Her Story
About Linda
I've been a holistic nurse for over 50 years, and my journey has taken me from high-tech critical care nursing to becoming a global teacher of energy healing and aromatherapy. After getting out of high school, I wanted to work with my hands, so I went into nursing in 1970. I became a high-tech critical care nurse working in emergency rooms, ICU, and CCU, but the day arrived that I couldn't get anywhere near my assigned patient because of all the machines, and I decided there was something wrong with that scene. I eventually moved into holistic nursing, became a director of a home health care agency that I started from scratch, and went back to get my master's in community health nursing from the University of Michigan. I was then director of several hospices, and that's when I got introduced to energy healing, which to me was where I was really led to be. I became the first administrator for the Healing Touch program based in Colorado and taught literally across the United States, every state, including Alaska and Hawaii. Five years later, I started my own program, the Institute of Spiritual Healing and Aromatherapy, where we had two certification programs - one in a Christian-based approach to energy healing to make it safe, language-wise, for people in churches to do energy healing, and one in clinical aromatherapy. In 2015, I decided I had nothing left to give to that work and walked away from that world. I felt really lost, but through synchronicities, I began to study with Mary Morrissey, who is probably the quintessential transformational leader in the world. I've studied with her for the last 11 years, became a life coach, found the love of my life, and we've now been married for 9 years. We are in business together doing life coaching, speaking, teaching, and aromatherapy. Right now, I'm in the middle of writing two books - one on the legacy of healing touch with 14 contributors, and another on awakening your inner radiance, which is more of a spiritual book on connecting with your intuitive self. I'm also writing articles for Brainz Magazine and LinkedIn. What I'm most excited about now is taking 55 years of wisdom that I've gathered along the way and writing books, and coaching people who are in the second half of life wondering what they're supposed to do with the rest of their life.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Linda
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say my connection to that which is greater than us, the spirit, however you might term that. It has been my faith and my connection with the fact that we are actually spiritual beings who just happen to be having this particular physical experience. Life is much larger than we give credence to. Life does not end with the doorway through death. Death is only a beginning of the next section, the next part of life.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Never work for anybody else. It took me a long, long time to learn that one. I had so many male bosses that I just cringe at some of the memories.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Not to give up, and to realize that you have more to give than you think you do. We all have gathered lessons in life. So, it's very tempting to look at those lessons and go, oh, I never want to think about that again. But every lesson teaches us how to unfold our wisdom and to move to the next step in life.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
What's going on in our country is causing a great deal of angst among all people, and many people react to what's going on by going into their shell, not wanting to know what's going on. They're afraid to move. So I think fear among Americans is really high on that list that is affecting everyone's business, no matter what it is. People are going into that place of fear and not spending money. And therefore, everybody who has really the answers of how to move out of that, we're not able to attract whatever it is that people want in order to get out of the hole that they're in.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Values of integrity, of caring, service. The work that we're doing now, it seems like it's all across the waterfront, but actually every one of them are an aspect of being of service to others. When you reach a certain age, you look back and you realize, oh, I have fewer days ahead of me than I have behind me. And so, I've gathered a lot of wisdom, and as long as I have the ability to remember them, then I need to get it out on paper, and to be able to help others who need, or maybe one line that just helps them.
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