We recently connected with Jessie Santiago CCHt and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jessie, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout
Burnout hit when I ignored my limits, pushed through every signal, and called it commitment. It wasn’t commitment. It was self-betrayal. I came out of burnout by getting brutally honest with myself. I stripped away excuses and admitted I couldn’t keep offering what I didn’t have to give. It was unethical, and I was dropping the ball. I kept saying yes because I didn’t want to disappoint anyone.
I began asking myself what I could give without resentment and where my body tightened. I took those signals as answers. Ignoring my body wasn’t working. This turned into a daily practice that lives in every moment now. My mind and body don’t always agree on what I’m up for, so for now, I let my body lead. Burnout isn’t a personal failure.
It’s what happens when you override your truth long enough that your system shuts the door for you.
Now I speak from my limits instead of hiding them. That practice is shaping the book I have in the making, The Art of Consultation. Because agreements start with self first. You can’t support anyone if you keep abandoning yourself… it’s just plain unethical.
I healed burnout by telling the truth and then living by it. First to myself. Then to everyone else.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I work at the intersection of hypnosis, hair, and healing. I spent over twenty years behind the chair before I realized I wasn’t just doing hair. I was holding people’s stories, their shame, their hope, their tangled histories. I was doing clinical work without the training, ethics or boundaries, and it caught up with me fast.
So I shifted.
I formalized the healing work I had been doing the whole time.
Now I’m a certified clinical hypnotherapist, educator, and intuitive practitioner. I still bring my background as a stylist, but the work looks different. I help people regulate their nervous systems, understand their patterns, and communicate from a grounded place. Some folks come for subconscious work. Some come for ritual-based hair sessions. Some come because they’re helpers and healers themselves and need a place to land.
What feels special about my work is the way I hold the body and the psyche together. I teach people to listen to themselves in a way most of us were never taught. My approach is honest and relational. I don’t fix people. I walk with them while they shift.
My brand, The Subliminal Stylist, came from years of watching people transform the moment they felt seen. I build my sessions around that. Presence, clarity, and real communication.
Professionally, I’m focused on three things:
• My private practice: building a clientele and continuing my studies.
• Education: providing practitioners and therapists how to communicate with the subconscious mind through hypnosis.
• Building out my podcast and YouTube channel, The Subliminal Stylist.
The podcast and YouTube channel explore hypnosis, healing, beauty, creativity, and the everyday mess of being human. I talk about the subconscious in ways people can actually apply. I share tools, stories, and conversations that hold people with a mix of truth and tenderness.
If people take anything from my work, I want it to be this:
Your body tells the truth before your mouth does. If you want better conversations, better care, better relationships, you start with yourself.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three things shaped me the most: self-awareness, communication, and body literacy.
Self-awareness kept me from repeating the same patterns. I had to see my motives, my fears, and the places I was performing wellness. If you’re early in your path, start by telling yourself the truth. Not the version you think sounds responsible. The real one. Your work will sharpen fast once you stop hiding from your own data. Allow yourself to be lead by value and ethics and ask yourself often, is this aligning with my core values?
Communication shaped everything I do now. If you want to build this skill, practice saying one radically honest sentence a day. Start small and let your nervous system catch up. Communication is a muscle. It grows with reps. The law of repetition is no joke. It works.
Body literacy saved my life. I don’t mean metaphorically either. My body was talking long before I listened. Tightness, illness, pain, heat, irritation, shutdown and burnout. Those signals were guidance. If you’re new to this, begin by noticing one sensation at a time. Ask what it might be telling you. You don’t need a full somatic education to start. You need daily presence and curiosity. Build self-awareness first. Learn to say what you mean. Let your body have a seat at the table. Everything else unfolds from there.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I’m open to collaborating, and I’m thoughtful about who I work with. I do best with people who care about clarity, clean communication, and grounded creativity. I also appreciate people who can handle complexity without letting fragility take over. I’m a straightforward communicator and I don’t shrink myself to fit into spaces. I like when people and places expand to meet me.
Right now I’m looking to partner with people who can help me bring my work to a wider audience through education. Folks who know how to turn ideas into videos or online learning. People who can help build trainings, workshops, or public speaking platforms. I’m also interested in artists, writers, and editors who can support the book I am writing that can help me tell my story.
If someone reading this wants to collaborate, the best match for me is someone who brings organization, intention, and systems. Someone who knows why they want to work together and what they hope we can create. I want fresh ideas that feel innovative and clever. What can I say, I’m an Aquarius.
You can reach me through my website or on social platforms under @the_subliminal_stylist.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thesubliminalstylist.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.subliminalstylist/?hl=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessie-santiago-17295b267/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thesubliminalstylist
Image Credits
Amber Houlgin
