In late March, as I started to feel the impact of coronavirus on my freelance business and watched my father's small business struggle, I wondered what people in other industries were going through. I decided to ask. When I brought up my idea for this series to my mom, she immediately thought of her friend Alison as a potential subject. Alison Held Anderson is an energy healer and well-being catalyst located in Connecticut. She’s also incredibly kind, and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and the advice she had to share. Alison has been able to continue her business through coronavirus and help others with their struggles. Our interview is below! If you had to explain what you do to someone you just met, how would you describe your job? I help people unlock what is holding them back from their best life. We look at roadblocks. For instance, if there's something happening with their health such as a symptom, diagnosis, pain, some sort of illness or some something like that going on, we look at what underlying causes might be preventing them from healing. I also work at the level of their relationships in their life, their work, and their passions. It’s all interrelated. Whatever is going on in their life where they feel blocked or stuck, I help them see why and then they shift their energy and perspective so that they can move into a place of more flow and ease. What led you down this career path? Why do this energy work? It started a long time ago. When I was in my early 20s, I was living in New York City. I had a busy job and social life, and I wasn't taking care of myself. I developed intense stomach pains that prevented me from going to work or from hanging out with my friends. I just didn't feel well. I went to traditional doctors to see what was wrong with me, and no doctor could really tell me what was going on. Then I saw a nutritionist, and the nutritionist helped me with supplements and changes in my diet. Because of my transformation, I went on to become a clinical nutritionist for about 10 years. As I was working with people nutritionally, I realized that there was so much more to health than just food. There were a lot of underlying emotional issues or belief systems or areas of their life that my clients were not happy in. My interest in personal development expanded so I dove into my own inner work and then decided to start working with clients at this level. There is a real need for something deeper than nutrition—even in my own life, something deeper than nutrition. I saw different energy healing practitioners. There was one specific example when I was in graduate school, and I had test-taking anxiety that was through the roof, like so bad that I could barely write my name at the top of a biochemistry test, and I knew something was wrong. At the time, I had no idea what energy work was, but I knew someone who said she could help, so I decided to seek her assistance. It made such a huge difference. As I started to dig deeper and learn different energy modalities, I realized, ‘Oh, this doesn't just apply to test-taking. It applies to relationships. It applies to our diet. It applies to how we view ourselves and how we view food.’ It’s a longer story than this, but it was both personal and then professional. I know deep in my heart that I was led spiritually to my current work as an intuitive and energy healer. When did you launch your own business? How long have you been doing this on your own for other people? I started my coaching business in 2005 while becoming certified as a health coach. That year, I also learned an energy technique called Emotional Freedom Techniques and starting using this with some clients. In 2008, I graduated with my master's degree in science for human nutrition; I dove right into more of a clinical nutrition role. I had my nutrition practice, and then I had a few clients on the side where I did my energy work. Over the years, the energy work kept on becoming a bigger piece of my practice, and in about 2014, I just felt really called to do only energy work. Although, of course, when I'm working with someone, my previous experience as a nutritionist comes into sessions. Everything is interconnected; my education and experiences with nutrition have become quite helpful in my current work and helping my clients get to the root of their problems. What is the Emotional Freedom Techniques? Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a process that helps to free up blocked energy in the body. By tapping on certain acupressure points on the torso and talking about an issue at hand, one can release stored, suppressed, stuck energy so that there is more flow and alignment. It’s a very simple process that can be learned for free online at The Tapping Solution. By working with a trained professional you can dig deeper and get through your own blind spots. EFT is just one of the numerous tools that I utilize in my practice with clients. Pre-COVID-19, did you primarily see clients in your office or online? When I was doing nutrition, I split my time between my office and a bunch of wellness facilities throughout the county; I kind of bounced around depending on who needed me. When I started doing energy work, initially, it was all face to face. I was an early adopter to practices like PSYCH-K and even Emotional Freedom Techniques. There weren't a lot of people listed or doing this work, so people would find me online and they might be in Massachusetts or New York City or even places like California and Europe, so I started working with people online. Before COVID, I would say maybe 20% of my clients were face to face and 80% were online. Oh, my gosh, that's significant. Yeah, it’s almost like I knew intuitively that I needed to have a practice that was