We recently connected with Elliot McMonagle and have shared our conversation below.
Elliot, 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.
In the fall of 2014, I slithered onto my college campus. I felt generally excited about this entire new chapter of my life and yet, when I arrived I was overwhelmed with anxiety. The previous four years of my life I had been hiding my sexuality and my relationship from my best friends. At high school graduation I finally summoned the courage to tell them. I got really drunk and high, then I sobbed to them as I told them my story. This would be a theme of mine for the first half of my college year until I finally decided I needed to pursue leadership development experiences, travels, and challenge myself to uncharted waters. In these decisions I would find that these are the 3 main ingredients that I would continue to add into my life over and over again for 10 years, unconsciously and consciously, to build my confidence in myself and in the community.
Thankful to the Gods, myself, and my sister for guiding me towards Alternative Spring Breaks, a volunteer organization that aligns you to a social issue that you desire to learn more about and spend your vacation time supporting the community, that would help my confidence skyrocket. This was a pivotal experience for me to express myself, learn about who I am, and become someone I was truly proud of. I was the only freshman in the group and I carried myself well. As the youngest, I exuded vulnerability and strength in sharing dark and deep truths about my life with a group of strangers. I realized how impactful the experience was and decided to grow even more over the following years. My junior year I became a Site Leader where I would plan, organize, and facilitate group activities to deepen our learning and understanding on our trip. Senior year I took on the highest leadership role of Alternative Spring Break Student Coordinator. I spoke in front of 200 of my peers and guided 30 Site Leaders to smoothly lead their separate expeditions. While each leadership role pushed me out of my comfort zone and at times made me think that I was not the right person for the job, I found that those moments are what made me an exceptional leader and my self esteem grew.
As I traveled during my spring breaks, it ignited my desire to explore even more once I graduated from college. My mom paved a path that would change my life forever. She was living in San Diego and offered that I come live with her there while I job hunted. While I was there I would drive and travel to her meetings where I would get to see many places in California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. Whenever she was in meetings I would find out where I could walk around, find a local art or food vending area, and take transit to hike the terrain. It was exhilarating and humbling to find my way around. There were many things outside myself that I was very grateful for – strangers, my GPS, my legs and more. Anytime I have ever gone out of my own regular routines or comfort zones of where I typically traverse I find my heart beating faster and my tummy fluttering and at the end of the experience I feel utterly gleeful towards myself for the actions I took.
When the pandemic hit in 2020 I was faced with many new emotions, past memories surfaced, and the relationships around were draining my life force energy.The community strength I had once felt in Alternative Breaks and when traveling with my mom dissipated. I felt alone and the world around me felt chaotic. This is when I knew I needed to build up my own inner strength and develop an unbreakable confidence. I decided to go to school for healing arts at this time. I started a YouTube channel and created a 30 days of courage challenge. I shaved my head bald. I moved to a campground to live and work at. I decided to take gender affirming hormones. I sold my art and healing services at queer health and wellness festival. I spoke in front of 1,000 people about being a transgender man. I went on a 3 month road trip by myself. I scheduled top surgery. Every single one of these choices to challenge myself so I could truly feel inside of my own body what it would be like to be confident in my own life allowed me to deepen my relationship with myself and know my true inner compass, vision, and passion for my pursuits in life.
It’s 2024, 10 years since I started attending college, and the man that I am today continues to learn from my previous selves that took risks to discover more about themselves. In return, there have been many moments of darkness and surprise and strife in becoming a more realized version of self that feels comfortable and confident in his own skin. Every leadership role I have risen to, every grand new traveling adventure, and every challenge I have dared myself and accomplished have repeatedly strengthened and developed a confidence of my faith – in myself and the universe.
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?
I am a certified Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner with Advanced Hypnotherapy from the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. As well as, a Reiki Master from Dr. Usui’s teachings passed to me from Christina Deering and Bethany Whitman. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Human Development Family Studies, specializing in Prevention and Intervention Sciences with a minor in Sociology from Colorado State University.
My work experience has had me working with high school students with learning barriers, youth and adults with disabilities, elderly with cognitive decline, parents with financial and various other stressors, and children with various energy levels and interests. I work on creatively designing and curating ways to inspire and ignite a fire within the individual to show up as their best selves. In addition, I support them in seeing their true selves, their value, and excellence.
I show up fully and demonstrate my artist expressions through making vision boards, colorful t-shirt designs, handmade journals, and magnificent mini magnets. My healing experiences are designed to elicit a feeling of connecting to the spirit of life through colors, textures, sounds and objects. I set up a lounging chair with a rainbow blanket for the client to get fully relaxed, ideally the session is done outdoors in fresh air but not necessary. I may use stones and my hands to support the energy healing transmission. The sound of my voice is a powerful tool I will use in most of my sessions unless I feel deep within that silence is the best protocol.
The work I am doing is exciting because it connects us to many ancient practices and modalities that have been lost and demonized throughout centuries. Hypnotherapy is used often to support a client release themselves from a habit or ritual that they feel has taken over some aspect of their lives that they would like back. Though there are case studies that have shown how the session can shift into a past life regression where the client is able to recall and feel the significant events of a previous life they lived. These remembrances can uncover moments or memories of a trauma or happening that caused and/or initiated a deep fear of something they experience in their current life. I have experienced this in my own life and I can attest that it has truly allowed me to free myself and see clearly the parts and pieces of myself that want to come online and be FREE.
