Introduction:

Welcome to Mind Power Meets Mistake. This week's host is Michelle Walters, a hypnotherapist. Co-host Cinthia Varkevisser is absent.

Guest introduction: Karen Robinson, a trauma recovery expert, therapist, speaker, and author with extensive experience in the field. Karen is the founder and CEO of Heal Thrive Dream LLC.

Karen's Background:

Karen shares her personal background, growing up in a dysfunctional home and experiencing trauma, which inspired her to become a therapist.

Despite initially wanting to be a detective, a childhood incident redirected her towards therapy.

Serving as a Therapist:

Karen discusses the rewarding aspects of serving as a therapist, including offering hope, creating safe spaces, and helping clients take steps towards healing.

The importance of challenging negative beliefs and instilling a sense of worthiness in clients.

Client Story:

Karen shares a story of a client named Mary, who overcame past trauma and toxic relationships by challenging her beliefs and taking steps towards self-worth.

Evolution of Karen's Work:

Karen discusses her diverse career spanning various fields, including combat stress work with the military, school social work, community mental health, and adoption work.

Currently focusing on her private practice and a membership program for trauma survivors.

Personal Example of Healing:

Karen shares her personal experience of challenging a limiting belief about language learning and proving herself capable of learning a second language.

Upcoming Offerings:

Karen introduces her membership program, "This Is Us: Healing from Trauma Together," which offers coaching, accountability groups, workbooks, and summit replays.

Membership pricing is increasing, but listeners can still access the current rate by reaching out to Karen via email.

Conclusion:

Michelle thanks Karen for being a guest and wishes her success in her endeavors.

Karen expresses gratitude and encourages listeners to reach out for more information or assistance.

Contact Information:

Karen Robinson: healthrivedream@gmail.com

Membership Program: healingfromtraumatogether.com

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Transcribe

ChatGPT

[00:00:00] Welcome everyone to Mind Power Meets Mistake. This week you have me Michelle Walters, I am the mind power of our show. I am a Hypnotherapist. My co host Cinthia Varkevisser has the day off. I am very excited to introduce to you our guest today. Our guest is Karen Robinson. Karen Robinson has lots of degrees, including an MSW and an LCSW, and all kinds of stuff. She is a best selling author, a speaker, a therapist, a transformational coach, and a trauma recovery expert. Karen has been a professional therapist for 25 years. Karen is also the founder and CEO of Heal Thrive Dream LLC, a mother daughter company with a mission to serve trauma survivors by healing from past wounds, thriving in their relationships and creating dreams or their futures. Welcome, Karen. I'm so glad you could be here today.

[00:01:00] Thank you so much for Michelle, for having me.

[00:01:03] So we wanted to talk with you a little bit about well about you in in as yourself, as well as the work you do with others. But I'm curious, Karen, how did you get to be in this field of trauma recovery?

[00:01:16] Yeah, that's a really great question to start our time together. For sure. I grew up in a home that was rather dysfunctional. And I am a survivor of complex trauma. There was domestic violence in my home emotional, physical, sexual abuse. And so I just have a heart for people that have been through those hard times. And I want to show them hope.

[00:01:43] That's beautiful. Is that what inspired you to become a therapist?

[00:01:48] Yes, absolutely. When I was really little, I wanted to be a detective. But my parents left me home alone. I was in third grade. And a man tried to break into our trailer. He had stolen some high powered rifles and knives. And that just set me straight. No more detective work. I will be a therapist now. Yeah,

[00:02:12] no, no scary wondering if there's there's there's a different approach to this. Because as a therapist, you do act a little bit like a detective, sort of a detective of what what is the past if someone what's gone on with them when that's assessing? Yeah, yeah. So maybe this is a much more safe grown up way of using exact same that same curiosity that made you think about detective work as a child.

[00:02:36] I love that spin. Thank you for that.

[00:02:39] What, what, what makes you feel good about serving as a, as a therapist, or as a trauma coach for someone? How does that? How does that come back to you?

