Uncategorized
Women Branching Out: Lisa Claudia Briggs
Very happy to have Lisa Claudia Briggs of Intuitive Body here with us today.
Lisa helps empathic intuitive women lose weight of all kinds and learn to live beautifully in their bodies. Her approach is medical-meets-mystical and brings in both her background and training in Psychology/Clinical Social Work and her training with shamans and Chinese medicine masters.
You can learn more about Lisa and how she works by signing up for a complimentary copy of her e-book “The IntuitiveBody Beautiful 21-Day Turnaround” here. The e-book includes 21 days of simple sacred rituals for living beautifully in your body.
Here’s Lisa …
Tell us about you and your business. Who do you love to serve and why?
What I really love is working with women who are ready to leave a very specific “season” of their life, or a specific identity … sometimes they know what it is and sometimes they don’t. But they feel the rumblings and even if they are uncomfortable or in pain, they also have a sense of excitement once they catch the scent of where they might be able to go. I love to launch them into the next phase.
I was trained very clinically as a licensed psychotherapist 25 years ago. But in the last 10 years I’ve worked to develop my intuitive, clairvoyant and energy healing skills. So Intuitive Body is a hybrid of all of those pieces. The mystical-meets-the practical. Women typically find me when they feel disconnected from their bodies … around weight or eating, or wanting a more loving relationship with their body.
But the body issues are just the gateway … it’s what gets their attention and moves them towards a bigger identity shift. It’s the best work I could imagine, still after 25 years.
You provide a lot of advice on your blog to help empathetic and highly sensitive folks stay grounded. How does being sensitive or intuitive play into emotional eating?
I believe that when you are a sensitive/empath or an intuitive, it means that you feel everything deeply. You feel your own emotional ebbs and flows plus you feel what everyone around you is feeling. That’s a gift and a curse.
Being that “open” can mean you feel bombarded by emotional energy, a lot of the time. And you may not even be aware of it. You may not realize that when you’re in a bad mood that you may have “caught it” from somebody else.
For women like us (I fit in this group), eating more or weighing more can both help to make one feel more “solid” and not so vulnerable to outside energies, but can also be a way of soothing when somebody is in empathy overwhelm. When you’re feeling all of this stuff, it’s too intense. It’s too much, and eating can be a way of managing it.
Learning how to stay grounded, “in your body” helps to prevent taking on the emotional energy of other people without using food or weight. Learning to be aware of how one is sensitive and how to create better energetic and emotional boundaries is really helpful … for everyone- being on the internet, social media … we all pick up and absorb so much energy and it’s very draining.
You say that finding a way clear of an eating disorder is like a personal “soul-call” or fire-walk. What do you mean?
When somebody is ready to let go of long-held ways of being in relationships, of coping with difficult emotions, of how and what they say “yes” or “no” to, all of these things are enormously challenging. Eating-related issues are very much about learning how to navigate relationships differently, to create new boundaries. To take care of yourself differently … maybe to stop giving so much, to people please less.
Somebody who is giving up old ways of eating and being in their body needs new ways of dealing with all of the feelings that are going to come up. And … create new rituals of loving self-care, including what to eat.
I think of it as a firewalk or soul call because any and all of these things will ask you to face old fears … and really show up … to learn to be seen and heard, in ways that have been avoided until now.
Doing this work requires great courage and a trusting, loving relationship to guide you through. Guiding somebody through this kind of walk is a beautiful experience and deeply moving for me personally and professionally.
You have degrees in Psychology and Clinical Social Work and have trained with shamans and the Chinese medicine masters. How have those experiences influenced how you approach the work you do with women today?
I am very lucky. Hugely blessed to have had the training I’ve had and the mentors who have loved and taught me so much. What I know is that this work is not science, it’s art. It’s a little of this and a little of that. It’s a bit of a concoction and the art of it is finding what each person most needs at each moment in time. I’ve trained with people from the most humble (and gifted) to the most flamboyant … and it’s all added to the pot. I love to learn, love to watch those who really know something. Few things light me up as much as being around that kind of bright light.
