I am
Soul,
known as Gaia.
I am
spiritual being,
living on this Earth
—in this incarnation—as human.
My biggest mission in this lifetime:
is to live in my human body on all planes
from my Soul to the cellular level,
and to help others do the same
—using our haunting hungers
as our Holy Gateway!
photo: Ibrahim Magdy Art on Pexels
Hello!
I am Gaia Nao,
the founder of
The Hungry Ghost Whisperer
TM
& this sacred space holder.
I am a trauma-survivor-turned healer,
a former-“exorcist”-turned
the
WHISPERER
HUNGRY GHOST
™
an IFS*-Inspired Trauma-Informed Certified Mind Body Eating Coach {in Dynamic Eating Psychology}**,
Soon-To-Be-Certified Keto Coach, Certified Holistic Chef, Certified Spiritual Life Coach
and Certified Transformational Life Coach and Mentor.
Guiding you toward
a harmonious relationship
with your body and food
at the Soul-to-cellular level,using your own
compulsive eating
& body image struggles
as the gateway.
✼ IFS or Internal Family Systems — an evidence-based therapeutic model developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz.
✼✼ Dynamic Eating Psychology is an approach to transforming our eating challenges developed by Marc David the founder of The Institute for the Psychology of Eating.
photo: Gaia’s self-portrait called “Eat Away My Envy”
a {never little} bit about me
MY BIO
Most of my life, I felt as if I were possessed by some “ghosts” that caused me to want to eat all the time. So I tried everything I knew to get rid of them so that I could stop eating. That’s how I became “an exorcist” working against myself, without even realizing it!! All those years though, while I felt haunted and possessed by these ghosts’ curses and spells, I never once asked them who they were or why they tormented me. I only knew I had to stop eating compulsively so that I could be thin like the people around me — especially those who had shamed, bullied, and ostracized me due to my substantial body size and weight. For a very long time, those two things were the things I yearned for above all else. But no matter how hard I tried, the ghosts only became more aggressive and possessed me more brutally!
For as long as I can remember, I struggled with compulsive overeating, uncontrollable binge eating and deep body shame, with health conditions rooted in insulin resistance and autoimmune disease.
To escape all of that, every effort I made focused solely on weight loss — through strict control of eating, relentless dieting, and excessive exercise — only to repeatedly spiral back into the same exhausting “merry-go-round” again and again. For over four decades, my attempts were clearly aimed at controlling externals, with no awareness that the majority of what drove everything was coming from within me — unresolved emotional turmoil and childhood traumas I hadn’t yet acknowledged — underneath all the external pressure from society. Fortunately, I finally discovered this truth and began healing from the inside out. As a result, instead of continuing to be an exorcist, I’ve transformed into The Hungry Ghost Whisperer™ for myself! Slowly, instead of keeping on trying to get rid of those “ghosts”, I learned to “bring them to life” and be with them — developing relationships with them, listening to them, appreciating them and loving them after discovering what they tried to do for me underneath all the “torments”. Eventually, that resulted in them letting go of their “curses” and “spells”!
What has helped me most with this transformation are the Internal Family Systems (IFS) healing modality, IFS-inspired Parts work, dedicated Self-Reparenting work, and of course, the Dynamic Eating Psychology of Mind Body Eating Practice.
One of the greatest gifts these healing practices gave me is a shift in how I understand my relationship with food and my body. My compulsive eating, bingeing, and body shame no longer felt like defects to be eradicated; they became sacred doorways into the deeper contours of my being. Each urge, each moment of shame, was not simply a symptom but a signpost guiding me toward my True Self — my Soul — and to the quiet, innate healing presence that has always lived within me and been threaded to a power greater than myself.
As someone who literally carried the heavy luggage of childhood trauma and adulthood pain, I have learned that surface-level “fixes” and practical strategies can be useful tools for symptom relief, but they cannot replace the alchemy of inner healing. As I had tried only external solutions without tending to the inner wounds, the relief was not only temporary, but also backfired many folds. True transformation requires healing from the inside out: meeting the frightened child with compassion, listening to the body’s stories, reclaiming the parts of myself that were silenced.
