Have you tried therapy, coaching, and psychics (or other professionals) to solve your problems and left feeling something is missing? Are you tired of having someone tell you what is wrong with you and how to fix it? Are you frustrated with experts coming off as know-it-alls? Have you been disappointed by psychics and spiritual teachers getting it all wrong?
Over my lifetime, I have sought the advice and counsel of many professionals to guide me to answers, particularly through challenging and difficult times. All of these professionals, therapists, coaches, and spiritual teachers, were well trained and qualified in their professions and their areas of expertise. I want to be clear here. There is a time and a purpose for a clinical therapist, and a coach, and a psychic or spiritual teacher. These professions are all valid and beneficial. I wouldn't be who I am today without the myriad of professionals who served me.
However, after working with all of them, something felt missing to me. Sure, they were all giving me information. Telling me what to do, how to do it, and why I should do it their way. What was lacking was the drawing upon my own innate internal wisdom!
Their expertise lacked something that I desperately needed, quality MENTORSHIP.
Now, years later, I consider myself a mentor to my clients.
Therapy
Clinical Mental Health Diagnosis with a Treatment Plan
I endured some really traumatic pain in the months during and after my divorce. I played the game of "find the right therapist" for well over a year. Each one diagnosed me with some "disorder." By the end of the year I had a list of conditions (seasonal affective disorder, clinical depression, panic disorder, generalized anxiety, adjustment disorder. . .) the list went on. None of them really felt right. Rather, with each one, I walked away from the session often feeling more broken than I did when I started the session. There were several times I left the session in tears, so unable to function, that I had to cry in my car for over an hour before I was okay to drive home.
Therapists will clinically diagnose you with a mental health disorder or condition (PTSD, bipolar, depression, anxiety, adjustment disorder, etc.). They work with you to help you heal from the deep traumas and tragedies of your life and childhood that manifest as mental health disorders. Work with a therapist is a long intensive process that requires a professional with extensive clinical experience.
EXAMPLES
a mental health therapist will identify your symptoms and work through a treatment plan to identify and heal from root causes (past traumas & tragedies)
a marriage and family therapist will help couples and families work through challenging relationship issues
a psychiatrist will diagnose your issue and prescribe and monitor pharmaceutical medications to adjust your brain chemistry
As your mentor, I will refer you to a therapist if I see that you have underlying deep mental health conditions that need specific clinical treatment. I am not qualified, experienced, or trained to address clinical conditions that result from deep traumas and tragedies.
Psychics & Spiritual Teachers
Hope for the possibilities and potentials
I often found solace in the support I sought from my astrologer and psychic experts. Whether they pulled tarot cards, analyzed my numerology, or red my chart, they gave me hope for better days in the future, and perspective for what I'd endured. Yet, I often felt frustrated when what they "predicted" didn't come true. Until I realized that their predictions were just "possibles" and in some rare cases "probables" that could change with any flip of decision or change. There are SO many possible outcomes, that prediction with 100% accuracy is impossible. Yet, to see the light through the trees when the forest is thick, a psychic's perspective is often welcome.
Psychics and spiritual guides offer you both insight to your core personality and character as well as potential prophecies for your future outlook. They help you to understand the unexplainable and find comfort despite the uncertainties of life.
EXAMPLES
a minister or pastor provides religious practice to help you have faith and belief in something bigger than yourself,
astrologers, numerologists, and intuitives will give you guiding insight to your personality and character as well as possible futures
a medium will help you communicate with spirits, angels, ancestors, and/or pets and animals to receive messages from the other side.
As your mentor, I will refer you to a psychic, astrologer, or spiritual guide if I see that you are seeking answers to existential questions and the unexplained.
Coaching
Goal-setting, accountability, and cheerleading
I've worked with coaches of all types: fitness coaches, nutrition coaches, life coaches, professional coaches, etc. The ones who were the most helpful to me sat down and discussed my goals and drew up a specific step-by-step plan for me to follow, and then met with me on a regular basis to hold me accountable until the goals were reached. For example, I got six-pack abs and could complete ten pull-ups at a time. I learned the finer skills of cooking for best nutrition, and I was able to downsize my home. They all helped me achieve my goals, but somehow my work with them always felt somewhat superficial as their coaching never went much beyond the specified goal. Furthermore, they always kept me reaching for something I didn't have and never really helped me value and appreciate what I did have.
A coach is an expert in a specific field who coaches you to attain a specific goal within that field. While cheerleading you towards success and achievement of your goals, they help you stay accountable to your direction and focus.
EXAMPLES
a health coach would guide you towards a goal of losing weight
a financial coach would guide you towards a goal of budgeting and saving
a career coach would guide you towards a goal of switching or enhancing your current career status.
As your mentor, I will refer you to a coach if I see that you have a specific lifestyle goal you want to achieve. For example, if you are looking to lose 50 pounds and learn about nutrition, I will refer you to a weight loss and nutrition coach who knows more about the specifics of nutrition.
MENTORSHIP
A sacred and spiritual process of self-discovery
I've never officially hired a mentor, but I wish I had. While I have had many mentors organically appear and disappear from my life, such as my grandmother, my cooperating teacher when I was student teaching, none of them actively called themselves a mentor. However, when I think of these individuals, I name them as the most influential people of my life. My time and experiences with them have left indelible marks in my memory, and given me lessons I have carried with me for my entire life and applied to all aspects of my life.
They never said to me "I know the way, follow me." Nor did they claim to be an expert in their field (although they often were). They encouraged and supported me in fostering my own growth through similar-but-different experiences as their own. As a result, I discovered deeper truths and wisdoms about myself.
A mentor is someone who has "been there and done that" and inspires you find your own way. A mentor shares their own experiences as both beacons of hope and nuggets of wisdom, then they facilitate a process of self-inquiry to help you find your own way.
EXAMPLES
a mentor will listen to your stories, prod you with curious question to get you exploring solutions for yourself
a mentor will reflect your story back to you, highlighting insights they heard you share that you might not have noticed you said for yourself
a mentor will share their own stories of self-inquiry, challenge, growth and experience and offer both encouragement and tips of things that worked for them to try
Do you Crave a MENTOR?
I didn't want someone to tell me what was wrong with me and how to fix it (a therapist), or give me expert information I didn't know, (a coach), or speculate about what might or could or potentially should be (a psychic).
Do you want someone to tell you that you have everything inside you to figure it out for yourself? Do you yearn for someone to believe in you? Do you need someone who has figured things out for themselves to inspire you to do the same for yourself?
Perhaps you don't want someone to give you the answers.
Perhaps you want someone to help you find your own answers.