Watch my interview with intuitive holistic health coach, Valerie Lundgren! [video]
I really enjoyed having Valerie come to the VIP Group for Empowered Women of Chicago for an interview on LIVE WITH LIZ about “Empowering Women Through Transitional Changes In Life!”
We had a fabulous time chatting about:
💗 Valerie’s personal healing journey through postpartum anxiety, melanoma and personal loss
💗 what a holistic health coach actually IS and DOES
💗 common misconceptions around holistic health coaching and what methods and tools can be used for healing
If you struggle with anxiety and looking for holistic ways to overcome and take power back into your hand, be sure to watch the full interview with Valerie with the link in the comments below and feel free to reach out to her at Mindful Wellness Coaching.
Auto Generated Transcript:
well
H well hello I am Liz Hansen and we're
here today for our live with Liz series
I am super glad to be with you if you're
watching this and you can hear me give
me a thumbs up in the
comments um or hit the heart or like
button just so I know that we are live
and that this is working I'm excited to
be with you today if we haven't met my
name is Liz Hansen and I'm here at the
Chicago budoir Photography Studio where
I have a mission to empower women in all
areas of their lives and um here in this
Facebook group if you've been here for a
while you know that what I love love
love to do is bring on other women who
share a similar mission that I do to
empower women so I'm so excited to have
Valerie lungren here with us today
Valerie hello and thanks for being here
hey there thanks for having me so happy
to be here so today we are um we're
going to chat with Valerie about what
she does how she empowers women with
their health if you are a person who has
a similar mission of empowering women I
would love to hear about in the comments
if you're interested in being
interviewed on this live with Liz series
I would love to chat with you I'll leave
the link to apply as well so thanks
everyone for being here Valerie guess
tell us a little bit about what you do
and what it is that you bring to women
to help them feel more empowered yeah
thanks so much Liz um super excited to
be here I love I was we were just
chatting before we started and I was
like empowering women is like my mission
this is what I want to do in life um and
it really I think it just comes down to
um my own struggles and how I felt so
disempowered for so many years with my
own mental health struggles
and it came to a head where it was just
like I I need I need everybody to feel
empowered these women to feel empowered
um again um so that's my my whole
journey kind of started over 21 years
ago um postpartum anxiety kind of took a
hold um and I didn't really know what to
do and I struggled for several
years and I couldn't figure out the Crux
of this anxiety and what was happening
um and I I was doing lots of holistic
things to try to mitigate it and just
like make the symptoms go away but I
really wasn't doing the healing um and
it wasn't until I was diagnosed with
melanoma over 10 years ago that it was
kind of my wakeup call um that really
took me for big tail spin and I was like
I got to I got to change I got to do
something different valer for our
listeners who don't know melanoma is
skin cancer
yeah yeah you a cancer
diagnoser 10 years ago that is really
really scary yeah it was really scary it
was one of my worst fears um and luckily
we caught it early I didn't have to go
through extensive treatments it was just
a really horrible surgery but I'm good
we're clear but it really took me out I
at that time I had lost my I had a
retail store I lost my retail store
because I wasn't able to pay the bills
of medical stuff and a store um and then
a year later I lost my brother-in-law to
Suicide unfortunately so just that took
me out um and I was still dealing with
panic attacks every day and I didn't
know what to do um and I knew if I want
to you've really been through so much
I've been through a lot I've been
through a lot and and I knew like you
know I can I can take a medication which
is fine and I don't poo poo medications
I believe people probably should be on
medications at some point so please talk
to your doctor if you are suffering from
Mental Illness but it just wasn't my
thing I just I knew I couldn't do meds
because it wasn't it just didn't work
with my body um so I was like I got to
figure this out so I went into a really
big kind of Deep
dive discovery about myself and um did a
lot of deep healing and so during that
probably like fiveyear process of my
deep healing I had discovered I really
need to incorporate
therapy but also um mindfulness and
working through just understanding and
being more embodied um nutrition working
through healing my gut um so through
that process I was kind of becoming this
sounding board of you know mental health
and helping women with anxiety and so I
was like what should I do with this well
I guess I'll be a health coach um so
then I went to school for health
coaching and I really did did this focus
on helping women through anxiety and now
it's kind of the anxiety and the
transition at this point is now women
going through per menopause uh because
of course that's where I'm at in my life
so we all feel that anxiety and the per
menopause is just another fun um thing
that we have to deal with so um that is
kind of where I became the health coach
and through my health coaching I
incorporate mind body and soul um and by
mind it's like we're working through um
different therapies to help you kind of
become more embodied and um and mindful