[00:02:49] I love that so much. Because, as you can imagine, there are some really hard days, you know, it's a lot to hold the pain of others. But that's just that I hold it. I don't internalize that. And so it is so incredibly rewarding to offer someone a safe container where they can just simply be there, they can grieve, or they can share really hard, painful moments. And also, I really get a kick out of instilling hope to people and show them that with baby steps that they can truly heal. And that's what a beautiful gift that is to help people see that healing is possible.

[00:03:33] I I'm totally with you, in my work as a Hypnotherapist. A huge part of what I do with people is really help them to see that there is something on the other side. They don't have to continue having the problem that's that's troubling them that life is, you know, better and can get better and better from that. And so I understand I think we both, we both thrive a little bit on that ability to share hope and positivity with others. Karen, do you want to tell us a story of maybe a client or a typical pseudo client that you've served and how you've helped that person to really go from a negative place to a much better place?

[00:04:11] Yeah, sure. I have lots of stories as you can appreciate, but one particular story, let's call her Mary. Mary grew up in a home with lots of abuse. as well. And she really believed that the treatment she received is what she deserved. You know, because there was evidence right, the next partner, then the next partner, they would either beat on her or call her horrible names. So it, it reinforced that belief. Well, you know, good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people, some bad stuffs happening to me, so I must be bad. And that's what kids will tend to do. And so what I challenged Marriott in a gentle way is like, you know, our childhood beliefs can change. And there is evidence, lots of it, that our things happen to good people all the time. And in people who do bad things, good things happen to them, there's really no rhyme or reason to that thinking. So let's, let's, let's try on the belief. I deserve to be treated well. I am worthy. Let's pretend. So let's explore what would your life look like if you really believe that? And so she would say all these things, and our eyes would light up like, oh, I would do this, this, this and this, you know, some beautiful, creative things. And she said, I probably would get rid of Marcus. Marcus was the current boyfriend that's putting those thoughts in her, like, Marcus is not to blame for her thinking. But Marcus was continuing the verbal abuse. And so she was choosing to believe it. And so when I challenged her, she's like, I think I'd have to let go of Marcus. And it was like, so the end of this story with this client is she kicked Marcus to the curb, and now has a healthy perspective on what she deserves, and her relationships. Oh,

[00:06:00] I think that's a great story. I think that's an absolutely wonderful story. And I can see that in your work. Like in mine, a lot of times my job is to hold the space and to help someone get close, and then let the words pop out of their mouth. That is the the big takeaway, the what needs to happen, because when truth comes from inside of you, as opposed to someone else trying to show it to you, it's so much stronger, I'm glad Mary got things back in order again and, and was able to kick Marcus to the curb. Sometimes that's what you got to do. So remind our listeners that our listeners and viewers because we're now also on YouTube, that they are here with my power meets mistake. I'm Michelle Walters, I am the co host, my other partner Cinthia Varkevisser has the day off. I am speaking with Karen Robinson, who is a therapist and trauma recovery expert. And we're having a great conversation about some of the work that Karen does. So, Karen, you've been in business for 25 years. That's a long time. How How has your business evolved? And what kinds of work are you focusing on now in 2024?

[00:07:00] Interestingly enough, even though I've been a therapist for that amount of time, most of my career has been with the Department of Defense as a federal social worker. And I did a lot of combat stress work with the military leaving, you know, the war zones Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Persian Gulf and so far. I've also worked with a lot of Vietnam vets as well. Before my 17 years of the Department of Defense, I did school social work. I worked in special education schools that either focused on children with learning a different learning abilities or children with different mental health diagnosis, I really had a hard time thriving in a traditional classroom. So I specialize in working with them. Before that, I did community mental health. And most of my clients were out of St. Elizabeth out of Washington DC at the time. So I have a history of working with severe chronic mental health issues, as well as the you know, anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress. I've also done a lot of adoption work. They've done a lot of EAP work. It's hard to find something I haven't tried or explored at this point in my career. Now I'm in private practice. I do contract with a couple of agencies to work with veterans because I do have a heart for them. But my private company is, is the bee's knees. In my opinion, we have a membership for women who are survivors. Some of them have been in the military, some have not. But it's a diverse group of women who are overachievers, or high achievers, as our coach would like to say. But even though they created so much success, there is something not quite right. And that tends to be their trauma. So I offer a gentle program that helps them take baby steps on their healing journey. And I just love that so much.

