Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Catrina Clark of Prince George’s County Maryland

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Catrina Clark. Check out our conversation below.

Catrina, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I have to wake up each morning gradually. I have set three different alarms, each 15 minutes apart. By the time the last alarm goes off, I am awake and ready to do my morning prayer and meditation. which usually is about 20 minutes. I make it a point to set my inner self each day, which is what keeps me focused for the day ahead. After that, I get up, do a quick stretch, and then make my bed. Having my bed made each day sets me at ease for later in my day, when I return home. This probably takes me about 5 minutes. Once my bed is made, I take care of my regular maintenance: teeth, make-up (when I do decide to put a little bit on), and hair. This takes about 30 minutes. After my regular maintenance has been completed, I will do a little more stretching. I dedicate about 10 minutes to that. Once stretching is complete, I will do one more thing before getting dressed – moisturize my skin and put on a fragrance. Then finally, I get dressed.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Catrina Clark, The Mind Coach behind Louisa57. Louisa57 is an organization that empowers clients to mentally develop the discipline of focusing on what they are thinking, why, and connecting emotionally to their thoughts. Clients have been able to discover and reshape their emotional well-being, take on new adventures, start a business, change careers, and learn new things, such as financial management. This coaching practice is inspired by Laverne Louise Clark, the mother of Coach Catrina.

Laverne lived with mental health challenges throughout her teen and adult life. This prevented her from raising Catrina and her siblings. Despite Catrina being separated from her mom for her entire childhood, she was able to reunite with her mom when she too was a mom and soon-to-be wife. However, that reunion was cut short when Laverne passed away just 4 years after the reunion. Coach Catrina decided to create a personal legacy for her mom to help bring awareness to mental and emotional health. She was hit with a vision to name her business “Louisa57” to honor Laverne Louise Clark, who left this earth just 4 months before her 57th birthday.

Coach Catrina brings awareness to be still, digest your thoughts and emotions with her motto “Mind Your Mind.” Anytime you see this motto or hear it, Coach Catrina is doing her part to help guide individuals towards healthier, productive lives through practical coaching, self-discovery, and resilience-building strategies for a thriving daily mindset.

Louisa57 has a few coaching programs that fall under the “Mind Your Mind” leg that include a program called “ABC” and “FXIS4U2”. Recently, Coach Catrina has begun a partnership and coaching under “Coach Catrina The Entrepreneur’s Friend.” She will be relaunching her Mind Moments with Coach Catrina talk show and her MYM NewsZine. All of these are to support and bring attention to entrepreneurs’ unique mindsets, as well as offer support.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
Since I was not raised by my mom due to her mental health deficiencies, I spent my life in foster care and living with family members, under what is called kinship care. While living with a particular family member from the age of 5 to 18, I suffered various forms of abuse. That abuse often accompanied violent words, which left an impact on who I thought I was and what I thought I could do. Now, as a woman with a college degree, various certifications, and a lifetime of various accomplishments to include being a business owner, I know that those words of my past were all lies.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I have been a victim of believing negative talk. I have lived with trauma. I have had to overcome abandonment. I had to live after death, divorce, and empty nest syndrome. My healing came by first being still with my thoughts. Doing that led me to rooting out what was not benefiting me, and then taking off the band-aids. Band-aids such as denying that some things happened, justifying or making excuses, being busy so that I don’t think about certain things, as well as pretending nothing was wrong. It was during the COVID year, though, that I had to confront myself and my own thoughts. I was forced to be still. That stillness led me into a depression period. That time showed me how heavy I was with grief. Fortunately, I had my annual check-up earlier in the year and had told my doctor how I was feeling. That conversation opened up the opportunity for me to get grief counseling.

Since I had that counseling, which was not the first time, but that led me to a deeper level of healing and addressing my mental and emotional health just as much as I take care of my physical health. Now, I do more intentional work on my mental and emotional well-being in my everyday life, and I get adjustments just like I do when I get chiropractic support.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
I think they would say that my family, especially my daughter, matters the most to me. They would also say that being mentally liberated and being a free, unburdened thinker matters to me. Additionally, since I do advocate awareness of youth in foster care, my friends would say this cause really matters to me as well.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What will you regret not doing? 
I would regret not going all out for my business, my mission, and being a light bearer for mental and emotional health.

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Image Credits
Woman to Woman Network with Suzanne Peters

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