We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alistair Hawkes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alistair, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout
My wellness journey around burnout involves self-discipline. In 1992 I met a medical doctor, a neuroscientist from Argentina who also has extensive knowledge and training in ancient wisdom systems such as Taoism, Sufism, Buddhism, and Toltec traditions. When I met her she began to mentor me in simple movement practices that involve conscious and intentional movement, imagery, and mindfulness, that align and recover energy.
I was 23 years old then and was still discovering my own personal interests so I didn’t commit as much time to her system, HIKE4evolution (then called INNERKEY) at that time. Fast forward to 2015 when I asked her to speak at a professional conference I was organizing and co-chairing with my brother, Dallas. She agreed to attend that conference and talk about her system of self-development if I would take the practices she had been teaching me seriously. It was then that I began my self-discipline journey.
In 2020 when COVID happened my clinical caseload exploded due to the stress caused by COVID and I began to say yes to providing therapy services more and more to the many individuals who were reaching out for help. In early 2021 I realized my daughter was struggling with stress due to the Pandemic, and I myself was experiencing burnout from helping beyond my capacity.
Following the correct protocols about client abandonment, I decided to take a month off to regroup, reconnect with myself and with my daughter, and rested heavily on the practices in the HIKE4evolution system. I began to do my daily practices several times a day and within a few weeks I was feeling more full and ready to restructure my practice to help other service providers remember the value of self-care so they could avoid burnout and recover if they were already in it.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My career as a psychotherapist is evolving. I have master’s degree from Naropa and a clinical license in the state of Colorado. I spent many years in Community Mental Health as a counselor, therapist, and social emotional learning specialist, and I’ve had a full-time private practice since 2019. Since COVID I have been reflecting on how to teach more people the skills I impart to my clients in 1:1 sessions as a therapist. I have hosted a couple of Summits on wellness featuring ancient wisdom traditions such as Qigong, Meditation, Energy Medicine and Energy Psychology. And, I have worked with groups of therapists who are currently providing services in Community Mental Health. I seek to broaden this scope to work with parents, teachers, nurses and other caregivers and services providers who are struggling with overwhelm, burnout, and general states of depletion.
I have personally applied the strategies, practices, and skills I teach to others to stay well and function at my highest capacity. It’s amazing how 3-7 minutes per day can have a cumulative and lasting effect on my energy, my outlook, and my capacity to provide encouragement and support to the many students and clients who seek me out. The HIKE4evolution system is the basis for what I teach in sessions and I support the continued self-development of my clients as they work on themselves outside of sessions with therapeutic support, psychoeducation and practice education in sessions.
Burnout is the problem I help others solve which emerged out of my own realization of personal burnout in the early phases of the Pandemic. I have been working with an amzing team to build programming that supports caregivers and service providers in the community to regulate and master themselves – body/mind/emotions, and, that enable them to make informed choices about to whom, how much and how often they give their support and inner resources.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three of the most important qualities that were most impactful in my life’s journey are resilience, persistence, and positivity. I’ve been really lucky throughout my life, literally and figuratively. I have regularly experienced powerful meetings and opportunities for learning that 20 years ago felt serendipitous. I have realized that my through resilience, persistence, and positivity I have magnetized many of these experiences to manifest in my life by my commitment to overcoming life’s challenges and staying engaged in what seems like constant self-development. Opportune meetings with teachers, educators, and mentors have led me to discover my love of teaching, and life experience and guidance from others has given me the tools to meet life’s adversity with skill and mastery. Advice I offer to people who are early in their journey to self-discovery and/or wellness and perhaps even self-evolution is to be mindful and aware, stay open to possibility. Learn how to cultivate and practice mental/physical/emotional stillness, to use conscious movement and intention with imagery to let go of static and tension on all levels, and to be positively persistent in their search for optimal function. Learn how positive thinking affects your progress. Lastly, have a daily disciplined practice, it will ground you when life goes wonky. As one of my long-time teachers says, “real change comes from the application of willpower developed through the discipline of daily practice.” I love teaching my students and clients how to develop their practice and strengthen their willpower while practicing wellness.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Ok. Here’s a shoutout to all moms! My mom taught me so much and contributed greatly to the work I do now and the success I experience in life. My mom is loving and kind, dedicated and innovative. Smart as a whip and creative to boot. My mom is persistent and strong. I could go on and on. All of these things combined plus her excellent role-modeling and business leadership acumen and mentorship contribute to my success at this point in my life. The biggest difference between us besides our age is that she also raised four children – ALONE (and we all love each other and are close.) I appreciate her support and stewardship throughout my life. Her business experience as Executive Director of Meetings and Workshops for the (then named) Biofeedback Society, which is now called the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, and her expertise as the founding Chief Executive Officer of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy medicine provided the opportunities I needed to meet the mentors I currently have in Contemplative Sciences and Education for Human Evolution.
Through those associations and mentor meetings I was educated and guided in learning meditation, mindfulness, and conscious movement, and inspired to complete undergraduate and graduate work in Contemplative Sciences at The California Institute of Integral Studies and Naropa University. I owe a lot to her, thanks, Mom!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alistairmhawkes.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alistair.m.hawkes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alistair.m.hawkes/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistair-m-h-83b37820/
- Twitter: https://x.com/A_M_HawkesLPC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB6TeuJE_ICyxGPhYjS6HDQ
- Other: TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@evolution_therapist?lang=en
Image Credits
Brand Images by Tracy Raftl and Chris James, communication, balance, family, passion, community
Headshot by Magdalena Images
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.