The Art of Surthrival: my year in review

2021 was another challenging year for so many of us. No doubt like you, my mental and emotional health was compromised. Some days it was tough to get up in the morning. Some days I didn’t.?

But, I also have to count my blessings - I am alive, many are not. I am not alone, many are. I have access to healthcare, many do not. And it is in the spirit of counting blessings that I decided to look through my calendar, my photos, and my social feeds to remember the bright spots of another tough year.

The takeaway: 2021 has reminded me that we are resilient, that we can do tough things, that without the darkness we would not know the joys of the light. I move forward into 2022 knowing these things, and I hope you do too.

Here are the things I am thankful for...

January: I left full time employment and became a full time entrepreneur, focusing all my attention on building Soul Trained. I have never worked so hard, yet so joyfully in all my life. Being a small business owner is so rewarding, and at the same time it can bring anxiety, stress, and overwhelm. If you know an entrepreneur or a founder, be kind to them, The hustle is real.

February: I created a sister brand to Soul Trained called SoulFull and, after an 8 year hiatus, I started training neuro-linguistic programming [NLP] again. I qualified as a Trainer of NLP with the International NP Trainer’s Association in 2008 and began training and certifying peopling the art and science of NLP with my dear friend and partner in growth Jude McCormack. Moving to the US brought about an end to mine and Jude’s work, so to pick it backup in 2021 was a REAL high. Especially as Jude shows-up as a PROGRESS guest trainer every now and then.

March: My friend and colleague, Shiva, and I completed an 8-week Therapy Group we had devised called Naming, Claiming, and Building Better Boundaries and, in doing so, added group counseling to our clinical scopes of competence. I had offered 1:1 therapy and had been facilitating groups in professional settings for years…and the skills of group therapy and holding therapeutic space for a group of people are similar, yet very very different.

April: Talking of therapeutic scopes of competence. In April, I applied, and was accepted, to CIIS’s Sex Therapy Certificate in order to add sex therapy skills to my tool box. I completed the certificate in December 2021. It was fantastic and I highly recommend to any fellow clinicians out there.

May: In 2018, shortly after getting a Green Card, I decided that I wanted to practice once again as a therapist [having shut down my private practice in the UK when we moved to the US]. Through my research, it quickly became clear that transferring my UK credentials to the state of California was not going to be straightforward, so I decided to go back to school and I enrolled in CIIS’s MA in Integral Counseling Psychology. In May I graduated from the program with a 4.0 GPA. I was proud as punch - I am a first generation college graduate in my family of origin and I completed the program while working full time, building my own business, during a pandemic. #notahumblebrag

June: Another dream came true when I ran a retreat with my friend and fitness professional,?Rachael Brooke Hoppock. I had wanted to run retreats that feed the mind, move the body, and nurture the soul for many years. But all of this seemed impossible until partnering with Rach and dreaming-up the RE-EMERGENCE Retreat. By the end of the weekend, our guests were ready re-emerge into a past-vaccinated world, [Omicron was still just a letter in the Greek alphabet back then] without the re-entry anxiety that so many people were feeling back then.

July: Talking of re-emergence, in July David and I got onto a plane and went on vacation for the first time in over two years. Yes, we were masked. Yes, it was inconvenient. But, holy wow was it liberating to be able to go somewhere new, to leave the state, to feel what it felt like to go on vacation.?The pandemic taught me the value of stay-cations, but this trip reminded me of the power of vacation.

August: I started a new role as adjunct faculty teaching counseling psychology to graduate students at CIIS. I am not new to education having gained a certificate in post-compulsory education from Wolverhampton University in 1996 and subsequently being an NVQ Assessor in the UK, but getting back into the saddle and teaching on the program I had recently graduated from - was another 2021 highlight.

September: On September 7th each year David and I celebrate the day that we got married in the UK. So what? People celebrate anniversaries all the time. This is true. But I feel proud of this anniversary each year that it comes. Not only does it represent another year of having the privilege of being in love and of being loved, it reminds me - as someone who comes from a lineage of marriages that didn’t work - that it is possible to break trans-generational patterns if you want to.

November: Back in 2006, David and I envisioned a HUGG [Huge Unbelievably Great Goal] to create a retreat center - a place where individuals and groups could come?for professional and personal growth and to participate in therapy, counseling, workshops, Reiki, reflexology, sound healing. In November 2021 we found the perfect property in the state of Connecticut and we’re targeted to make the move across to country during January 2022. Being on the east coast will also enable further growth for Soul Trained as it will place me in the middle of the majority of the timezones of my company's clients.

December: I ended the year with my first business trip with Soul Trained when I went to NYC for a week of?client and new business pitch meetings. Business travel used to be a twice-monthly experience for me, but that all stopped in February 2020. I don’t mind admit I felt out of practice and a little overwhelmed at the newness of doing something that was once a habit. But being in a room with people, collaborating, facilitating, supporting them in their professional growth felt SO DAMN GOOD.

I end this year with a heart full of love and gratitude:

• For my clients and your ongoing trust and partnership. I love working with you.
• For my network who continue to support Soul Trained by sharing, liking, commenting, and referring within your own networks. For real - as a small business owner, these small acts of kindness and engagement mean the world to me.
• My chosen family for reminding me that I can when all I can think is that I cannot

2022 looks promising...new clients for Soul Trained, new business ventures for me and David, I will become a published author, and I hope to begin the process of getting a PhD.

My hope for you is that you too can find things to look forward to. I will continue to hold a picture of you in my heart and mind - it is a picture of success, joy, and vitality. Watch out, here comes the future.