( ENSPIRE Feature ) Clarke Is A Psychotherapist and Master Communication Coach That Teaches People To Push Past Their Thoughts Of Limitation In Order To Discover Their Life’s Purpose
ENSPIRE Contributor: Re’Dreyona Walker
Memories of our past actions, choices, or experiences can often have a major influence on how we decide and plan our futures. But while there are some who may have a past that motivates them and pushes them to strive towards their future goals and aspirations, there are others who feel as if their past hinders them and is pulling them away from their desired life goals. Along the way, we have to learn to not let our past control or define our future in order to reach prosperity and attain our life’s wishes.
As a psychotherapist and master communication coach, Cheryl Clarke inspires, motivates, and engages others to make a difference in their lives by using their story to heal and become unstuck in their communication. She uses her own childhood experiences from growing up poor to fatherless to struggling with low self-esteem to issues of abandonment and inadequacy. Her spiritual practices along with her faith helped Clarke to find and reclaim her voice through her various writings, workshops, and coaching practice. She knew as she committed to her spiritual practices; it was building a stronger sense of self. She discovered the more she was helping others to speak their power; she could reclaim and master her own.
“I found one of my greatest assets as a Psychotherapist and Coach is healing people from their past to help them transform their communication to connect to build powerful relationships,” said Clarke. “Dealing with triggering moments that keep us stuck in the same self-sabotaging behavior patterns is crucial. Over the years in my practice, I have realized that we all had the same recurring issues that kept us stuck- in our negative patterns of communication. Your communication is either helping you to succeed—or keeping you STUCK. What ultimately connects us is our ability to communicate on a deeply human level. Hence this led me to launch my coaching practice and signature Unstuck program, “Speak Your Power Now,” where I coach, train, and mentor people to heal from their past and live a life of purpose.”
ENSPIRE had the chance to ask Clarke about how she works to inspire and motivate people to use their stories to heal, how her own experiences have helped her help others, how her spiritual practices helped her find and reclaim her voice, and tips on how someone can work to reclaim their voice and push past any thoughts of limitation.
How do you work to inspire and motivate individuals to make a difference in their lives by using their stories to heal and become unstuck in their communication?
Cheryl: One way or another, we’ve all found ourselves stuck- making and breaking New Year resolutions year after year to only find ourselves in the same spot the next year.
Here’s why most of us stay stuck because we need to heal from our past story. At the same time, I navigated through my traditional practice of weekly, one to one forty-five-minute weekly sessions. I, too, was feeling stuck in models and methods that were keeping me locked into certain parameters. One of the reasons it is so hard to find our inner voice is because the voices outside of us are so loud. I found myself listening to outer voices. And so, one of the things that I have shifted in my life is practicing silence just with no other voices to get in tune with my inner voice.
It was in my silence my P.I.E.S. UNSTUCK Communication Method birth. It’s a powerful 4 step tool aiding people in developing powerful communication skills. Communication is the key to create meaningful relationships throughout our lives. I have devoted my career to helping individuals speak with power, which can unlock new possibilities and reach new heights in their overall lives.
These FOUR SIMPLE STEPS get you UNSTUCK and stay UNSTUCK.
By becoming aware of where you are, inventory your mind, body, and soul, explore the facts and implement the solution. It’s about controlling your mind instead of your mind controlling you. It’s about staying in the present instead of getting stuck in the past story.
Pause– Assess the Self. Pause before you speak.
Identify- Do an inventory of the triggers? What happened? Acknowledge and name it
Explore – Apply facts without looking for right or wrong, or judge but rather to look for the facts.
Solutions– Move forward. Commit to close the communication loop by taking care of your needs while thinking about the needs of others.
When people get coached in the P.I.E.S. method, it begins to have immediate results as it interrupts the automatic thinking patterns, shifts in your life, removes the internal obstacles and dares to go after your dreams.
How have you changed lives so far? What is the best testimonial you have received from someone you helped?