about own self um so I'll use NLP
approaches I do
hypnotherapy um and I do some timeline
therapy so we do a little bit more Deep
dive into like deeper healing and we do
a lot of um I do a lot of positive
neuroplasticity where we're like
retraining the brain basically and
rewiring the neurons so that you can
have a little bit different Outlook um
and then with the body we're working on
nutrition movement um you know really
just feeling the body and then with the
soul I work with raiki energy healing as
well during my coaching sessions so then
we'll do energy healing and I work with
all the energy bodies um and then I go a
little bit deeper sometimes and we do
past life healings we do generational
healings so we get we get really deep
and dirty when we start doing the
healing work so kind of what brought me
to it all you're a holistic health coach
how many do you work primarily oneon-one
in person with women do you work online
groups how does what do your services
look like yeah so generally I do a like
a three-month and a six-month coaching
program with women um and I can do it
online or in person so either or um and
we meet once a week and we really you
know kind of do this deep dive into
healing I also do offer like free raiki
for people once a month so every third
Thursday I have a free raiki session
it's on Zoom so people around the world
can join um just so they get a paste of
what energy healing is and each month
there's like a specific um uh topic so
this month is about the winter Blues so
doing a little bit of raiki healing
around the winter Blues um and yeah and
then I'm going to be doing like a a
group coaching I've got like a little
mini group coaching thing that's going
to be coming coming in January uary um
you pay a small membership fee and we
just do every month you kind of get
taste of what the big coaching program
would be um but more in a little smaller
group
setting so Valerie can you tell us I
would love to hear a story of someone
that came to you and what their Journey
looked like of course you don't need to
reveal um personal details about them
but I'd love to hear just an example of
someone who was we've heard your story a
little bit about postpartum and things
can you tell us a story like someone
that really sticks in your mind or that
was memorable for you that came to you
for healing and what their Journey
looked like yeah absolutely there's so
so many um but there there was this one
client of mine who came to me because
she was really kind of in a transitional
phase um it wasn't postpartum it wasn't
I say most women I'm probably working
with are in their you know later 30s
upper 50s um because in that
transitional phase like kids are
starting to leave the house and um who
am I why am I in this work um so I did
have a client that came to me and she
was feeling very
overwhelmed in this transition time of
having to care for um parents that were
aging um child left the
nest uh what am I doing with my life I
hate this job that I'm in so it was just
this like really like the the battle Cry
of the woman in her 40s like what am I
doing with my Who Am I who am I um so we
worked through a lot of that and and
really kind of worked through finding
herself again um and so we did a lot of
Deep dive healing around all of that and
her biggest outcome from it which was I
thought amazing was she she quit her job
and found the job that really you know
spoke to her and kind of like really
rediscovered her purpose and I love when
we get to work together and we really
look at like your actual Soul's purpose
and what does that mean and so we do a
little bit more into work around the
Soul's purpose and how it can serve you
and serve others and so she was able to
quit her job and find a new job that was
just amazing and it and she was able to
help the biggest thing I feel for most
of my clients especially her was that
she was able to create these new habits
where she was caring for herself first
MH so as women we're just so much into
yes yes yes and caring for everybody
else that we our our bucket is just
overflowing and we don't take care of
ourselves and so she was able to create
new habits that were easy to maintain
and start caring for herself more and
through that process she's messaging me
and saying I feel so much more calm
during the day I'm not as stressed as I
used to be um I'm finding that I'm able
to have conversations a little bit more
deeply with people because I'm not you
know thinking all the time so it it was
really great just
seeing how empowered she became with the
tools I was able to give her and that's
kind of the whole point of like my
coaching program is I want to give tools
because you have the power to do the
healing yourself and that's what I want
women to see that they have this power
inside of them that was just it's been
silenced since they were little kids um
and I want them to feel that empowerment
again I love so many things that you
just said one of the things that stuck
out to me was um about maybe 10 or 15
years ago a therapist said to me you
know self- care is not selfish exactly
and honestly that was a revelation to me
that somehow I had internalized the idea
that as a woman I always needed to give
give give and that taking care of myself
or time for myself or doing anything for
myself was inherently selfish and bad
and when she said self-care is not self
sish it was almost like some curtains
parted and I was like oh like I'm
allowed it's actually good for everyone
else if I take care of myself as well
right right that's one of the things
that you mentioned there with that woman
that she needed to fill her own bucket