Reiki, another beautiful and magical healing modality, means spirit energy, which truly is the essence of all matter. The tools allow one to connect to the symbols that Dr. Usui and others found to activate a type of empowering and enlightening energy that could heal the mind, body, and/or spirit of an individual. Many times it can be used to align the chakras which help the person feel overall more balanced and harmonized within. Later they may discover the environment around them is also responding and changing to harmonize with them as well. During reiki sessions I have found that while the body or mind may be blocked or holding onto something that is creating suffering, pain, and hurt there may be a physical shift like a cough or tears that are releasing that stored energy. Other times it can be much more subtle and unnoticeable to the conscious mind. After a Reiki session a person may feel woozy or lighter or they may feel no different at all. They may also experience more physical changes like an initiation of a menstruation cycle. These are a few things of what you may expect though not guaranteed, as each individual is unique, and always reach out to the Reiki healer if there are any questions about what you are experiencing. If pregnant, it is typically advised to let the practitioner know and it is usually best to forgo treatment during that time because it will absolutely have an impact on the baby as well. Both hypnotherapy and Reiki can be done remotely as they can be transmitted through the phone.
Another aspect of my energy work is through physical mediums like paintings, writing, dancing, and singing. I enjoy sharing these gifts with the community to spread the important messages, downloads, learnings, and wisdom that I have received from the universe and my life experiences. More so, my energy in many forms for others to witness and experience.
This year I am working on a variety of projects and offerings that I believe are going to be incredibly electrifying. One of my biggest personal transformations I am making is to my own body this year. I am getting top surgery, which in other words is called a double mastectomy. It is going to be approximately a 3 month process of getting surgery and healing from it. This season of my life is to honor and celebrate where I have come and all that I would love to ripple out in the future. I will be curating a Top Surgery Party in San Diego and I will share ways to engage online, as well. I am creating a variety of gorgeous creations like My Epic Transformation Journals, Transcendental Tarot Decks, Empowerful Pre-Surgery Naked Calendars, and Free to Be Books to share with my community.
In the meantime, while I am making my way towards this major life event, I am volunteering at a meditation retreat center to practice self care and share my healing gifts, hypnotherapy and reiki, as much as I can while I am here. There is a magnificent stupa on the land where I plan to meditate daily. It is very easy to book a session with me, go to the link in bio on Instagram and enter your inquiry. I will message you back to schedule and we will engage a powerful, intentional, and unique healing experience for you.
After I recover from surgery, I plan to bring my healing services and energy to you. This will likely look different for each person and family based on their needs. My specialty is being able to be immersed in an environment to feel the energy and support in raising the energy through a variety of projects like painting/decorating a room, helping with an outdoor project like landscaping a yard or building a fence, physical cleaning/organizing, full write up of the energies felt during experience, fresh meals made, hypnotherapy, reiki, toe readings, ear readings. By going through your home, your belongings, your space, your body we are able to tune in deeper to you and your essence.
I have had some pretty powerful experiences that I would be glad to tell you about if this sounds interesting. And last but not least, this year is about going big and doing any and all I set my mind to, I am looking to book speaking gigs/workshops on self discovery from a transman and developing an integrative business that is in congruence with values and vision of self. If you or someone you know are looking for a magical, multi-talented, maverick-archetype person to inspire their community and raise the vibration of the collective please refer them to me, my contacts are listed below.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on? Openness to doing and thinking about things in new ways, courageousness to be boldly yourself in being a beginner, putting ideas into form and sharing them with others. My advice is to continue taking action towards where you want to go in life and learn from how those trials felt. Also, it is meant to be fun so when you are idolizing the dream – are you having fun in the dream or does it feel stressful and hard? Those are good practices towards when you are actually experiencing the dream. And if you go away from something and it wasn’t as fun as you had imagined it would be, try something more fun the next time! Just do it, again, again, and again!
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
I call myself the King of Transition and Transformation. Many of my biggest teachers and wisdom deepeners have been from the changes that have been made or I have made in my life.
Since becoming more consciously aware of the experiences I was having in these transitions and transformations has helped me in tremendous ways. As a transgender man I went from hating and fearing my own self to speaking on stages and amplifying my voice. I started out being afraid of what my family and friends would say or ask me about my feelings and choices to bring up conversations when I feel there is fear or uncomfortability in the room.
My ideal client is one who may be going through their own transition or transformation phase. They likely have been through many and they are ready to consciously uncover their patterns to best support them in their life. They want to be their own best friend and the best possible friend to their loved ones. They want to feel empowered and empower others to know deep within how much loving and intelligent energy runs through them.
You could be someone going through a gender transformation, like myself. Though, you don’t have to be. You could be going through any kind of identity exploration. You could be the parent of a loved one who is transitioning from one form to another or a state of being or expression or of mind and you’d like to be a part of their success and happiness. You could be grieving the loss of a loved one – someone you once were romantically invested in or you had a deep connection to and they either died or you went separate ways. It could be something else that you are looking at as a big transition period of your life or a transformation phase that you would like to be supported in and through.
Contact Info:
- Website: Under Construction: Coming Soon
- Instagram: @mrmcmagicman
- Facebook: Elliot McMonagle
- Linkedin: Elliot McMonagle
- Youtube: courageoustransman