Being my own Whisperer!When I oriented to my eating and my body as sacred messengers — who gently whispered to my widely opened heart — rather than as enemies or curses and dark spells like I had believed in the past, I could hear them better for what they truly need, and therefore opened a steady path to long-lasting change.
In that space, nurturing replaced punishment, curiosity replaced shame, and connection replaced isolation. My whole being’s healing unfolded in its own time, supported by practices that teach me to soothe, to hold, and to reparent myself. And through that tender, steady process, what was once a wound became a wellspring — revealing not only freedom from compulsive patterns but a deeper communion with the love and power that has always been mine.
Now I’m free from those vicious cycles. My relationships with food and with my body are more harmonious than they’ve ever been, and I gratefully nurture my being deeply — from my soul down to the cellular level. Although healing my insulin resistance and autoimmune disease requires ongoing care, which I am committed to, I am now grateful to have no health conditions to be concerned about. And I believe I’m living my life with as much fulfillment as my sacred being’s capacity can presently hold at each moment, and with a genuine desire to share what’s overflowing with others as well.
This is truly my life's work.
Since my pain has turned into a powerful blessing, I feel called to share its power with you and to turn it into purpose by committing to serve you.
This is why I created The Hungry Ghost Whisperer™ — Lifting All the Curses off Your Haunting Hungers Back to Holy Vigors — at the Soul-to-Cellular Level™
as my way to “heal forward.”
If you are 40 years old or older,
and you resonate with my experiences with compulsive eating, body image, and related health conditions,
I’m here to support you in finding the same kind of healing and transformation I’ve found for myself,
through the methods that I’ve found have been helping me.
photo credit: Jeswin Thomas | Pexels
my offerings
{ currently available in one on one private coaching sessions }
whispering
101
The Hungry Ghost Whisperer™ 1.0
Lifting All the Curses off Your Haunting Hungers Back to Holy Vigors—at the Soul-to-Cellular Level™
Whether or not you label your struggles with food and your body as compulsive eating, emotional eating, binge eating, or body image and body insecurity issues, if your lived experience shows that you spend a great deal of time and energy oscillating between persistent—and sometimes overwhelming—cravings for certain foods and attempting to control those cravings by any means you can imagine, including battling with your body size, weight, and appearance, and you genuinely want to explore the roots of that pattern so you can find relief and ultimately heal more deeply, then, through the Hungry Ghost Whisperer™ I will gently guide you to access and embody your own innate Whispering Power, a tender and loving healing capacity that you may not yet have recognized within yourself.
If this tickles your curiosity, contact me below to schedule a free introductory session:
whispering
102
The Hungry Ghost Whisperer™2.0
Spiritually and Metabolically in Ketosis™
For some of us, after eating the way{s} we’ve been eating for a while, our body speaks to us loudly through certain physical symptoms that say, “I cannot carry the burdens any longer.” As someone who’d received that message too many times and ignored it repeatedly, I finally discovered I had insulin resistance—the metabolic state that often precedes other, more serious and possibly life-threatening illnesses. Fortunately, with the help of the Dynamic Eating Psychology of Mind Body Eating practice, the Internal Family Systems (IFS) healing modality, Parts work, and dedicated self-reparenting, along with holistic culinary training, keto coach training, and best of all, The Hungry Ghost Whisperer™—The Whispering 101 that I was able to apply to myself in time—I’ve been healing deeply through the “ketosis” state, both on the spiritual level and at the cellular level.
