Meet Ali Kates

We were lucky to catch up with Ali Kates recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ali , so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Hi! Thank you so much for having me. This might sound like a backwards answer, but I listen to what my body needs. A friend asked me this the other day, and I told her that I rely on when I am feeling creative to set aside time for creation. When my body requires rest, I choose to listen to it instead of pushing myself to be creative. I think many people, including myself, who create content, often feel the need to be in a constant state of creation. However, I’ve found that my creativity ebbs and flows, and I try not to judge it. Moreover, a significant source of my creativity comes from disconnecting from social media and spending time outside in nature, connecting with loved ones and animals.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Yes! I am a Certified Trauma Recovery Coach & Somatic Experience Practitioner (In-Training) I believe that trauma & emotional pain is not just about what happened to you, but how it left your nervous system after said event. The thing that people do not realize about trauma is that it cannot be “out talked” or “out thought”, it lives in the BODY. Most people that I work with (including myself) have tried almost everything under the sun to work on themselves and their emotional pain/trauma but nothing seems to move the needle until they address the trauma stored in the body. The body remembers everything even if your mind forgets and this is why in my coaching practice I focus largely on the BODY.

When trauma is stored in the body for too long it will start manifesting in disease, autoimmune, gut dysbiosis, skin issues, fatigue, weight gain, and more. The key to working through this is learning the tools to move it out of your body.

When working 1:1 with clients, a lot of them come into this experience not knowing how to move trauma out of the body. This is the work that I do with them, utilizing a variety of different trauma recovery techniques that I teach them during our time together. My clients walk out of working together feeling relieved and empowered (their words not mine), which is my mission: to help anxious individuals find relief.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Such a good question. I always think about this, a mentor of mine once told me that being in the mental health space is going to bring up a lot of your old pain. They stressed to me the importance of self-care and continually practicing the things that we preach in this space. I know it might sound elementary, but this has been something that has rung true. When you are working with clients that share similar backgrounds to you, it will activate old pain that you thought you had worked through. This is why it is so important to take care of myself, so that I can show up as the best coach for my clients. The more that I lean into my own practices, the more successful my coaching practice is, so this is number one priority every single day. I would say another element that helps me succeed is having a hobby. This has profoundly shifted my work because it allows me to be creative outside of my own business.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
YES, Growth! This has been one of those ‘pinch me’ moments for me, while also being quite challenging. I believe many entrepreneurs will relate to this feeling. When you start your own business, it becomes personal. Lately, the most significant challenge I have faced is bringing on new team members and relinquishing control. It’s been a mixture of excitement and challenge. The aspect that has helped me the most in working through it is recommitting to my self-care practices and learning to let go and delegate.