward. That was the impetus.

As I got older and my disease progressed, I was on a quest. Then came the knowing that I needed to do this or that. One of those things was learning Reiki. I didn’t even really know what Reiki was, but the universe seemed to say this was my next step.

As a therapist, did you have any internal conflict about how this fit into your therapeutic model? If so, what was that internal conflict?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: That internal conflict was—and even today, I work with a lot of therapists who struggle with this—“Oh my gosh. What about our scope of practice? Am I going to really push the envelope and step out of bounds?” It’s not as rigid as we think, but we’ve been presented with this concept that, ethically and legally, we are in a box, and you don’t color outside the lines.

What would that box be perceived to be—evidence-based?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel:  Yes, evidence-based. Insurance companies and the medical model push for evidence-based approaches. That’s a misnomer. People don’t understand that there are many evidence-based approaches, not just cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which has the most research. So that’s what we hear about, and it’s what the insurance companies push us to use.

But there are many techniques that have been around forever. When I went to graduate school, I learned about Carl Jung. He’s the father of what I term psychospiritual approaches.

How would you define psychospiritual? What does that mean?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: For me, psychospiritual means combining spiritual literacy as a therapist with the psychology and approaches I understand. We’re taught as therapists to be culturally aware, right? We need cultural competence and humility. Spirituality often falls under that umbrella of culture.

So psychospiritual is really about understanding and meeting the client where they are with their own spirituality and then using the skills I have as a therapist. Psychospiritual isn’t much different from metaphysical, but in some camps, if you use the word metaphysical as a therapist, you get the stare.

Right, you’re busting out crystals.

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Yes, I am.

Hold this crystal while I talk to you.

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Coming out of the pixie closet was a challenge. It started with Reiki, and the next step was someone introducing me to essential oils. I thought, “I don’t think so. I don’t do aroma, I don’t do fragrance.”

You were averse to it in the beginning, and yet you’ve written books about it now. That’s called transformation. Now that you’ve been introduced to different modalities like Reiki and aromatherapy, how do you bring that into a client situation when you’ve been utilizing more cognitive behavioral therapy?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Well, I introduce it by being transparent on my website. I’m not on insurance panels, and I don’t take insurance. I like to think I work above the wellness line because I’m also a coach, trained as a coach, and I train coaches.

So when a client comes to me now, they’re already in the sandbox, sure. Many clients will tell me, “I use Oracle decks” or “I use crystals,” and I just expand that conversation to see how that might or might not be beneficial within the session.When you first started coming out about these things, you said your colleagues wrinkled their noses at you. How do people connect with you or approach you now about your integration of these things?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Well, there’s a tribe of us, and it’s growing. There are several Facebook groups of therapists utilizing alternative techniques and methods, so I don’t feel so alone anymore. It’s interesting because I teach some courses that are straightforward clinical supervision. I don’t put a specific spin on it—it’s clinical supervision, and that’s about being a gatekeeper to our profession. It’s serious, formal training.

People take the training to get their certification in spiritual literacy and cultural competency. But through the process, they get a sense of who I am, and then they come back to me asking, “Can we talk about this? I see that you do this. How did you?” Then I end up in a consultation role, or they decide to take a different kind of course. So, yeah, that’s how it plays out.

You’ve written numerous books, but one of them is at the center of a platform you call Essential Soul Care®. What is it? Talk to us about the book, the Oracle deck, and the course.

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Essential Soul Care® came about because I was doing Reiki and energy healing, and then I was introduced to essential oils. That literally popped me open. It was the portal for my transformation, through the olfactory sense—very powerful. I had my spiritual awakening, and for most of us, spiritual awakening doesn’t happen without the dark night of the soul. So it was that combination, and I was doing my own work.

You’re saying that essential oils opened you up to a different dimension of connection with spirit. Talk to us about that.

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: I told you I was always claircognizant. I always had some clairvoyant skills and some mediumship skills—nothing that I went to school to learn; I just had it. When I was introduced to essential oils, they supported me physically too. When I started using the essential oils every day, that olfactory sense just opened me up, and all of my clair senses became even stronger.

Through a diffuser, direct application to your skin, or all of the above?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Yes, and I know this sounds really woo, but the essential oils became like the oracle for me. The same sort of intuitive sense with other people started happening. I had a brick-and-mortar aromatherapy shop for a while, and people would come in. I would sense the oil they needed, even before I knew what that oil really did. I would say, “Okay, I’m getting the sense that you need helichrysum; let’s look that up.” I would look it up with the client, and we’d talk about it to see if that resonated.