When someone comes to work with you for the first time what can they expect?
I believe they can expect that even when they are feeling not particularly bright and shiny, that I will quickly see their beauty and their gifts. What I really love in an initial session, is being able to give somebody something … a perspective, a view of themselves that nobody has shown them before. It’s not about slapping a happy-face on it, but I can always see a piece of where they are going, what their strength and particular beauty is. They can expect to feel hope and some creative possibilities starting to bubble.
What changes have you seen in the lives of your clients when they start to change their relationship with their bodies?
This question brings up a lot of emotion for me. I’ve seen so much, things I didn’t really expect to see. Women who conceived after several miscarriages. Big changes in careers. More love … partnerships, marriages, babies, healing with families of origin.
The ability to ask for what they want, what they need, what they expect … in balanced ways. In ways that all of their relationships evolved and became more respectful … people saw them differently. I’ve seen illnesses heal … what looked like autoimmune diseases clear up when food changes were made. I’ve seen women go from feeling like horrible guilty mothers, to strong loving parents whose kids reconnected with them in beautiful ways. And I’ve seen women leave painful relationships when it was time, when they knew they wanted something better. I’ve seen women say goodbye to friendships that could not support them in healthy ways.
I’ve seen women stop hating their bodies, stop hurting and punishing their bodies, lose the weight they wanted to, gain the weight they wanted, and to lose what felt like the most shameful secrets in the world. I’ve seen freedom.
What are most empowering aspects of having your own business?
I was raised by generations of entrepreneurs, including my mom. My youngest son is graduating high school, my oldest son is entering his last year of college and I am grateful that I could be home for them every day. And that I have had so much freedom, not just with time, but to change my work as I learned new things and wanted to bring in new pieces. To be able to now work globally … most of my clients are via Skype and to be able to have that kind of reach … is so powerful. And to know that I have shown my sons that if they choose they can do it their own way someday too.
Finish this sentence. I believe …
that women have so much beauty, so much love and wisdom, so much heart and that finding ways to have full access to our Divine Identity … is worth everything.
Lisa Claudia Briggs, MSW is the founder of IntuitiveBody.com and a devoted Mentor, Intuitive, and Psycho-spiritual therapist for talented beautiful women who feel things deeply. Using her unique medical-meets-mystical approach, Lisa loves helping women lose ALL kinds of weight. Known for a high success rate, Lisa’s Intuitive Body approach allows her clients to find simple, sacred solutions to live more beautifully in their bodies and relationships while learning to trust their intuitive wisdom. Lisa wrote “Recovering Beauty”, a home-study retreat, to share everything she knew about weight loss and body acceptance for empathic intuitive women. Her Intuitive Body blog was named “Top 50 Emotional Eating Blogs” in 2012. She has been in practice for 25 years and lives in Massachusetts with her husband, teenage sons, and varying numbers of small terriers. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter.
Sign up for a complimentary copy of her ebook “The IntuitiveBody Beautiful 21-Day Turnaround” here.
How do you stay grounded when everyone else’s energy is swirling around you? Comment below!
Women Branching Out: Bari Tessler
Today we are featuring financial therapist, mentor coach, and mompreneur Bari Tessler as part of the Women Branching Out interview series.
Bari helps people work on their relationships with money through private coaching and her online program The Art of Money {affiliate link}.
The Art of Money is an 11 month community program, featuring guest teachers Julie Daley, Nona Jordan, Alexis Neely, and more. It begins February 1st.
Here’s Bari…
Tell us about your business. What do you do and who do you love to serve?
I am a financial therapist, a mentor coach, and I lead an online money program, The Art of Money. My work integrates all of my previous training as a body-centered psychotherapist, with all of the tools, systems and planning of bookkeeping and financial planning, that I surprisingly fell in love with (and needed myself) in my late 20s. I love to support women, couples, and creative entrepreneurs.
