It's about time

Sometimes it takes a tragedy for us to say what we haven't been saying. The recent deaths at the James Arthur Ray event has begun to open up a new conversation in the self-help industry and beyond. I say it's about time!

I am deeply disturbed that innocent people died doing something they thought was important to their personal growth. And I am relieved that we can bring this inquiry out in the open.
Have you ever wondered when self-help became synonymous with “there’s something wrong with us”? Or how it became about the eternal search for something, a search outside the self? Why did it become about needing the perfect teacher, book, course or practice? How did it become about something out there on the horizon?
When did it become a dirty word?

As a coach, author, speaker and radio show host with a Master’s Degree in Counseling and over 20 years of experience in the field of personal development, I assist people in discovering and living their dreams.

Yet, one profound day, I caught myself waiting for Jack. Jack in this case was Jack Canfield of the Chicken Soup for the Soul fame but I admitted to myself that it could have been anyone or anything. I had forgotten where the answers lie. It was painful to admit, but I realized I had become a self-help junkie!

I first discovered my passion for personal development after recovering from an eating disorder and substance abuse in 1989. As a result I became eager to provide assistance to people who felt trapped in their own life experience.

During my years as a therapist, I worked with clients struggling with eating disorders and substance abuse as well as depression, anxiety and trauma issues, providing both group counseling and individual therapy in inpatient and outpatient settings. With my coaching clients, I am their champion in discovering their power and breaking free of their personal barriers.

Yet somewhere along the way, I forgot who I was. On that fateful day, when I caught myself waiting for Jack, I declared an end to all this waiting and searching outside ourselves for answers.

To be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with self-help. Many of us wouldn’t be where we are today if we hadn’t taken this journey. And it’s important to emphasize that there are many self-help leaders (including Jack Canfield) who operate at the highest levels of integrity. Additionally, I have found that most people who are drawn to self-help have a huge commitment to make a difference in the world.

The root of the “problem” lies in our relationship to self-help, our bottomless quest to be someone, something or somewhere other than we are, our endless seeking, searching.

I am determined to illuminate these patterns those of us who become stuck on the self-help treadmill. Those who are determined to find the answers but on a deep level, a level often kept hidden beneath awareness, remain unsatisfied. Because for those of us who are starving in the midst of plenty, this is what self-help has become.

It’s time to reinvent self-help and I can't do it alone.