They are just very powerful tools. I know there’s a big push in the essential oils market to sell, sell, sell. That’s not my thing. I use them personally and with clients as appropriate. But that became the foundation for Essential Soul Care®. I created this Wellness Wheel, and clients, therapists, and coaches use Wellness Wheels all the time. I put essential oils in the middle of the wheel.

What is a wellness wheel?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Just for those of us who don’t know, a wellness wheel is like a pie chart, and there are equal parts of the wheel, like physical health, community, mental health, spiritual health, and work-life balance. I put essential oils in the middle to say essential oils can support all of these parts of our lives. They’re kind of the heavy lifters; they’re there to support us when we use them. They don’t fix or cure; they support. That became the foundation of Essential Soul Care®.

One of my colleagues and I decided to create an Oracle deck, and we wanted a workbook to go with it. But we didn’t want it to sound like work, so we called it a playbook. The playbook is really for people to explore the right-left brain connection. There are crossword puzzles, word searches, a glossary of terms, pages to color, and pages to write haikus, poetry, or affirmations and gratitudes. So it’s just a playbook.

It’s set into seven sections based on the chakras. We created the deck to go along with it. The deck is 49 cards based on the seven chakras, and we have a matching element—like the heart chakra matches the element of community for Essential Soul Care®. In the guidebook, if you pull a card, it will say which chakra element it is, what oil corresponds, and an affirmation with two journal prompts. One is soul play, and if the card comes in reverse, then you do soul study, which is the shadow side. There’s a straightforward journal prompt, and then there’s a prompt for further exploration.

Who would you say this is for?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: The Oracle Deck is really for anybody. It’s a simple but rich system for anyone who wants to pull a card every day. What does the universe want me to know today? It’s just for exploration. I encourage people to think about the synchronicities. You pull a card and wait, this doesn’t relate to anything in my life today. Okay, give it 24 hours and see what comes up, and what dots connect for you. The best way to increase your intuition is to track synchronicities. When you can track, wait a second.

I want to hear that again.

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: The best way to increase intuition is to track synchronicities.

Now, tell me why.

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Synchronicities—that word was a Carl Jung term. He said if you track your synchronicities, your intuition will grow. What it really means is that when you’re tracking synchronicities, you become more mindful, you become more grounded, and you can see the meaning around you. We all have synchronicities every day; it’s whether we’re paying attention or not.

What would you call a synchronicity? What qualifies so to speak?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: There are levels, and sometimes it is what it is, right? It’s the fact that you’ve paid attention to it. So, this happened to me recently—I go to a stoplight and see 444 on a license plate in front of me. I turn, there’s a billboard with 444. I turn to the other side, there’s another 444.

Some would say that means the angels are watching. For me, it’s like, “Okay, wow, I just tracked that. The universe says I’m on my path, that’s all.” It may not mean any more than that—it’s just a nod to me that I’m noticing, that I’m paying attention. Does that make sense?

So, you’re saying the more we track those, the more that increases our intuition.

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Yes, because it means we’re paying attention. I did a podcast a couple of months ago with a person whose vocation is music therapy. It was a lovely podcast. I get in the car after the podcast to go to town. I’m at the stoplight, and the bumper sticker on the car in front of me says, “I love music therapy.” That bumper sticker was going to be there anyway, but I saw it. I’ll check that box up. Yeah, that goes in my synchronicity journal.

You write these down, and then do you go back and look at them later?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Yes. It’s fascinating just to see the little things and the big things. Again, it’s just a method of becoming more awake and aware.

Talk to us about the Essential Soul Care® course. How does that go along with the playbook and the Oracle deck?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: So the course is really for coaches, therapists, metaphysical practitioners—anybody who is working with other people and wants to learn the process of using an Oracle deck ethically with clients. There’s some leeway with people who are not therapists; they don’t have that strict scope of practice, ethics code, etc.

The combination of the deck, the guidebook, and the playbook allows the practitioner to learn the lexicon behind the deck so that they have a deck they understand left, right, and center. They get it for themselves and are able to help their clients get it for themselves. It’s really about not teaching future casting or predictive readings, but intuitive readings, insightful readings, metaphorical readings, and using it as a projective tool, which we’ve done as therapists for years.

You know, here’s a picture. What comes up for you? Let’s do some contemplative writing. I’m going to give you a prompt. Write for five minutes, stream of consciousness. What comes up? Same thing—if you pull a card, what’s coming up for you?

