4: The Getting Real with Hilary Show with Hilary Burns & guest Desiree Lim4: The Getting Real with Hilary Show with Hilary Burns & guest Desiree Lim
UK Health Radio Podcast
Filmmaker and healer Desiree Lim shares how queer identity, a collapsed film project and a long spiritual crisis led into soul-based healing work with tao calligraphy. The conversation touches on chronic back pain relief, LGBT community support, and finding meaning in years that once felt lost.
42:12•23 May 2026
From Queer Filmmaker to Soul Healer: Desiree Lim on Pain, Purpose and Tao Back
Episode Overview
- Life crises and career collapse can act as a "dark night of the soul" that pushes someone toward a different calling.
- Tao hands and tao calligraphy are described as transmitting healing frequency at the level of the soul or information field.
- The Tao Back calligraphy book is presented as a tool that people can use themselves, rather than relying only on a healer.
- Attachment to a particular life plan or project can prolong suffering, even when circumstances repeatedly close that door.
- Spiritual tools and meditation groups are being shared intentionally within LGBT communities to support healing and belonging.
“"Everything that I went through in my life is actually preparing me for this kind of work."”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? Here, the focus shifts from substances to something just as gripping: the pain, identity struggles, and spiritual crises that can sit underneath any kind of suffering. The Getting Real with Hilary Show brings on award-winning Canadian filmmaker and healer Desiree Lim, whose life story jumps from Malaysia to Japan to Canada, from underground queer cinema to soul-level healing.
You’ll hear how a self-confessed "Luke Skywalker wannabe" fell in love with kendo, built a career in Japanese TV news, and secretly made queer films while staying closeted in a conservative media culture. Desiree talks about coming out in pre-internet Japan, travelling the LGBT film festival circuit, and then hitting a devastating "dark night of the soul" when a major film project collapsed and her career stalled.
Work dried up, money was lost, and she describes feeling like she was in a tunnel with no light, only hearing her spiritual guides saying, "Just keep going. We're preparing you for something." That "something" turned out to be training with Dr Master Sha in soul-mind-body medicine and tao calligraphy, a healing art that she says works at the level of the soul.
Rather than simply stepping in as the healer, Desiree handed Hilary a book, *Tao Back*, explaining that the calligraphy inside carries a "creator frequency" for the back. Hilary credits this with resolving 15 years of chronic back pain. Desiree also shares her ongoing work with LGBT groups in Canada, leading meditation circles and creating films about healing and inclusion, alongside hosting the Queer Love Light podcast.
If you’re curious about how identity, chronic pain, spirituality, and creative purpose can collide and reshape a life, this conversation might spark some fresh questions of your own. What field of your life might be ready for its own fresh start?
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