Today we’d like to introduce you to Valerie Stanton.
Hi Valerie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey to being an energy worker (Reiki Master), yoga teacher, and intuitive guide for sensitive souls stepping into leadership has been a life-long one.
I have always been engaged on a spiritual + healing path.
When I was in 5th grade, I even brought a past life regression book to school recess, though it got confiscated by one of the teachers at my private Catholic school before I could regress any of my fellow classmates.
I was always someone who counseled others or lent a listening ear – on my own, personal time.
I was what many would describe as an “empath”; yet with time, I realized that really meant I was a very sensitive, tuned in person who was unable to set boundaries that served me. I was stuck in people-pleasing and codependency as a way of feeling safe + validated in this world.
My mom (and both grandmothers) died within the same year when I was 21, and the desire to connect with my purpose was strong within me. I went on several spiritual journeys that eventually led me to meet my now-partner, and to continue my studies in healing work.
I studied with a mentor, Coco Elwood, who shared the power of Peace Medicine Yoga, with me.
I informally studied Ayurveda, yoga and so many other healing modalities to apply them to my own life.
7 years ago, my journey into doing this work professionally began.
Finally, after a plant medicine journey that affirmed my feeling of “being at home” in the energy realms, I got the message loud and clear it was time to pursue energy work more intentionally and professionally. I then met my mentors, Fran & Nadine of EnergyWorks Healers. I had my first Reiki session and I was totally hooked. While in Minneapolis, I studied and completed my yoga teacher training and Reiki Master certification.
I moved to Virginia to get married to my beloved, and shortly after, I became pregnant.
Becoming a mother activated my desire, more than ever, to step into leadership — something that had truly frightened me before then. As a parent, I realized I WAS a leader, and I was either actively growing in that role or denying it. I chose to step into it and it ignited my flame to share my unique medicine with the world.
More than ever, I saw how so many of the systems in place are NOT set up to support mothers, families, and children.
I longed to share my gifts with the world, while still being active in the role of “mother”. I knew that my role as a mother didn’t take AWAY from what I was capable of professionally — it only added to it — and vice versa!
I re-committed to my own self-reiki practice, and began offering sessions to clients as well.
I committed to healing what needed to be healed, through my ancestral lines, so I could be a better mom and overall human being.
I began noticing how many women who came to me for reiki were SO tuned in, and intuitive, and yet, we’re completely in denial of how powerful they were. They were plugged into many codependent patterns handed down by their ancestors + felt very vulnerable and often, disempowered. They were using their personal relationships to HIDE, yet desperately needed to be seen and celebrated.
As I continued this work, I saw that what they needed from a healer, was not to “fix” them, but to truly see them, on a soul level, and to guide themselves back to their own center, where they can access their true power + medicine from.
Then… the pandemic hit.
I pivoted from seeing clients in-person to seeing them mostly online, and began growing my practice there, through my social media presence alone. I ran a 30-day group program, based on energetic principles, to help women + mamas move through codependency + playing small into claiming their queenhood.
I developed the structure of my 1:1 work, creating customized 3-month+, high-touch, packages for sensitive folks who wanted to shed their people-pleasing, perfectionist tendencies — so they could begin sharing their authentic gifts with the world.
My own work into authenticity deepened with my understanding of myself as a queer (genderqueer & pansexual) and neurodivergent (ADHD) human. I have felt all the interconnected threads of why and how we form masks to “fit in” and hide our true selves and what a journey it is to unravel that.
I have continued that work over the past several years, serving many beautiful humans, and am currently getting ready to launch an online, 9-month program for sensitive folx, helping them access their own grounded power, so they can step into leadership and share their authentic gifts with the world.
After several years of online-mostly work, I have begun teaching weekly yoga in person again, and offering mini-retreats and workshops in collaboration with others here in the little mountain town of Floyd, Virginia. I’m also creating a podcast that will launch in the spring.
The same themes have remained steadfast through my work: grounding, ancestral healing, earth medicine, personal power, confidence, devotional leadership, and living in an intimacy-centered way.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road, despite the abundance of support from mentors, teachers, friends, and family.
From an astrological perspective, I have something called a “grand cross” in my chart, which is 4 planets at 90 degrees of one another. This can make a person feel “at opposition” within themselves; the energies can feel “stuck”.
So, really, a lot of my struggles can come from within me.
I have had a strong tendency towards anxiety and depression, starting when I was a kid.
I’ve always loved other humans, but found it really hard to connect with them when I was younger. The private schools I attended didn’t align with my personal blend of spirituality, and I felt like an “outsider” for most of my youth.
When I got to college, my mom was sick with cancer, and after many years of “holding it together” for others, I found that now that I was out on my own, I didn’t know how to anymore. I held so much shame around flunking out for so long.
Looking back now, I can see that the same ADHD symptoms that were sprinkled throughout my childhood became massive and daunting once there was no one looking over my shoulder to make sure I went to class or that my homework was done.
I eventually completed my A.A. degree but didn’t finish my Bachelor’s.
Feeling like an “outsider” to many systems is what inspired me to become an entrepreneur in the first place — and yet I still struggle with keeping organized!
I find the pace of modern-day life very challenging to keep up with, and I’m determined to be part of a change where rest and play is more valued, overworking forty-hour work weeks which leave many folks depleted and exhausted.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am known for my grounded, non-dogmatic approach to spirituality.
I like to approach each energy work session, or yoga class, or anything else I do, as a ceremony.
To me, all healing modalities are about creating safe, sacred space to BE with ourselves.
SO many of us (especially sensitive folx) pick up lots of energy that isn’t our own.
We routinely need to set aside space (daily, ideally!) to shed what isn’t in our highest good, set intentions for what we desire, and to take action from THAT grounded, centered place within us.
I am so proud of the 1:1 work I do with sensitive humans who desire to step into leadership.
Most sensitive humans have developed strong people-pleasing tendencies to try to “fit in” and keep themselves safe.
My 1:1 work is all about supporting humans to unravel these, and decide what they prefer instead – and how to continually come back home to themselves.
These are people who have often felt like outsiders, or “magical misfits” as I like to say.
It’s a HUGE undertaking to unravel those tendencies, to claim the power of their truth, and to sit in the driver’s seat of their own lives. And yet — they know because they’ve tried the other options — nothing else will truly fulfill them.
These clients have gone through major changes in their lives, from leaving unhealthy partnerships, starting new, aligned partnerships, leaving a job that was draining them, learning how to manage their energy more, how to show up as a more engaged & loving parent to their children, how to set boundaries so they can
I have everything from a free guidebook called Setting Sacred Boundaries in my free Facebook group, Sacred Wild Leadership, to a low-cost monthly New Moon Ceremony, to my higher ticket 1:1 packages. And coming soon is my group program and podcast!
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Oh, I love this question!
Success is being able to go to bed at night, knowing you showed up with integrity. Simple as that.
My business is still growing, and I feel I am bringing the feeling and “knowing” of success with me as it does.
Success isn’t a place you arrive and have to fight to protect.
It’s something you bring with you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sacredwildleadership
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valerie.e.stanton/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valerieestanton
Image Credits
Zen Cohen
Selena Amor
Elena Stanton