in order to give to others you know yeah
yep yeah exactly yeah I think it's just
so ingrained um you know our mothers and
our mothers before us we're just they're
the caretakers and you know we we kind
of do what the man says and just kind of
stay in your place and you know just
take care of everybody else and at some
point it's like we have to wake up and
realize that we H have we have to take
care of ourselves you know and so yes
self-care is super important whatever
that might look like for you right and
self-care doesn't have to be going to
the spa it could be um just a f minute
meditation every day you know it could
be really simple things um so just doing
things that bring you Joy in your life
life is what self-care is about yeah the
other thing that you said that I really
that really resonated with me was when
you said that the power already exists
within you so I don't um I feel like
sometimes we're out looking for
Solutions and and things
but the the solution that often exists
is that you have the power within you if
you can access and harness it so how do
you help women discover that truth about
themselves and really Implement that in
their lives
yeah good question so it's really
about kind of giving them the confidence
back to do it right you know it's so
many women that they just kind of have
this block up that like well I I can't
um and so we work through kind of the
victim um stuff that they've picked up
or just that lack of confidence through
really
generational trauma or
wounding um and so we we rebuild that
confidence so that they they really do
kind of come back to that oh wait I can
do this by myself and when I when I do
the coaching it's kind of like I I'm
giving you homework every week like
you're this is on you you know I'm not
the one that's doing the actual work and
um so when they really start doing the
work is when they start feeling more
empowered I find the good it's it's good
news and bad news that you're the
captain of your own ship right like yeah
you know what this is great news you
have the power but then the bad news is
also like you have to stop blaming
everyone else you are you know it's it's
like bad news situation that you're
ultimately in charge of your life right
bad news is yeah yeah you actually have
to do the work you know
like you have and take responsibility
yeah yeah Valerie I'd love to hear what
are some common misconceptions that
people have or maybe myths that people
commonly believe about what you do as a
holistic health coach sure
um well you know I think health health
coaching as an umbrella term I think
probably has the idea that I am like
specifically working with weight loss or
something right so like you know I'm
weight loss is our only goal right and
yeah really weight loss is a symptom
right so like it's it's
what having gaining weight is a symptom
of what has happened right so if if I do
work with somebody and their their goal
when we sit down and they're like well
I'd really like to lose 10 15 pounds I
look at the whole body and why there is
weight and what's going on with the
weight we look at hormones I mean just
everything and I also give them some
tools to realize that it was just it was
just really a symptom of what was really
happening so so that's kind of one of
the myths I'd say is just that and I'm
I'm not working specifically like I
don't go we're working on weight loss so
it's me
holistically I'm just looking at the
whole body
um I just want to say I feel like as
women a lot of the times that's like
well if you just lose weight like that's
supposedly the answer to all of our
problems right oh well if you lose
weight you could get pregnant if you
lose weight you'll feel better and like
okay losing weight being a healthy
weight great but like I feel like
sometimes that's the only thing we're
given or told that will make us valuable
or help
right yeah and I want to take it into
how about we all strive for emotional
intelligence rather than weight loss
right like weight's one thing but if we
can really start working
on focusing on understanding your
emotional resiliency and like really
tuning into embodiment of emotional
intelligence that's where you're really
going to find that power and with it
will come you know feeling better and
maybe losing the weight and you know
those those are the trickle down effects
basically of becoming more embodied and
more empowered within yourself so um
yeah it's it's kind of an interesting
thing um another I guess one that
probably comes up for um a myth within
what I work what I do like with
hypnotherapy you know that like oh
you're going to hypnotize me and I'll
I'm going to be barking like a c you
know a dog or like doing these weird
things and I so the thing is with
hypnotherapy is um I don't have control
over you it's all about your
subconscious and the work that we're
doing within the subconscious mind so
it's I'm just doing what the subcon what
your subconscious mind wants um as far
as guiding you um so okay pause just a
second yeah what do you what does
hypnotherapy help what in what ways do
you use hypnotherapy I mean yeah like
you say it's not like barking like a dog
so what what does it help with a
hypnotist so hypnotist will put put you
on stage and they'll do the little um
clock thing and make you do weird to
stuff so that's they're still working
with the subconscious mind in a way to
kind of trick you where where I'm
working with hypnotherapy we're kind of
diving a little bit deeper and we're
doing work on the subconscious um brain
where we're doing work around we might
do something with weight loss but it's
it's more of um the goals that you truly