Cheryl: In my coaching program, Speak Your Power Now, the clients are making BOLD moves in their lives. I have seen individuals make 180-degree turns and be healed. The most rewarding aspect of my work is seeing and hearing people get freed emotionally. That means freedom of expression, freedom of time, freedom of location, community, and freedom financially. My program works. I help them create their new extraordinary relationships, new careers and live a powerful life.
I’m extremely proud of the entire Speak Your Power Now community members. One member, Meesha, has been part of our community for just over six months. When Meesha came through the program, she was an overworked mom of two with one child with special needs. She was not feeling in charge of her life, suffering from self-doubt and stuck. During that time, I saw her heal from her past, reclaim her voice and walk and speak with power!. Today, Meesha opened her coaching business and released her book.
How did your own childhood experiences help you help others?
Cheryl: I know that my past experiences have inspired the work. We all have those stories and experiences that may keep us STUCK.
Most of this work was born out of my upbringing, background, training and research, work experience, and relationship(s). The most pivotal moment came when I attended a mindfulness conference some years ago, a nationally known speaker, Dr. Joan Borysenko, who educates on trauma’s body-mind practices. I remember standing up to respond to another woman explaining her challenges with being a mother of 4 juggling her career and family.
I stood to offer my advice to the woman as being a mother myself. As I began to speak, I said, “I am a mother of 6”, at that moment Joan, stopped me and asked, did you say you are a mother of 6? I answered, “Yes.” Before you go on, she said I want to honor you for sacrificing your body six times, honor you for accepting the gifts from God and honor you for giving us six beautiful humans to the earth. I just wanted to honor you as an extraordinary woman. At that point, the entire room stood on its feet to applaud me. I was speechless; all I could do is weep. It wasn’t until that day I realized that I had not been present for years and that I needed to be healed from my story. The core pain of my past was holding me in the stuck position, and I didn’t even realize it.
How did your spiritual practices, along with your faith, help you find and reclaim your voice?
Cheryl: My business finally started to take off as I began to integrate spirituality into my business. I said YES to my God. I could reclaim my voice when I began to build a stronger connection with God. You can call it God, the Creator, a Higher Power of the Divine, whatever you want to call that’s Ok! The point I want to drive home is that I no longer was living in the past, waiting for someone to give me permission to live. I remember being stuck, not feeling worthy, inadequate, not sure of which direction I should go in. My spiritual practices and my faith were the things that helped me find and claim my voice- through my writing, workshops, and coaching practice. I noticed that the more I committed to my spiritual practices, the more I built a stronger connection with God. I found that the more I was helping others speak their power, I could reclaim and master my own. Something extraordinary had been set into motion. I was moving past my self-doubt by me doing my life works unapologetically!
You, too, could start that powerful career, have that powerful relationship, or write that book that could impact thousands of lives if you choose.
How should someone reclaim their voice and turn their words into power?
Cheryl: There is an overwhelming number of people who fail to discover their greatness due to their fears. Pushing past your fears is essential for walking out your divine assignment and cultivating the life you are destined to live. Statistically, only 1 in 100 people live out their true purpose. We’ve been conditioned to “play it safe,” and your divine assignment is on the other side of your Fears of playing it safe. You’re about to clear away any conditioning self-sabotaging that keeps you powerfully walking into your purpose. My program, Speak Your Power Now Academy, highlights my powerful technique that walks you through getting unstuck. The P.I.E.S. UNSTUCK Communication Method, a technique that gets you UNSTUCK in any communication, to apply the tools to no longer feel stuck in a story that disempowers them. I show them how to use their painful stories of the past as opportunities to transform them into new possibilities of POWER!
The concept of Speaking Your Power Now —is not about making more money, having prestige, gaining fame, or obtaining a big house. It’s about you living a more meaningful life filled with a sense of purpose to tap into the freedom to communicate with words to empower yourself and others. And when you do this, your income will increase, you will begin to live a life of freedom. It’s about expressing your authentic voice through your narrative that when you retell it, instead of provoking pain, it provokes power.
How can you push past your thoughts of limitation to reach your goals and find your life’s purpose?
