Two decades of detours, discoveries, and deep healing—and the unfolding of intuition and purpose.
Twenty years ago when I started my healing business, I was working in finance while going to healing arts school. I studied everything mind-body wellness: Clinical hypnotherapy, Transformational Life Coaching, Stress Management, and more.
While I was there, I wrote a book about what I had learned, with a focus on weight management. I thought I was going to conquer the world.
So I quit my corporate job. But little did I know that my divine guidance had something else in store for me, which included a huge amount of twists and turns along my path.
I thought that after about 30 years of working for someone else, I had finally found my purpose. But learning is one thing, and doing is another.
It’s like a world class athlete. You can decide that you want to be an olympic gold medal winner, but guess what? There’s a ton of training that has to be done first.
Because knowledge is meaningless unless you practice it. So after all of those years of living in corporate finance analysis and becoming a top commercial loan underwriter, I really didn’t embody someone who was intuitive.
And that’s what deep healing work requires. You’ve got to not only be able to take someone else deep into their heart and soul, you need to be able to do that within yourself, and do the work on YOU.
So I had to work with healers too. (As we like to say in the business: Every good healer needs a healer.)
In fact, one of my teachers in healing arts school said to me: “The problem with healers is they think they know everything”. Ouch.
And if we don’t apply it to ourselves and grow, guess what? The universe will hit us with a cosmic two-by-four, and then we learn the hard way.
One of those lessons in the last 20 years since going down the healers path, was marrying a malignant narcissist. And anyone who has been through it (empaths in particular), know what I’m talking about.
The deep pain of believing the person is our “soulmate”, and then being mentally and emotionally abused by them. Then finally, being discarded by them if we don’t have the strength to actually leave.
The emotional pain as an empath was beyond description, and I felt like every ounce of energy had been drained from my heart and soul. I had my moments when I wondered if I would get through selling my home, having to re-home animals that I loved, and start over again.
But it forced me to go back to work on myself. (Personally, I would have rather done the work without the brutal lesson that came with it.)
In addition to working with others to heal and get back on track, I made chocolates for a couple of years. The creativity was good for my soul.
However, I knew that wasn’t part of the long-term plan. I had to go back to the work that I knew I was destined to do.
And also along the way of being a healer, I faced various mindset issues such as:
- Fear of rejection. (Especially when trying to sell my services.)
- Fear of being pushy or salesy. (Sort of along the lines of the rejection problem.)
- Not feeling like I was good enough or worthy. (Having confidence issues.)
- Impostor syndrome. (Who am I to do this work, do I really have the authority?)
- Fear of going live on video. (I’ve always been an introvert, but there I was, being called to show myself.)
- Going down the road of niche work that I didn’t belong in because I thought I had to do what someone else was doing.
That last one goes back to not following my intuition, and instead, listening to others. This can happen allot with empaths because we pick up on what other people are feeling, and we think we need to do what they’re doing.
And so many more insecurities in trying to help people in a transformational way. And all of these issues signaled one truth:
You’ve got to go deeper into your intuition, and do the work on yourself first. (Knowledge doesn’t count).
Because that’s what we need to do as healers. We’re basically put to the test and shown that we can’t effectively help others to go deep and heal, if we haven’t done it ourselves.
And just when we think we’re finished – “oops – it’s time to do it again”. And we find we need more clarity, healing the past, and unblocking the flow of abundance that’s waiting for us.
So here I am in 2026, twenty years from when it all began. And it really hit me that I’ve come full circle.
I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’m finally at a level to where I’ve harnessed my intuition to a point that’s necessary to be awesome at what I do (and to embrace that feeling). And I can finally let go of that impostor syndrome, because I’ve had clients come back later and tell me how much their life has transformed for the better.
Part of the journey, is getting to the point where we can finally acknowledge our awesomeness. And that comes after we’ve jumped over many hurdles, some of which are quite painful.
But it’s what we’re here for – to get over ourselves, and to discover who we really are. And when we dive deep to heal, shift and grow, we really get into alignment with our purpose.
If you had told me what I was going to go through to get here, I wouldn’t have been thrilled. But you know what? I’ve got the experience and the confidence that’s been hard-earned.
What a journey, and what a time we’re in. Because us empaths are truly here to change the world, but we must change ourselves first.
As the great Rumi said: “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
Ready to go deeper to heal, discover yourself and live life on purpose? Working together is faster than doing it on your own, because you can’t read the label when you’re inside the jar. (Not to mention, you’ll skip the hard lessons in getting there.)
Check out my Work with Me page to learn more and choose your session.
🌿✨ The Animal Empath Journal is a soul-led space for sensitive hearts and animal intuitives. Subscribe for free, or learn about becoming a member for more intuitive guidance and animal insight.