Since 2001, I have been teaching my money work in every format imaginable (via live in-person workshops and on-line tele-courses and home study programs).
Over the years I have been through a few different biz models to honor and accommodate my phases of life and my growing biz community. For a few years, I had a whole team of bookkeepers and financial coaches under my umbrella. Then, with the birth of my son in 2008 (just as I was turning 40 years old), I shifted back to a one-woman rockin’ show to simplify again. I still collaborate with and refer to other key money support team partners.
As I was approaching 2013, and heading into my 44 birthday, I realized it was finally time for a conscious money movement. Something had matured inside of me and I was ready to reach a much wider community.
So, I dreamed up and crafted my new 11 month program, The Art of Money. This program integrates my tried and true method: An integration of Money Healing, Money Practices and Money Maps. And, weaves together individual, couple and creative entrepreneurial money teachings.
I am the main guide and resident financial therapist in The Art of Money. I have also gathered amazing guest teachers to teach on additional money topics from kids to careers, from debt to ritual, from Enneagram to gender issues. I am so excited about this current phase of my biz and feel it is the most heart-guided and vision-guided program ever.
I also offer private financial therapy and mentor coaching for 11 clients at a time.
– – – – – – –
Why do you think it is important that we improve our relationship with money?
Our relationship to money — having a healthy + mature + loving + playful relationship to money — is simply one of the big areas of life to honor and give our attention to.
I’m not talking about bringing an obsessive attention to it, but the right amount of attention and care. Similar to taking care of our health and our bodies, finding our right relationship to work-career, cultivating healthy dynamics with the people closest to us. Our relationship to money is up there with the big ones in this beautiful, precious + challenging human life.
Money was not taught, to the majority of us, from grade school on up in small increments. We simply were not taught these things.
We weren’t taught how to understand our feelings about money, how to manage money, how to speak about money.
It’s time to go back and in fill in those gaps.
We project so much onto our money relationship and the concept of money (earning it, spending it, giving it, receiving it, losing it, borrowing it, loaning it, investing it, exchanging it). It’s ripe territory, where so much is happening emotionally and psychologically — and we simply were not taught how to make sense of it all in a healing way.
This work is still in shadow. It’s slowly coming out of the shadowlands, of taboolands — and I’m here to help that process along, in a big way. We need gallops of awareness, learning, forgiving, tools and skill sets.
– – – – – – –
What’s the first bit of advice you give clients who come to you overwhelmed by their current money situation?
First, I share my favorite tool for money awareness, un-shaming, understanding and forgiveness, called the Body Check-In. This will support them to get present, notice their feelings, learn more about their money story and then ask it to have a seat next to you so you can engage with it, instead of being consumed by it.
– – – – – – –
What changes have you seen in the lives of your clients when they started to have a more loving and honest relationship with money?
Here are a few of my favorite benefits of money work:
- Peace of mind, clarity, and compassion in your money relationship
Deeper understanding and acceptance of the phases (the peaks and valleys) in money and in life
Productive, loving + fun money conversations with your partner (yes, I know you will be moving mountains when you do this)
– – – – – – –
How has the experience of coaching others through their money stories impacted your life?
I have really learned that this money work is a life-long practice. This is confirmed over and over by my dear community. It does not mean my clients/students will need to work with me forever! 🙂 It simply means that this work is a practice and life-long journey that will be fine-tuned and updated as we go. It is like a self-care practice for your relationship to money. There WILL BE peaks and valleys in life and in our money relationships. So, my clients and students inspire me to keep taking more steps with my own awareness, clarity and relationship to money. I continue to learn and grow.
Being able to share my work in the world has given me such a full, rich, and beautiful life and community. I love my work and community.
– – – – – – –
What are most empowering aspects of having your own business?
Well, to be honest, I don’t think I am made to work for someone else.
