Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Duncan.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My journey started at 11 years old when I was diagnosed with a very rare childhood cancer and given a 20 % chance to live. Back in the 70s they had no professional emotional support for young sick children, no one talked to me through years of treatment. I felt like I was walking on a tightrope between life and death. Out of nowhere, I started to pray, begging to live to be 20 years old. Until then, faith had meant nothing to me, but I was desperate. I thought if I lived to be 20, I’d see the world. I kept praying and not long after, this feeling of peace poured through my body. I knew I wasn’t alone and I knew that I was going to live. I experienced an awakening and understood what it meant to be alive.

I also learned that when I was in the moment, not caught up in my mind worrying about my next treatment, I was okay. I look back now and realize I learned what it meant to be fully present as a child. All of a sudden the world opened up and I saw and felt the preciousness of life around me. The sunlight coming through our weeping willow tree in our driveway looked magical, the sound of the birds flying overhead was enchanting, a lens opened within and I started seeing life in a whole new way.

As a teenager, I dived into reading books on life, meaning, and purpose to try and understand why I was alive. I’d sit at home as a teenager reading Hermann Hesse, Existentialism and Human Emotions, and Who is Man by Abraham Heschel. This search for living fully has informed my whole life and led me to become a chaplain, integrative spiritual consultant, and write my first book – Everyday Awakening – Five Practices for Living Fully, Feeling Deeply, and Coming into Your Heart and Soul. I’ve lived these five practices deeply and share them in my private practice with my clients where I provide emotional and spiritual support.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Facing my death as a child and then having a Near Death Experience in my thirties again awakened my heart to the preciousness of life. I walked away from a successful career with Time Warner because I was feeling an emptiness for something more and ended up in a graduate theology program. My father was angry with me for leaving a very successful, lucrative job with Time Magazine to study theology. I vividly remember him yelling at me, and unable to take in this radical change. He did become my biggest supporter before he died. So there were bumps in the road and moments of questioning, Am I on the right path? I found comfort in my prayer practice and listening within to my inner guidance.

I continued to listen deeply and became a spiritual director, chaplain, and then started my private practice, Learning To Live.

In my years as a chaplain, I walked with countless people as they faced their death. Each person was a teacher and it was a privilege to walk with so many people as they opened into the preciousness of life as they took their last breaths. My gifts as an intuitive and mystic opened during this time and I witnessed many people leave their bodies and then these patient’s spirits came back days to weeks later to awaken me in the night to say, “thank me,” and then leave. Death is not an end. I believe the reason we are here is to learn to love. And, what we take with us when we die is our ability to love.

In 2016, I started my private practice, Learning To Live, to help people open up and feel vibrantly alive now and not have to wait until their final days.

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 passionate about whole-person healing. My focus as an integrative spiritual consultant is emotional and spiritual health.  I companion individuals who are struggling with chronic illness, life transitions, grief and loss, and those searching for more meaning and purpose. I see clients through my own private practice, and as a consultant with Minnesota Personalized Medicine, an integrative medical practice in Minneapolis.

I draw on my experience as a board-certified chaplain and certified spiritual director; training in positive neuroplasticity with Rick Hanson, Ph.D.; and education in a range of alternative healing modalities, including reiki, Healing Touch, qigong, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)/tapping, and sound healing. As a public speaker, I frequently deliver talks on stress and resiliency, self-compassion, self-care, neuroplasticity, and awakening to organizations and companies in person and virtually. My writing is featured on the website for the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing, the Institute for Well-Being in Law’s website, and in the textbook, Integrative Medicine by David Rakel, MD (5th edition, Elsevier, May 2022).

My first book, Everyday Awakening, is now available for pre-order and will be released on July 11, 2023. Go to everydayawakening.com and when you pre-order the book, you will receive 3 bonuses – A 16-page journal prompt, a 10 mn sound healing session, and exclusive access to a private book group in July.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
Some of my favorite authors are Louise Hay, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, and Ernest Holmes. I practice meditation, gratitude, energy boundaries, and prayer every day and this helps me live from my heart and soul. Life is a journey and we can choose to feel more fully alive right now.