Her Story
About JoLeesa
I started my career as a registered nurse over 20 years ago, working in helping professions. A pivotal moment came when I went to give one of my patients pain medication. As I always did, I took time to talk with her, and she shared that her son was having some trouble. After I let her share that with me, she said she didn't think she needed the pain medication anymore, even though she had requested it. That moment made me realize she needed connection, and neuroscience has since caught up with what I witnessed that day - that connection helps with how we perceive pain and does so much mitigation. I realized there were too many hands between how I wanted to help people and how I was able to help them as a nurse. Five years ago, I became a clinical counselor, and now I primarily work as a coach for moms who had traumatic childhoods and are struggling with emotional presence in parenting. My clients are typically not the ones who yell - they're the over-regulators, the ones who shut down, who have promised they won't hurt their kids the way they've been hurt, but they're disappearing and realize their kids need them to be emotionally present. What makes my work different is that this is part of my own story. It's not just clinical for me - yes, I understand the textbook and the techniques, but there's something different about it when you've lived through it and understand what it feels like to be sabotaging yourself, getting in the way of yourself and living life the way you want to. I think it's easier for someone to listen to me because I understand the lived experience, not just how it should and could work, but how it does work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with JoLeesa
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't veer away from your authenticity. Don't look at the next big thing. Stay very, very close to who you are and your story. That's where you can actually help people. If you look at it strategically, you know, what is going to get you where you need to go, you'll miss the mark. I've had mentors, and it's easy to kind of get swayed in someone else's thinking or the way that they did it. And when you do that, as a life coach, you lose some of your own authenticity, your own way to help people. What's healing and valuable about your experience that you can share with other people? I regret none of those experiences because all of it made me who I am. Here's what I'm learning lately - when you take that next step, then you can see you have a new perspective. It gives you a whole new field to look at. So whether or not we understand exactly where we think we're going, you take that step, you look at what there could be possible reward in it, you take the step, and then you can see what you couldn't see before. If you really be yourself, that is the opportunity. The more that people are trying to manipulate algorithms and such, we're stepping into a different era now, and AI is starting to reward authenticity and a deeper understanding, not just keywords and catchphrases, but true authenticity.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
We are living in an incredible time with opportunities that we didn't even have a few years ago. Information is readily available - you can educate yourself on anything. As AI is getting more and more popular and taking on roles, computers are doing things they've never done before. Being able to be yourself is the opportunity. We are in a world now, and increasingly more so, where that authenticity matters. You have the opportunity to promote yourself with social media. We're stepping into a different era now, and AI is starting to reward authenticity and a deeper understanding, not just keywords and catchphrases and such, but true authenticity, because it's picking up on patterns that former ways of marketing weren't able to do. They were not capable of understanding the underlying meanings. The opportunities now with social media - you can do a lot with that, and you can inform yourself through online means. For my clients specifically, the biggest challenge is taking that first step of trusting someone and then investing in themselves. It's hard for a lot of moms, especially when they have had trauma, because self-care is not a value that was reinforced during their childhood. It was self-abandonment. So they already have to do work before they ever get to me. The section of women that I work with is very narrow because they've already done a lot of work. They've been to therapy, and usually lots of therapists before they come to me.
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