I have been an entrepreneur for 11 years now. And, I love the freedom, the challenge, and the passion of this. I love being able to exercise in the middle of the day. I love being able to make my own hours. My biz is a continuing source of creativity, passion, vision, challenges, and psycho-spiritual learning, which I am very grateful for.
– – – – – – –
What did Bari want to be when she grew up?
As a pre-teen, I was trying to decide between being a Solid-Gold Dancer or a businesswoman. By the time I hit 20, I added, psychotherapist, to the mix. I do see my work as part therapy, part business and part body-centered-dance work 🙂
– – – – – – –
Finish this sentence. I believe …
I believe in…LOVE, PASSION, COMPASSION, CREATIVITY, SIMPLICITY, my family, dark chocolate, kindness, wildflowers, clear communication, loving boundaries, knowing who we are and who we are not, listening to our bodies wisdom as a great life tool, knowing that we ultimately have all of everything inside of us to move through life’s beauty and challenges and that support is awesome too… and I believe collaborative creative teams can bring amazing things to the world.
– – – – – – –
Bari Tessler, M.A. is a Financial Therapist, Mentor Coach, Mama and Chocolate Lover. She is the founder of The Art of Money, (formerly Conscious Bookkeeping), which integrates Money Healing, Money Practices, and Money Maps. Bari offers online money programs as well as private Financial Therapy + Mentor Coaching for women, couples, and creative-preneurs. You can follow Bari on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
How are you nurturing your relationship with money? Please comment below!
Women Branching Out: Alison Gresik
Very happy to have Alison Gresik with us today.
Alison is a writer and coach and is currently traveling the world (most recent stop: Holland) with her husband and children.
While traveling she’s writing a memoir, Pilgrimage of Desire, and running a crowd-funding campaign to self publish the book.
She also coaches writers and artists who are prone to depression and want to make their art a priority.
Here’s Alison…
Earlier this year you wrote a post about walking depression which struck such a chord with me. Now you’re working on Pilgrimage of Desire, a memoir of your recovery from depression. Why this book? Why now?
Pilgrimage of Desire found me and won’t let me go.
The book brings together every aspect of my self — writer, coach, traveller, wife, mother, daughter, spiritual seeker, entrepreneur — in a way that is very artistically satisfying. I’ve been telling pieces of my story, in person and on my blog, but I wanted to assemble it into a crafted whole that would have more impact.
As for why now, this period of my life feels like crossing a threshold. I’m stepping out of a quiet, settled existence and into the world, physically and virtually, in a bigger way. Pilgrimage of Desire ushers me over that threshold and into a more open, genuine relationship with others. The book feels very alive and of the moment, and I have this urgency to get it into people’s hands.
In the literary world, it’s not always cool to have an agenda for one’s work. There’s this idea of “art for art’s sake” and not imposing meaning on it. But I am writing this book for a purpose. I want it to change people, to inspire them to bring their disparate selves together and strike out in the direction of their desires. It’s not enough for me to be happy — I want to spread happiness like an echo in a canyon. That sounds so incredibly uncool even as I write it, but that’s the truth.
– – – – –
You’re crowd-funding the self-publishing of Pilgrimage of Desire. What have you learned about yourself and others through this fundraising experience?
I’ve never been good at asking for help — I have this independent streak a mile wide. I like having control instead of relying on the good graces of others. So this fundraiser has challenged me to reach out and trust that people want to help, that they believe in my work and will extend themselves to see my project succeed.
As artists, I think we all reach a point where we have to recruit others to our cause if we want our creations to have the scope and power they deserve. So this fundraiser is great practice in advocating for myself and my writing, something that every professional artist needs to be adept at.
And doing this has reminded me that in giving there is receiving. When I worry that I’m putting people out by asking for money and publicity, I try to remember what they’re getting back: the joy of being useful, the fulfillment of being invested in an important project, and the pleasure of connection. Friends, family, and strangers have stepped forward to back this campaign, and they seem delighted to do it. So when I feel shy about sending out yet another email request, I remember that I’m giving people a gift too — the gift of doing communal good.
