We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Staab, MS, CHt recently and have shared our conversation below.
Amanda, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Confidence is always a work in progress. It develops little by little over time, and the process can start all over again when you try anything new.
My confidence stems from putting my passion — helping people heal and transform their lives through spirit and self connection — into practice and seeing positive results for my clients. Whatever they are going through, whatever reason they came to see me, I’m going to help them through it, whether it takes one session or multiple. It truly lights me up when my clients report back anything from ‘My whole outlook on life has changed’ to a simple ‘I feel better.’ That’s my objective in a nutshell. Each time I achieve my objective, I grow a little bit more confident about what I’m doing and how I’m doing it.
Over the years, I also gained confidence from realizing every challenge is a puzzle to be solved. There are many ways to solve the same puzzle, so you also have that many chances to get it right, whatever “right” means to you. And if you can’t seem to work something out, it could be because it’s not meant to be part of your story. It’s important to learn to let those things go and trust that what is meant for you will come into your life, as long as you’re willing to work and wait for it.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
In simplest terms, I’m an alternative healer. At my practice TrueHeart Healing, I support people in living more aligned with their true selves and feeling better overall. I do this through clinical and spiritual hypnotherapy as well as spiritual healing and psychic counseling.
I also teach my clients techniques so they can connect with themselves and their spirit guides in ways they might not have before, which is the most exciting part for me. For my clients, the most exciting part may be the clarity, comfort and healing that comes from strengthening that connection with their inner selves and their spirit guides. They realize that they always have that support available to them.
That was an incredible realization for me as well, when I started on this path. My initiation happened while I was working as a journalist on an investigative story at the request of a local Native American tribe. I met and interviewed several tribal members for about a year. One of the tribe’s healers, who’d gotten to know me over the course of that time, offered to teach me traditional medicine.
I learned some techniques and a lot of philosophy, including how to think about being of service to others. That entire experience became the foundation for how I built — and continue to build — my practice. It was such a tremendous gift that I now have the opportunity and privilege to share with the people who come to me for support.
In the spiritual community, there’s a widely accepted notion that once the teacher is ready, the student appears and vice versa. I believe if you are meant to do this work or any other particular work, it chooses you, and continuing that tradition is important for maintaining the integrity of any modality.
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?
Self-awareness. It can be uncomfortable to take a real, good look at yourself, but it’s necessary, if you want to live well. A method we use in hypnotherapy requires reimagining a triggering scenario, not from your perspective but the perspective of an outsider. When you watch what happens as that outsider, do your thoughts and feelings about the scenario change? Do you realize anything about why you responded the way you did? Is there anything you could have done better? When you start answering these questions, you garner valuable insights that might inspire you to make changes to how you move through life and relate to others, fostering greater peace and happiness.
Empathy. Acknowledging that it’s now overused workplace jargon, I don’t want to talk about it as a way to manage people but as a way to build your own character. You can adapt the hypnotherapy exercise I previously mentioned by putting yourself in another person’s place to see through their eyes. Spending a few quiet moments there, you can allow more information about that person’s thoughts and feelings to come into your own consciousness. (We psychic mediums do this often.) As a result, you develop in ways you couldn’t possibly have with your singular perspective.
Patience. This one is so hard because it requires us to be open, hold space and sometimes actively work toward something that may never come into reality — and we have to be okay with that. Most people want immediate results, but this is what creates a lot of suffering. We suffer way less when we can be at peace with what is and recognize that there can be so much learning and growing that’s so valuable for us in the waiting.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
While being well-rounded on a personal level is beneficial for the individual, having a focus professionally can be critical for the greater community. We need experts, so we can go to them with questions and trust their guidance. Learning a little bit about other specialities can be helpful, so you know who to turn to when presented with something outside your scope, but the best way to serve your community is through deep expertise.
This is certainly true in my field. There are people who know a little bit about many different modalities, but the most effective practitioners are the ones who’ve dedicated themselves to one or two related modalities. They really understand when and how to use their knowledge and have had the opportunity to apply it to a variety of cases. I believe you best serve your community when you focus on what you’re good at and what you’re called to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.truehearthealing.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truehearthealing.co/
Image Credits
Courtesy of TrueHeart Healing
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