Christine Clawley shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Christine, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
During this past year, I have reflected a lot how my long-term relatoinship with my husband has contributed to my own professional growth and success as a licensed professional counselor and small business owner. The healing, personal growth, insights, and stability that my relationship has provided me with helped me persevere, stay grounded, and balanced while supporting others with their traumatic experiences and mental health symptoms. Now that my husband has joined by business managing IT, insurance billing, employee onboarding, and care coordination, I realize how well we work together and compliment our different strengths and weaknesses. The strength of our relatoinship has helped me take risks that I never would have dreamed of taking on my own.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Lucid Awakening Counseling provides (Jugnian) depth-oriented counseling to individuals from all ages, backgrounds, abilities, ethnicities, cultures, beliefs, gender identities, or sexual orientations in Arizona and Colorado. We pride ourselves in providing quality care that treats the whole individual rather than focusing only on surface-level symptoms. We also offer ketamine-assisted therapy, psychedelic integration, and support with near-death experiences (NDEs) and spiritually-transformative experiences (STEs). Our sister organizatoin Circling Hawk Productions is producing a documentary Tapestry of Time exploring the link between synchronicity, time, healing, consciousness, and non-ordinary reality. It is our aim to de-stigmatize NDEs and STEs and help normalize discussions surrounding end-of-life experiences.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
My earliest memories of feeling powerful were running free, exploring, and connecting with nature on the large farm I grew up on in rurual Kansas. These are some of my most precious memories and deeply informed my personality, values, and what I regard as sacred. I can close my eyes and feel immediately transported back to being back in a place where the landscape dominates, time takes on a slower place and has a different meaning, and one’s sense of inner being contacts something much larger than oneself. I remember staring off into vast distances on the plains feeling a deep connection with the sacred, imprints from the past, and absorbing subtle lessons from nature that I knew I would never leave me.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
The more inner healing work I do, the more I realize that my wounds and personal suffering don’t only belong to me, but they belong to my ancestors, descendants, and the collective society I live in. When I was very young, I experienced sexual assault, which was one of the earlier wounds I experienced and was deeply impactful–physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. However, like many young women who experience assault, I began to realize that what I learned from stories, movies, and other media did not reflect the reality of what it is like to live in this world with a female body. I was upset with how I was treated as a survivor, double standards, and inequality and became determined to prove my worth by throwing myself into writing and academics. However, my wounding re-emerged again in my early 20s when I contracted the flesh-eating bacteria (necrotizing fasciitis). I survived despite being later told I had perhaps a 1-10% chance of surviving the infection in my throat and chest. A series of dreams prior to the illness pointed to this life-changing event, as well as three profoundly life-like dream experiences while in a 3 1/2 weeklong medically-induced coma. Upon waking from a medically induced coma, I had to learn how to breathe, eat/drink, talk, and walk again. The experience helped me tap into a profound inner strength and inner knowing and taught me how to listen more deeply to my body, intuition, and dreams. I am still integrating and healing from these experiences and I am grateful for each day. I have found nature, yoga, community, relationships, working with others, writing, and Indigenous teachings and ceremony to have been profoundly healing.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
From my own personal experiences with lucid dreaming, precognitive dreams, synchronicity, and Indigenous ceremony, I fundamentally believe in the interdependence among all beings and life and that life can be very beautiful and magical if we allow ourselves to remain sensitive and open. I believe that we are meaning-making creatures as Nietzsche and Jung also believed and that we are currently in a period of time where we are beginning to see the consequences of our current modern belief systems and economic systems, which often strips human beings, animals, and nature of their inherent, intrinsic value. Intention, relationship, and reciprocity are fundamental and foundational in my own life and I try to focus on finding meaning, purpose, and depth in my day-to-day life. I believe that while life at times can be filled with tremendous sorrow and personal suffering, there’s also incredible beauty, magic, and wonder.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I understand that everyone has a story to tell and that listening to someone compassionately is one of the most precious gifts in life. I understand how harmful stereotypes and projections are and to never assume I really know someone. There are universes that exist within each one of us and the tragedy is that people are so busy chasing success, trying to be someone else, or trying to survive that many don’t have the luxury of time to look inside and unlock their gifts. As I listen, I am also given the gift of learning, growing, and expanding my understanding of myself and others.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lucidawakening.com, www.circlinghawkproductions.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lucid-awakening
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CirclingHawkProductions
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