Shannon Tyson
Shannon Tyson, She/Her, is a Chaplain, Speaker, and Soul Care Provider. She is the founder of Inner Ground Soul Care, where she helps individuals move from pressure and performance into presence and peace through the practice of emotional and spiritual awareness. Through her work as a hospital chaplain, Shannon is equipped to offer compassionate, non-judgmental support to women during some of life’s most vulnerable moments, creating space for healing, reflection, and meaning-making. Shannon’s career has been a journey of discovering where she truly belongs. She began in social work, serving at-risk youth in nonprofit settings, and later moved through a range of Christian ministry roles, including supporting women facing unplanned pregnancies, working in domestic violence shelters, and serving as a women’s ministry director. Throughout much of this time, she also held her most consistent role at home, raising her two sons while her husband worked demanding shift schedules. After completing a year of clinical chaplain residency training, she stepped into hospital chaplaincy full-time for the first time since becoming a parent—an experience that brought together the many layers of her personal, professional, and spiritual journey into one integrated and affirming space. Her path has also been shaped by complex experiences within faith-based environments, including religious trauma and navigating traditions that did not fully embrace women in ministry leadership. These experiences led her to move between organizations in search of belonging and authenticity, ultimately finding deep alignment in chaplaincy, where she could bring her full self into her work. Today, through Inner Ground Soul Care, Shannon combines chaplaincy, coaching, and spiritual formation to support people in addressing practical life patterns while reconnecting with their inner life. She believes that all people are spiritual in nature and seeks to help others cultivate lives rooted in meaning, wholeness, and peace.
• BSW, MA, CPE
• Liberty University - MA, Ministry
• Western Carolina University - BS, Social Work
• Volunteer chaplain at YMCA
What do you attribute your success to?
As a Christian, I think most people would expect me to attribute my success to God, and that's definitely true. And I also think it's the people in my life, definitely my husband and my kids, supporting me throughout all these different ways of trying to find myself and where I sit in this world career-wise. But I attribute it, mostly to the hard things that I've been through, times of failure, conflict, disappointment, crisis, etc. What first comes to mind when I think of these difficult times that have shaped me are the church experiences that I've walked through. Growing up in a very conservative, fundamentalist church and working within churches throughout my life that did not affirm my value as a woman in ministry has been particularly shaping. Being a part of a system that, instead of embracing you wholly, demands you to shrink and abandon parts of who you are causes religious trauma, which is so crippling and is something I have a passion for helping other women work through. So it's taken a lot for me to get to where I am and have confidence in using my own voice but I am truly grateful for the journey and how it has shaped who I am today and how I can support others.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is that you're not behind. You're not behind, trying to get towards some imaginary goal in the future. We are right where we need to be doing the work that we need to be doing under our feet, right now. That's really all we have anyway - this moment & this time.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You were not created to make yourself small. You are created as a wonderful, gifted, talented woman. Do not to let people make you feel like you don't belong in any space you aspire to be in. Be who you are; your full self. Take up as much space as you need to, unapologetically . So much of my career journey has been trying to fit myself into only the places where I was "allowed," because I was in ministry spaces where women were incredibly confined and limited. And all of that required me to compromise or hide parts of who I was. Doing that is exhausting. It's exhausting, and not how we were meant to live. Showing up wholly, as our full selves, in spaces that welcome, embrace, and encourage that is what will energize us and give us life and contribute the most positively to the people and the world around us.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are curiosity and peace. We as people, tend to make a lot of assumptions about other people and circumstances and jump to conclusions without fully understanding. So approaching life with curiosity and wanting to learn about who people are, and how they got to be the person that they are, and how they got to hold the values that they hold, and the beliefs that they hold, and the things that give their lives meaning is so important. Peace is also a paramount value for me. It means not simply the absence of conflict, but a unity and a wholeness. True peace is completeness; it's living our lives wholly who we are and embracing the world and the people around us as actual souls - a combination of mind, body, and spirit.
Locations
Inner Ground Soul Care
28405, NC wilmington
Inner Ground Soul Care
Wilmington, NC, 28405