Cheryl: Getting to your purpose is going to require you to PUSH! The pain we may have experienced through your life shapes us in very surprising ways. Your divine assignments may not come in beautiful wrapping paper with a big bow on top. It may be packaged in painful experiences, situations, and circumstances.
When we look at the lives of highly successful people moving in their life’s assignment nine times out of ten, it was born out of some painful experience that has helped shape their motivation towards their WHY.
Here are some truths to think about:
•Your life is a part of a larger context that is comprised of the human experience (how you grow up, culture, etc.) before you were born and after your death
•Your life experiences are pieces of a puzzle connected uniquely by your experiences. You don’t create your life is co-created with the collaboration of your community
• Some factors were out of your control and some in your control. Each of us has a divine assignment attached to our experiences that allows us to look back at the footprints. It may even go as far back as before you were born. For me, it started with my birth because I never met my biological father. For others, it may have a different starting point. Keep in mind that your past will provide clues to our future.
I believe that there are no coincidences. Your life is a journey. When we look at the past, we get a hint of the future. Look at your life’s story. Especially look at the pleasurable events, the painful events, and engagements we have made in the past. The hurts we go through in life never go in vain. We are a work in progress. Making peace with yourself is an important concept to embracing your divine assignment.
Things we’ve enjoyed in the past also have a lot to teach us about what we will enjoy in the future. Our past experiences also tell us something about our divine assignment. Its time has broken free of the past and enjoys a new reality of freedoms that peace brings. Yes, a state of unlimited peace is possible for you. By the time you reach the end of this session, you’ll exactly know what you need to do to create a meaningful future.
PAST EXPERIENCES –you can make peace with your past. Right now, you may not know what divine assignment is- possibly due to events in your past that you are still replaying or unconsciously experiencing. It is where your spiritual foundation is imperative. Your divine assignment will involve you going back into your memories and looking at them differently, very different views:
• Praying for those who have caused us pain- how did it make you stronger?
• Looking with Loving and not to judge- How to love unconditionally
• Seeking to Give- How can I use my gifts and talents?
• Remain humble and Grateful-How I’m showing gratefulness honor to God through it all
• The biggest one is Forgiveness
What are the 7 domains of self? And how can you master them to take powerful actions and release self-doubt in order to understand your divine assignment?
Cheryl: The seven domains of SELF are to take powerful actions to move into your divine assignment. Here are the seven domains:
1.Your Mental Wellness
2. Your Physical Environment
3. Your Relationships
4. Your Money
5. Your Health
6. Your Career
7. Your Spiritual Practices
Raising your awareness to embrace who you are and where you desire to be by systematically transforming your behavioral patterns from the inside out. Most people have one or more parts of the seven domains of SELF that are out of balance which means continuous self-inventory is required to live a fulfilled, purposeful life. It means you must create starting with one habit and behavioral change at a time. As you begin to adapt the approach to living the 30/60/90 plan, you can start to choose your destination and shift the fabric to mind, body, and soul.
Your Success is determined by what you do today. The great thing about the 30-60-90 day plan is once you reach the 90th day, you can START over if you don’t complete it. The 30-60-90 becomes an essential part of daily life experience, all year (and all life) long. This 30-60-90 Day Plan is more than a tool that can help you plan, track or get organized. It promotes getting in tune with yourself and eliminating the overwhelm of day to day that could derail.
I spent years teaching and coaching my clients on the technique I used to help me reach my goals. Our words become the foundation of our relationship not only with others, but they also become a key ingredient in our relationship with ourselves. That’s why when clients join Speak Your Power Now, they become part of a community because you no longer feel alone. From the one-on-ones to group coaching, they slowly become a more confident communicator by using spiritual principles and communication strategies to move towards self-mastery. Support plays a crucial role in this becoming unstuck journey.
The next Speak Your Power Now 1-day Live Virtual seminar is Saturday, June 5th, from 9 am to 12 pm E.S.T. Registration is available here, and you can find more about Cheryl Clarke via her website and her Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook pages.