want and how you truly want to feel is
what we create in the hypnos Hypno
therapy session so generally if I'm
working with somebody we'll do a uh a
whole session where we're just kind of
getting all the information of like what
your goals are so if it's confidence if
you're like I'm just haven't felt
confident in my life and I stems from
this I'll go through and do timeline
therapy with a client too where we're
clearing things off of your timeline um
within the subconscious then we'll do a
hypnotherapy session in the hypnotherapy
session I will record a hypnosis for you
to listen to for 30 days and so then
during this hypnosis is where we're just
basically rewiring the subconscious mind
in the neurons into what you truly want
so if I want to feel more confident it's
going to be statements around that you
know I'm feeling more confident I'm able
to go do XYZ so there's specifics of
what you want to do so we really get in
there and really are able to start doing
that change
so hypnosis is a really great tool yeah
can hypnotherapy help with anxiety
postpartum yes interesting absolutely
yep it can help with anything I mean
we've used it for thousands of years um
and it can be used for phobias for Fears
for quit smoking you know addictions Etc
so it can be used for really anything
wow that's fascinating yeah well Valerie
I um at the end end of every live with
li interview like we are here today I
always ask every um person who's here
with me the same question and that is
what does it mean to you to be an
empowered woman today so I just love to
hear from you a little bit about like
what does that mean to you we throw
around that term feeling empowered and
obviously you and I both of our
businesses we share a mission to try to
help women tap into this inner power so
like what does that mean to you specific
specifically
today yeah I kind of touched on it I
suppose a little bit earlier when we
talked but really it for me having that
empowerment is having that emotional
intelligence and understanding the body
so becoming more embodied in self um and
really just kind of understanding your
soul and connecting deeply with your
soul is where you become more empowered
um and I love being able to help women
find that connection to their soul to
their true self
um that just kind of got lost over the
years um and so finding that emotional
intelligence that embodiment of self um
I believe is that real beautiful
empowerment that all women seek and need
what for those of for people who are
listening who hear the term emotional
intelligence and don't know what that
means can you explain a little bit I
mean I've heard different definitions
how do you think what is emotional
intelligence to you to me emotional
intelligence is understanding your
emotions just understanding them um
becoming friends with your emotions um
so often
we generally allow the emotions to take
over the body um so we run with and so
that's where you'll see like the anger
outbursts um look I've been there many
years with my own little kids and you
just get angry and the outbursts come
out but what if we understood a little
bit more deeply what's the anger trying
to tell us so it's being really more EMP
and understanding hey the anger is
coming from a space of fear the fear is
my anxiety so what do I need to do I
need to start working on my anxiety
right so like what's happening with our
nervous system what's happening within
our whole body and that's where the
emotional intelligence comes through so
just really understanding what your
emotions are trying to tell you and can
people who don't have a high emotional
intelligence learn this skill yes
absolutely I did
I did um yeah 100% and that's what I
teach my people when I work with them is
just understanding and becoming more
embodied with their emotions
understanding the emotions why they're
why they're there we have conversations
with the emotions what's going on um so
yes you can absolutely and I love being
able to then it becomes this um
generational Snowball Effect um right
now I'm working with a client who's
asking me advice for her three-year-old
and 5-year-old and so we're working
through you know mindfulness and you
know having emotional intelligence for
these these boys and so she's learning a
lot about her own emotions and then
she's able to teach it to her boys too
so I love being able to to do
that so powerful when a woman decides to
make some changes she can make a a turn
that will affect her children and her
children's children in ways that hard to
see now but like you can make a big
difference down the lines yes yes it
gives me chills just thinking about like
that generational switch we're making um
it's just
amazing well Valerie thank you so much
for coming today and sharing all these
insights with us if people want to get
in touch with you what is the best way
for them to do that yeah the best way
they can contact me through um my
website so my website is mindful
wellness. me um and they can find all
the information about my services and
what I offer and then they can contact
me through there so great and we'll drop
that information in the comment ments as
well so you can click on it um thank you
so much for joining us Valerie thank you
everyone who's been watching live and
those of you who are watching on the
replay as well I hope that this has been
helpful for you and giving you some
things to think about with emotional
intelligence and feeling empowered so
thank you so much for uh joining us
Valerie and I hope everyone has a good
day on this freezing cold winter day yes
thanks everybody
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