[00:09:00] I can tell and wow, Karen, you have done a lot. That's not like one group of people, but it's like the seven or 17. So you must really know your stuff that you can float between veterans and children and community and all of those different kinds of, of, of angles on things. I think we have time for another story. Do you have another story of someone else you have helped with trauma recovery?

[00:09:32] Well, I'll just share, like my own personal example. Because you know, I'm a survivor too. And even though I did what got my MSc now my bachelor's in social work, my master's in social work, I have some postdoctoral work completed. So even though I had all these, these, this education, I sometimes would get stuck in my own thinking. So there was a period of time where I believed I could not learn a second language. And yes, I had some evidence I grew I lived in Canada for several years, and I had some of my subjects and French and I did okay, but it was weird to me that it was I wasn't fluent, I'm like little there must be something wrong with my brain. I can't learn languages. And then one day after I was teaching cognitive behavioral think, therapy, which is tracking your negative thoughts and learning how to make to your thoughts. I thought to myself, I gotta let this belief go, I've really got to test it out, because you're telling people all day to, to change their thinking. And so I signed up for a Spanish class just to see what would happen. And I got in. So I did prove that my belief was false. And I'm proud of that, to that. I will still experiment. And then I love telling my clients like, even though I think I'm the bee's knees with cognitive behavioral therapy, my thinking can get stuck to. And you know, because of the trauma and the self doubt that comes up from that. But we have to test with the Learn to seriously test our beliefs, because the truth is anything that we really want, we can work towards that and make progress. Will we all be perfect now, but I've proven that I am capable of learning a language.

[00:11:27] I love it. I think that's great. I had somebody come to me and say, Can you hypnotize me? So I could just remember the Spanish I knew as a three year old, but unfortunately, that didn't get very far. So anyway, I think you are pointing out something very true, which is, and I liked the way you said it, which is we can always move forward towards it. Right? And whether you get there or not. You know, sometimes you you achieve what you're shooting for. And sometimes there's something different that shows up. That's better for you. But I'm proud of you that you speak some French as well as Spanish. That's, that's outstanding.

[00:11:58] Yeah. And still, and still not fluent in either. And I'm okay with that. Like, if I plan to move to one of those countries that speaks those languages, I'd probably put a lot more effort into it. And that's okay.

[00:12:12] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's great. So tell our listeners a little bit about what you have coming up maybe your membership or other things that you would have in case our listeners want to track you down and follow up with you.

[00:12:27] Yeah, so my favorite thing that I do is my membership. Now then the important thing to say about that because you and I work with this, the same coach Catarina, who has really shared that my coat my membership is so valuable, I really needed to ask a higher price tag or invite people to pay at a higher rate. So that goes into effect on March 1, but I think for your listeners, if they email me, I will give them a code to get it at the lower price. Because the price is actually tripling You know, why double A price when you can triple it right? So currently my membership is 56 a month includes coaching, includes accountability groups, and includes workbook, a planner for the month, includes our journals includes all of our summit replays, we do three summits a year, like I could just keep going like it's, it is so robust for $66 a month, it is going up to 197. So if I don't hear from your listeners before the end of March, I do have to set it up under 97. Just to be fair to everyone, but the membership is called This Is Us healing from trauma together. And the the link for that is this is I'm sorry, let me start over. The link is healing from trauma together.com healing from trauma together.com. And if you'd like to email me with questions or want to talk about this before signing on, my email is heal thrive dream@gmail.com It's always okay to email me.

[00:14:00] Well, thank you, Karen. I think that's a pretty robust community with an awful lot to offer people so I can understand how prices have to go up when you're serving people in such a comprehensive way. So thank you so much for being our guest today. Here at mind power meets mystic we wish you the very best and I hope that you can find all the people who need you and they find you as well. So, thank you.

[00:14:27] Thank you, Michelle.