Guest post by Lead Instructor, Janelle JohnsonGrove, NTP, NTC I know what it’s like to find that you’ve reached a dry spell after years of serving your clients. Not a dry spell in the sense that the client flow has lessened…but rather an internal hollowness. Your soul and heart are not as enlivened as they were when you first started your work. Seeing your clients’ eyes shine again and symptoms diminish does not result in that same internal surge of celebration as it once did. So, what’s going on? What does this internal flatness indicate about you and your work? Is it time to stop client work? Is it time to take more courses and learn more skills? Maybe. It could also indicate something more profound. This dimming of your visceral response may be an indicator that it is time for you to go deeper. Doing one-on-one work with clients for several years has taught you so much about how change and growth work for individuals. You know that at times you need to nudge your client forward and at other times, hold space and patiently wait for them to make a shift. By this point in your work, you know that true and long-lasting change goes way beyond an exact supplement protocol and dietary recommendation. This awareness of how change works for your client and your corresponding sluggish response may be because you have plateaued in your growth. You may be ready to up-level your practitioner work. I want to take a risk and suggest that moments like this are an indicator that it is time to prioritize your transformation. It is time to go deeper in yourself so that you can go deep with your clients and support a profound change. This process allows you to develop the capacity to tune in and talk about the things you never get to talk about in the client setting, yet you know they exist and influence your client work every step of the way.

What is the first step on this path of your profound transformation?

The first step is hidden, small, and quiet. It begins at home when you are with yourself in a quiet space. It begins by learning the discipline to be silent and face who you are in your alone time. It is about leaning into this place, holding space for yourself, and listening to your authentic voice… your soul voice. This is important because in every moment, you are given an opportunity to make a decision; to decide what to do, how to react, how to perceive each moment and incident. What typically guides these responses is the part of your mind that is full of drive, organizational strategies, a love of information, logic, and reason. Many call this part of your guidance system the ego. Your ego loves you and wants to protect you from harm. This leads to a decision-making framework that has a low tolerance for risk and growth as there is an anticipation of failure and fear of the unknown. This makes the backdrop in any decision grounded in a primal protective stance that is ultimately fear based. Your ego is driven to meet deadlines, to avoid making mistakes and being vulnerable, to keep you safe and sound. Unfortunately, many times this leads to keeping you small, stagnant, and settling for mediocrity. In contrast, your authentic, or soul voice, is the place of your wisdom, your truth, the place where your Call is summoning you. It is the place showing you your next level, your next chapter, the next place to step into your greatness and power. It is asking you to play a bigger game, to take up space, and go all out with what you are here on this planet to do. Leaning into the silence and tuning in deeply helps you strengthen your attunement to what your authentic voice sounds like. This needs to be a serious endeavor. It needs to be so habitual that your attunement to this voice becomes so fine-tuned that you can discern between the voice of fear – your ego, and your authentic voice and at any given moment. It is most critical because there will be surges of doubt, fear, and naysayers that come your way. But if you are strengthened in this practice, you will still be able to hear this voice of truth and guidance. You can begin now. And continue every day. In quiet. Concentrating and asking: what is my soul saying to me right now? What comes next is actually doing what your soul says despite the fears and doubts. But that is for another time. I share all of this because as NTPs and NTCs, a time will come for you to do the inner work so that you become a soul-empowered leader in the field. With my leadership coach, Lisa Fabrega, I have learned:

• – There comes a time when you do not need to be a master of more knowledge. Rather, it is time to be a master of your energy, your internal state, and how you hold space for others
• – This deeper work is about getting your internal game strong, so you can hold your energy powerfully and can hold a space for your clients like a master
• – It is about really seeing your clients and calling them out in the places they play small
• – It is about embodying what you speak about and helping your clients embody their own truth so they can be free
• – It is about showing up as the master who knows how to point someone back to themselves
• – This work of becoming an inspirational model for your ideal client and showing up as a beacon for master level space holding, mirroring, and seeing is a unique kind of work
• – It will lead you to be more fulfilled in your work, to stand out in the field, and ultimately to be happier
• – It all starts in the quiet work of tuning in to your heart and soul

Bio Does this resonate with you? Are you yearning to develop WHO you are as a practitioner? To grow in your confidence, step into your power, and function from a place of soul-wisdom? These are skills no book can teach you. My upcoming mastermind class for developing expert-level practitioners will cultivate and support the level of soul-directed client work I speak about here. This kind of work happens in community with practitioners who also yearn to infuse their practices from a more soul-directed place. And it happens with a mentor (me in this case) holding the space of the community to go deep and navigate through the waters that are unpredictable and tumultuous at times. Who am I? My name is Janelle JohnsonGrove. I’m an NTP, NTC, and Lead Instructor of Instructional Excellence at NTA. I also run a private practice, SageFire Wellness, in Cincinnati, OH where I integrate all my NTP skills in combination with mind/body work that I learned through my training at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. I now work with professionals in the alternative healthcare field with mastermind groups. These professionals take their work to the next level, step more deeply into their power in order to cultivate a profound change in other lives, and BE the profound change they are calling for in their clients. This results in deeply fulfilling work, more clients, and even a greater income. Does this appeal to you? If so… Email me at jjg@sagefirewellness.com for a personal invitation into my next mastermind group starting soon.