This is part 2 of a 3-part series. Click here to read part 1.
When I was first learning to be a Spiritual Counselor, I went into the Agape Practitioner training only because I didn’t know another better path to deepen my spiritual connection.
I felt such a yearning to know myself as pure Spirit and to transform all the negativity in my life.
I had absolutely no intention to actually counsel anyone.
In fact, I felt strongly that the LAST thing I was interested in was listening to people’s problems.
I have to laugh about that now, because I LOVE supporting people in living their best lives. I absolutely LOVE it.
Before I started the Practitioner Training at Agape, I made this promise to God:
“If people ask me to counsel them, I’ll say yes. But I’m NOT going looking for it because I’d really rather not.”
Then, while I was still in the training, people started asking me if I could begin counseling them, and I had to keep my promise.
God is relentless that way. It finds a way in over and over and over again.
I had no idea how uplifting and inspiring it could be to sit with people as a spiritual counselor! I loved it then and I still do – it’s an honor to participate in other people’s healing.
My experience of sitting with clients and counseling them has been deeply healing for me as well as my clients.
That’s how it works when two or more are gathered in the name of Love for the purpose of remembering the truth.
Here’s what I learned: God always manages to send us the client that’s perfect for us to help AND to learn from.
It’s okay to learn from our clients. Our clients will help us to heal our own heart and mind just as we help them – and that’s a perfect divine arrangement.
Remember that dark shame I carried? Something magical happened when I sat with clients. For those sacred moments, the shame would quiet. I wasn’t a fraud anymore. I was simply present, holding space, letting Spirit work through me. The healing was happening for both of us.
In the ACIM Truly Helpful prayer, the last line is “I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.”
It was happening for me then and it still is decades later.
And here’s where I really had to learn.
At first, I wanted clients to validate me. To prove I was spiritual enough, wise enough, GOOD enough. I was using service as a band-aid for my wounded self-esteem.
When your motivation is to get something – when you see clients as a means to an end, or as your financial source – you’re no longer in the flow of Love.
Your clients can feel it. The connection stays shallow. The healing stays surface.
Success comes naturally when your motivation is pure service – sharing Love without giving in order to get something in return.
When we’re giving in order to get something in return then we block the flow of Love and we don’t even realize it.
I’d like to be clear, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t receive – being able to receive is essential.
Many spiritual students are terrible receivers (I was!). They refuse help, refuse compliments, refuse support – all while wondering why they feel so depleted.
I thought being spiritual meant giving until it hurt. As it turns out, blocking the flow of receiving IS blocking the flow of God, which is healing, refreshing, renewing, and revitalizing.
To be a great receiver, you need genuine humility. Without humility, the door to spiritual expansion is closed. Humility is recognizing that no one is better or worse than anyone else because all is one.
The old paradigm of the spiritual teacher with a vow of poverty is no longer helpful.
I used to think being spiritual meant being poor. Like somehow struggling to pay bills made me more holy. But how can we inspire others to trust Spirit’s abundance when we’re choosing between phone bills and gas?
That’s not humility – that’s ego disguised as spirituality.
It’s extremely important that spiritual students demonstrate that being in the flow of abundance IS spiritual.
Abundance and Prosperity are spiritual qualities.
It’s unnatural to live in lack and limitation.
It’s egotistical to block the flow.
One of my great passions is to support people in eliminating these blocks to Love so they can live their calling, help more people, be more prosperous and share their gifts in ways that are profoundly healing to themselves and others.
This shift – from resisting to embracing, from judging to serving, from scarcity to flow – it didn’t happen because I read another book.
Wisdom and insight came through practice, through sitting with real people, and through letting my wounds become wisdom.
This is exactly what we do in the Quantum Counseling Training Intensive starting October 31st. Not adding more techniques to your toolbox, but healing what blocks you from being the powerful spiritual counselor you’re meant to be.
I’ve worked with so many people who felt ashamed, stuck, afraid, and incompetent who have risen to share their gifts in profound ways. Healing is actually much easier than people think! We really can experience miracles.
Tomorrow in Part 3, I’ll share the specific turning point when I went from struggling counselor to thriving ministry – and the surprising discovery about what clients really need from us.
If you’re tired of playing small and ready to live your calling, stay tuned!
Oh, and that promise I made to God? It changed my life. By saying yes when people asked for help, even though I felt unqualified, I discovered that we heal together. October 31st, we begin the Quantum Counseling Training Intensive. If you feel called to transform lives (including your own), trust that calling. This isn’t about learning more techniques. It’s about healing what’s really in the way. Our certified Spiritual Counselors are available for FREE Exploratory Calls to help you determine if my Quantum Counseling Training Intensive aligns with your spiritual path. Your heart knows the answer.
NEW ACIM PODCAST EPISODE: In this episode, Why Punishment Never Works (And What Does) I shared one of the most transformative teachings from A Course in Miracles that changed my life: there is no sin, only mistakes that need correction, not punishment. Working with Chapter 19’s section on “The Unreality of Sin,” I explain how I used to be deeply attracted to punishment – thinking people (including myself) should be punished for their “sins” – until I discovered that punishment is actually guilt’s way of keeping sin real and protecting it. I share how the ego brings sin to fear demanding punishment, when actually every mistake is just a call for love, and how I learned to replace the word “sin” with “tactical error” to remind myself that correction and compassion heal while punishment only perpetuates suffering. This shift freed me from my own patterns of self-punishment including alcohol abuse, because when I stopped seeing others as sinners deserving punishment, my own unconscious guilt dissolved.