What are the ethical issues surrounding using a deck for therapists?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Whether it’s a deck or a Bible or whatever spiritual tool, therapists don’t need to push their agenda on the client. If the client comes in expressing a desire, and often with me, they’ll express it before we meet because they’ve seen what I do on my website, right? That’s why they’re coming to me.

You’ve set the expectation; you’ve set the playing field.

DeeAnna Merz Nagel:  Yes. So if the client comes into an office and there are Oracle decks on the shelf, the client may say, “Oh, do you use Oracle decks?” Yes, there’s an open dialogue. If the client is inclined, then the therapist can go there. But for a therapist to just pull the Bible or a deck or crystals or say, “Let’s do some oils,” there needs to be an informed consent process.

Your client needs to know your scope of practice and your training. Nobody needs to do any of this without some basic training, of course. I’m not saying it’s rocket science; it’s just due diligence as a professional. That way, if you get called on the carpet for something, you can say, “I have training. I have training that is credentialed, that is vetted.” So that’s also important.

You’ve mentioned previously in our conversation that you offer supervision for healers and therapists. What are the most common challenges that healers and therapists are facing, and how do you help them navigate them in the midst of supervision?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Clinical supervision is usually required for all practitioners when they have an associate’s license after they graduate from school. They then work in clinical supervision for two to four years, depending on their discipline. After that, they’re deemed fully licensed. In the United States, often the culture is, “Okay, I don’t need supervision anymore because the state doesn’t mandate it.”

However, it’s encouraged for all of us to seek at least peer supervision, meaning another licensed person with whom you can discuss a concept or a client. In other parts of the world, like Europe and the UK, supervision is part of your lifelong responsibility as a professional. I have a few supervision clients in the UK who are fully accredited, and I see them once a month to discuss issues and clients.

My style of supervision is psycho-spiritual. It brings in that other layer of knowing into the room. It’s about me challenging the supervisee to think about what they’re bringing into the room, not just what the client is bringing in. We need both. However, supervision often lacks the self-awareness that needs to happen.

Those are the numinous moments. That’s when it happens—when you’re in a session with your client, and you’re aware of your own “aha” as they’re having their “aha.” That makes for very powerful coaching, therapy, and healing, in my opinion.

I offer a 12-month intensive. It’s about taking cases and deconstructing them based on psycho-spiritual concepts, and then we meet once a month.

I have heard you talk about a high value for ethics in therapy and coaching. Why is that such an emphasis for you, and how do you help instill that in others? 

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: I guess it’s part of my core values because when I came into the field, I wasn’t in the field long before I became the ethics chair of a state counseling association, then the ethics chair of yet another state counseling association. I did that off and on for seven years. I’ve helped write ethical frameworks. I ran an agency in Georgia with about 40 therapists in the field and another 30 parent educators and paraprofessionals working under state and county contracts, forensics, and court. You’ve got to be on it.

That’s just been an emphasis the entire time. If I’m going to do this and keep my license, how do I do this ethically? What does my informed consent need to look like? How can I be transparent?

If I’m going to be a therapist and a coach, my client needs to know what role I’m in when they’re working with me because there are so many implications to that. Currently, most of the work I do states in my informed consent that I am a consultant because I pull from coaching, therapy, and metaphysical tools, psycho-spiritual.

Sometimes I give advice, which, as a therapist, we’re taught not to do. We let them come to their own conclusions. Well, sometimes I give advice depending on the issue, the question at hand, etc. Because I’m pulling in so much, I prefer to be referred to as a consultant.

A lot of the people listening right now would probably be in the sphere of sound healer, coach, life coach, business coach, somatic coach, or health coach. What are the main ethical situations or things they need to be mindful of?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Coaching is not regulated. There’s no license to be a coach. Anyone can hang their shingle and say they’re a coach. In the United States, at least, any of us can be sued. The same due diligence applies. You should have proper training and be a member of a coaching organization that has a code of ethics.

This way, you can tell your clients, “I’m trained, I’m part of this professional organization, and I have liability insurance.” I’m willing to take all those risks to be the coach I need to be for you.

If you’re a therapist and a coach, there are some things to be aware of. For example, if a therapist decides she or he wants to be a divorce coach, working with people who aren’t necessarily struggling with mental health issues but are just going through a divorce, it’s situational.

If that therapist is working under the title of a coach with proper informed consent, the therapist needs to understand that if the client’s lawyer subpoenas the coach, who is also a therapist, to come to court, that client-practitioner privilege of confidentiality may not exist. There is that privilege as a therapist, but this therapist is now working under the label of coach. It’s critical that your client understands what hat you’re wearing. A coach may even have proper coach training, but the client might think they’re doing therapy.

