Trauma, Healing and Getting on Track: Mind, Body and Soul
Have you experienced trauma?
I understand. My early life was in an alcoholic environment. It was an emotional roller-coaster, witnessing abuse and then loss. Lots of it.
Grief showed up in many ways with the loss of my own babies (stillborn and premature), the loss of parents, step parents, several divorces, many fur babies that I loved dearly and who helped me heal, and more.
At the age of 25 a therapist said to me: “You’ve experienced more than most people do in a lifetime”.
I attempted to fill the void in various ways: Sometimes with relationships (often toxic), and sometimes with food…
I found what I thought was security in a corporate job, which gave me a sense of stability.
In the process, I learned to be very analytical as I worked my way up into a high level finance career.
But I knew there was healing work to do around my past, so I started digging deeper.
I wanted to know WHY I had experienced the trauma of my past that was still lurking on an emotional level.
And I felt that I was meant to help others.
So I went to a healing arts school, and I was told by my teacher “get out of your head and into your heart”.
The truth is I needed to learn how to go deep to the soul level so I could heal, get out of the patterns I was stuck in and discover who I really was. (After all we are all a powerful spiritual being living a challenging human life.)
And it was there that I began to learn to tap into SOUL…
After studying mind-body wellness, I started to help others get unstuck in their life through transformational life coaching tools and deep, intuitive guided meditation. I also wrote an award-winning book about why diets and deprivation don’t work.
The book is called Lose the Diet: Transform your body by connecting with your soul.
I also worked on my abundance mindset and how to manifest a life that’s in alignment with our desires. I had two homes (one with a pool in the low desert, and one in the mountains with beautiful views). I traveled internationally, facilitated workshops and ran healing retreats.
At midlife I experienced more changes; divorce and loss, and went back to the healing tools that I know and love.
When Covid hit, I turned to a source of healing for me which is animals, and horse therapy. I’ve used healing tools with animals, as well as combining emotional healing tools with horse therapy for people who’ve experienced trauma.
I also used animal communication (intuitively understanding animals) to help people with animal behavior and to have peace of mind around animal loss.
And I also started working with chocolate, which was therapeutic for me (some people love to bake), and I enjoyed taking it to markets and watching people’s faces light up when they tried it.
The markets became an “interesting experience”.
I witnessed the emotional reactions from women when they saw that I was selling chocolate.
Even though they apparently LOVE chocolate, here’s how they reacted:
- They would have fear on their face and they’d steer clear of me
- They’d get out their credit card to pay for it, then pull it back and walk away
- They’d sample it and say: “It’s so good I better not buy it because I’ll eat it all”
- And my personal favorite: “I can’t have it because I’m trying to be good”.
Is depriving ourselves being “good”?
I saw how much they needed to go within to create balance, love themselves and savor life. Because the truth is that deprivation only backfires in the long run.
And I felt I needed to go back to where I started, because nothing has changed. Women are still chasing after diets, but it doesn’t last.
What lasts is connecting Body with Mind and Soul. Without a “holistic” approach, it will fail time and time again. It’s the only way to have sustained results, and to feel good about ourselves and our life.
It’s a “Win-Win” for us because it improves our life on ALL levels.
So I’ve put my tools together in programs and retreats that help women go within to get on track, create balance and savor life: Mind, Body and Soul.
PS: Kathleen lives in the beautiful White Mountains of Arizona with her fabulous other half, and her animal friends that include three dogs, two cats and her three “kids” (goat friends, of course). She loves helping women love themselves, and get their weight on track in a clearly blissful way.