– – – – –
How is the experience of writing your memoir influencing your fiction work?
In practical terms, it’s distracting me from it! I have a middle grade children’s novel in progress — I’ve just had it professionally edited in anticipation of a major revision — but the demands of the memoir mean that I’m not working on the novel right now.
From the perspective of my creative process, the memoir is taking me to a new level of confidence and flow that I’m sure will transfer back to my fiction writing.
– – – – –
In your coaching practice you help writers and artists learn to create art-committed lives. What is an art-committed life?
The term “art-committed life” was coined by Eric Maisel in his book Creativity for Life, meaning that “a person can spend a lifetime creating in a particular domain to which she decides to devote herself.”
And my take is that when you design and live an art-committed life, everything revolves around your identity and work as an artist.
I may not spend every waking hour writing, but I travel like an artist — observing and collecting material, making each stop on the trip meaningful. I mother like an artist — giving my kids inspiring adventures, listening with empathy. Right now I’m fundraising like an artist — taking breaks for sightseeing and coffee on the terrace instead of spending 24/7 on my computer.
I also make sure that my writing practice gets the best I have to give. When I sit down to work, I’m happy, rested, and not rushed. Those are the best conditions for flow. Many of my clients have a tendency to push their art to the fringes, and spend only the dregs of their time and energy in the studio. An art-committed life means that your creative work is privileged and central to your purpose.
– – – – –
In 2011 you sold your house and headed off with your husband and two kids on a world wide trip. Where have you found truth and beauty in this adventure?
Gosh, everywhere.
This morning, in the smell of mown hay, sheep bleating in the field, and bicyclists sailing by on the path outside our window here in Zuid Holland.
Last week, in the colourful house of a Frenchman named Benoit, who offered us beds, champagne, and sparkling conversation when we couch-surfed with him. In the way I’ve fallen more deeply in love with my husband and children because we’re sharing this enchanting time together. In the times of uncertainty and homesickness and setbacks, too, which remind us of what this lifestyle costs and why it’s worth it.
– – – – –
Who are your biggest supporters and what does their support allow you to do?
My husband Shawn makes this whole life possible for me, by sharing the dream and the workload, by keeping the faith and doing the dishes.
My parents and parents-in-law have also been wonderful, despite the fact that we’ve taken their grandchildren half a world away. Their unconditional love creates a sense of safety that makes it easier to take the kinds of risks we’re taking.
And the book designer I’m working with, Michelle Farinella, has held the vision for Pilgrimage of Desire and given my words gorgeous life. This memoir would not exist without her.
– – – – –
What are your favorite books and what are you reading now?
A few books have stood out for me this year. There’s Martha Beck’s latest book, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, which inspires me as a model for Pilgrimage of Desire, since Martha weaves her personal experiences so organically with her coaching advice and exercises. This book has many stories about her encounters with animals and her visits to a game reserve in Africa.
I stumbled across the science fiction book WOOL by Hugh Howey, which is not only a terrific novel about a society living underground in silos, but also a rags-to-riches story of Howey’s success in self-publishing. Since January, he’s been able to quit his day job to write, and now has traditional publishing contracts and movie deals. Months later, the characters and images from that book are still with me.
This fundraising period has made it hard to focus for reading, but when I do have a minute, I’m enjoying the middle grade historical novel The Boneshaker by Kate Milford, who’s also campaigning to self-publish a companion novella to her next children’s book.
– – – – –
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
The first few chapters of Pilgrimage of Desire are available to read at Michelle’s site. And I would love for people to check out the Indiegogo fundraiser before June 6 and support the project. (Look at me, asking for help!)
Alison Gresik is the author of Pilgrimage of Desire: An Explorer’s Intimate Journal of Art and Flow as a Way of Life. She also coaches writers and artists who are prone to depression and want to make their art a priority. You can find her on Twitter and Facebook.