Understanding the difference between therapy and coaching is very important. Yes, of course, they overlap. Then there’s the issue of crossing state lines. With your therapy license, you can only see people in the state you’re licensed in, but as a coach, it’s different. How do you maneuver all that? It can be done. Again, it’s about awareness and paying attention.

I want to go back to the topic of aromatherapy because you’ve written a book, Intuitive Aromatherapy: Essentially Soulful Practice. Who would that be a good resource for and how would that help them?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: That book is really my journey. It’s a series of essays about using the oils, how I’ve used them to increase my intuition, how I’ve used the oils to support my own mental health, and how to use the oils in support of trauma—many of the things we’ve already talked about today. It’s not a textbook; it’s a fun read, it’s an easy read. It’s for anybody curious about essential oils, beyond supporting a cold or a respiratory issue, or tea tree for your skin. This book expands into that soulful space, again embodiment, using essential oils as part of the embodiment of your personhood.

There are so many different brands of essential oils on the market. What should we be looking for?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: First of all, essential oils never have fragrance. When you see a commercial with a plug-in that says “with essential oils,” it means they have added a few drops of essential oils into a vat of fragrance and chemicals.

All perfumes have essential oils, but they also have fragrances and chemicals. I didn’t understand this when I was first introduced to oils. If I’m in the grocery store, I avoid the laundry aisle with all the lavender-perfumed laundry detergent and dryer sheets, which are totally different from the pure lavender essential oil that comes from the plant.

Pure essential oils are only the plant material. Some essential oils can be ingested, but certain brands indicate on the label whether they can be ingested. So don’t ingest an oil unless it says so on the label, and even then, be conservative.

There are many good companies out there. Even good companies may sell in bulk on Amazon. Do not buy your essential oils from big companies like doTERRA or Young Living on Amazon or eBay because they can be tampered with, diluted, or otherwise compromised. Choose your company wisely. I’m a Young Living fan, but I use other companies as well. Not every company will have every oil you want, but knowing the most reputable essential oil companies will provide information on the oil, where it comes from, and their transparency about the farms and how they source the oils.

Make sure the company you choose has some agrarian sensibility; they care for the earth while bottling these oils.

You have had a significant career. What are your hopes and dreams for the work ahead?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Well, you know, I teach a lot of different topics. I’m not an expert on all those topics, but one of my skills is curating really good material. I also work at the Institute for Life Coach Training as a faculty, and occasionally, I build a course because there’s a need for people to learn about a certain topic. They’re asking for a specific topic, so I can build a course. Sometimes I teach it; sometimes, we find another faculty member to teach it.

I really enjoy building courses, interacting with students, offering consultation, and doing supervision. I want to continue to do more of that. I want to say I’m in the fall part of my career. I’m not in the winter years yet, but I’m in the autumn years, and I’m finally at a place where I’m not constantly building. Now I can do what I’m called to do.

Tell us about the vision behind the Soul Portals Podcast. 

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: That is a friend and colleague of mine, Cedric Speyer. He heads up that podcast. I call myself the sidecar, but Cedric and I have known each other for 20 years. He wrote a book on his psycho-spiritual approach to the helping professions.

The Soul Portals Podcast is really about bringing in people from a variety of backgrounds. One person was a music therapist. We’ve had a physician, a shaman, and a rabbi. It’s really about hearing not so much their spiritual career, but what about their spiritual journey sparked what they’re doing.

Every podcast is different and interesting, and I guess if there’s a common thread, it’s that spiritual piece that people come to the podcast willing to talk about.

What’s the best way for people to connect with you and work with you?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Visit www.deeannamerznagel.com, and I’m on X and Instagram as well. That’s a good way to get a sense of me. You can always email me by going to the contact page on my website. You can listen to a podcast or read my blog.

My tribe consists of people who engage with me on some level, and they feel the connection. We all have different tribes, so I don’t expect to connect with everybody. But the people who resonate with my message will find me.

By the way, what’s your favorite essential oil?

DeeAnna Merz Nagel: Oh, there are too many. Today, I’m wearing a blend, Magnify Your Purpose. I would have to say my favorite essential oil that sort of changed things for me physically was eucalyptus. You know, I’d read about it and heard about it. You smell it when you get to the spa, but it really helped support my respiratory system, and then I was convinced, and then everything else rolled out.