If you’re living with a health condition that may have arisen from insulin resistance and you are ready for a long-lasting relief through a “Soul-led Keto” way of eating, please contact me below to schedule a free introductory session to learn more about how I can support you. {*prerequisite of Whispering 101 is required.}
my credentials & fun facts
{ pretty much what has made me The Hungry Ghost Whisperer™ that I am today }
photo credit: Mikhail Nilov | Pexels
my training credentials:🕊 Certified Mind Body Eating Coach {in Dynamic Eating Psychology}
🕊 Certified Spiritual Life Coach
🕊 Certified Transformational Life Coach
🕊 Certified Holistic Chef
🕊 Multiple courses in clinical applications of the IFS model {by Richard Schwartz, Frank Anderson, Amy Pershing, Judith Matz, Christy Harrison, and Alexia Rothman}
🕊 Soon-To-Be Dr. Berg-Certified Keto Coach
my living “credentials”:🕊 History: Countless ways of dieting, starving, extreme exercising, and probably lost and gained on and off close to a thousand pounds of weight altogether over time.
🕊 History: Years of a 12-step food program that never helped, but kept trying, and beating myself up along the way—believing that if it worked for others, I must have not done enough and must try harder.
🕊 Current & Ongoing: Self-applied Internal Family Systems and Self-Reparenting healing modalities, — and they magically work well together like nothing else can {in all levels—physically, emotionally and spiritually}.
🕊 Current & Ongoing: Self-applied Dynamic Eating Psychology of Mind Body Eating approach with holistic keto / low-carb way of eating, — and they healthily work together deliciously and satiably. Yay!
🕊 Fun facts about me, personally:
I am of Thai descent, and Thailand had been my home for thirty years. But, as fate would have it, I’ve had America to call home for quite some time now. In this home, I live with my husband, who's half-Irish and half-English and grew up in England. We’ve been together since 2001, but we have no kids, so our spiritual work focuses on reparenting our own inner kids. {And we both believe that if it were not for the inner work we’ve dedicated ourselves to, we’d never have lasted as a couple!} For fun, we make road trips together, and our favorite places are on the west coast.
🕊 Fun facts about me, professionally:
I have a BFA in Interior Design and an MFA in Interior Architecture, and worked as an interior designer, designing mostly restaurants for a couple of decades. {Go figure!} And after I graduated as a Certified Holistic Chef, for 12 years, I ran my own personal chef company cooking for clients who tried to heal from various health conditions through holistic eating. That was quite a physically demanding career for me, but thanks to my clients, I was made to commit to “walk my talk”, and slowly healed my own conditions. Therefore, I’ll be forever grateful for them.
🕊 Fun facts about my dreams and passions:
Beside food and design, I love photography, so I took a few classes and became a food photographer. I am also a self-taught food stylist, and I’ve done some food photography for a few restaurant design clients and food entrepreneurs. I myself have a dream to write my own cookbook{s} which I really hope will happen some day — so that I can take my own food photos! And as you can see on this website, I took some self-portraits too. That was so much fun and certainly healing for me! Oh, I also have a web design side business, and I designed this website myself.
🕊 Extraterrestrial Fun Fact 🕊
When it comes to my human incarnation, this poem speaks to my heart:
✼ Instructions Before Visiting Earth ✼
In the event that you wake up and find your soul separated from source and manifest into material form, don’t panic. Your condition is only temporary. You have been selected for the opportunity of human incarnation. This 3D simulation is designed to break up the monotony of eternity by giving you a fully immersive experience as a distinct ego identity. Your body will serve as your physical avatar as you navigate a dense and dramatic reality. There will be many distractions causing you to forget your true nature and origin. You will experience a range of emotions from joy to loneliness to despair. But remember – no matter what trials and traumas you encounter, your soul remains perfectly safe. At times you may feel lost or afraid. This is totally normal. If you ever need guidance, simply slow down your busy mind and bring your awareness to the quiet place inside yourself. On this planet, nothing is permanent. People and things will come and go. You will fall in love and form sentimental attachments only to lose everything you hold dear. So cling to nothing too tightly, even yourself, and when it’s time to let go, let go with grace, for nothing is owned, only borrowed. As you walk among the people on the planet, try to be a good guest. Tread lightly. Remember that you are only visiting. Listen more than you speak. Give more than you take. Don’t keep your soft heart locked inside a glass cage, protected from wear and tear. You’ll never make it out alive and time passes quickly. So come back with some battle scars and good stories to tell.
a poem for the soul's journey by James McCrae