virtual. When I started moving online, it opened up all these doorways where I was able to expand past my location and be able to work with people all over the world. I have a client in Switzerland; I've worked with people in France; I've worked with people in England. It's really been amazing because I believe that energy does travel. It's been wonderful because I've been able to work with all these people throughout the country and throughout the world. While I love face-to-face sessions, it's just allowed me to be out there in a bigger way. Okay, so I'm curious, what were your first thoughts when COVID-19 started becoming more prevalent in the news? I would say I did think about my business because my husband was furloughed from his work. We had to have some income coming in the door, so there was pressure on my part. While we have money and savings and we would be okay for a few months, it was still scary to think, ‘Okay, where is money going to be coming from?’ So that was my initial thought. I actually was very thankful that I could continue my work and continue having structure in my life because I think during these times, one of the things that's been the hardest for a lot of people is that they don't have structure and that they're kind of like, ‘What should I do with my day? And I'm bored.’ Or ‘I’m having to reinvent myself.’ I didn't have any of that because I had structure. I knew I could still work even if I couldn't come to my office; I could get my laptop and work from a bedroom at home. But I do come to my office every day because I'm the only one in my office space. I have all my books and resources that I can use with my clients. So it’s actually all worked out very well. I dress up, and it’s fantastic. It feels good. About 50% of my in-person clients have decided to move to zoom sessions and the rest are waiting until they can come see me face-to-face. The other thing I want to mention is that I wanted to offer an incentive for people during this time. I wanted to help in any way I could. I offered these 15-minute “pay what you can” check-ins. During the month of April, people could go to my calendar system, and once a week, they could sign up for 15 minutes pay-what-you-can session. They would pay me through Venmo, and it was up to them. I told them, ‘I don't judge: Pay me whatever you can. I'm here to support you during these times.’ So people didn't have to pay for a full session or if they didn't have sessions left in a package, they didn't feel as financially obligated. So that was a way that I was able to support my clients; it was a unique offering because a lot of people were going through fear and things that really affect our mental and emotional states. I would say I did think about my business because my husband was furloughed from his work. We had to have some income coming in the door, so there was pressure on my part. While we have money and savings and we would be okay for a few months, it was still scary to think, ‘Okay, where is money going to be coming from?’ So that was my initial thought. I actually was very thankful that I could continue my work and continue having structure in my life because I think during these times, one of the things that's been the hardest for a lot of people is that they don't have structure and that they're kind of like, ‘What should I do with my day? And I'm bored.’ Or ‘I’m having to reinvent myself.’ I didn't have any of that because I had structure. I knew I could still work even if I couldn't come to my office; I could get my laptop and work from a bedroom at home. But I do come to my office every day because I'm the only one in my office space. I have all my books and resources that I can use with my clients. So it’s actually all worked out very well. I dress up, and it’s fantastic. It feels good. About 50% of my in-person clients have decided to move to zoom sessions and the rest are waiting until they can come see me face-to-face. The other thing I want to mention is that I wanted to offer an incentive for people during this time. I wanted to help in any way I could. I offered these 15-minute “pay what you can” check-ins. During the month of April, people could go to my calendar system, and once a week, they could sign up for 15 minutes pay-what-you-can session. They would pay me through Venmo, and it was up to them. I told them, ‘I don't judge: Pay me whatever you can. I'm here to support you during these times.’ So people didn't have to pay for a full session or if they didn't have sessions left in a package, they didn't feel as financially obligated. So that was a way that I was able to support my clients; it was a unique offering because a lot of people were going through fear and things that really affect our mental and emotional states. So what was the response to that? Did you have a lot of people register? I had quite a few people register, and most of them were current clients. It brought in people that I hadn't worked with in a while. My clients that I work with on a regular basis were mostly showing up for their hour-long sessions. But it was the people who had kind of disappeared or didn't have a scheduled session for a while and felt like they needed something as sort of an interim. It was a great response. It kept me busy, and actually, I decided not to continue it through May because I realized that I needed time for myself. Beyond this, have you seen an increase in your clients like coming to you for sessions? Such as for more COVID-19-related stress responses? I tend to schedule people out in advance. So it's almost like things were already pre-scheduled before COVID. Right now, my work has stayed fairly steady. I'm blessed that I can say that because I know that a lot of people are struggling. But the other thing is that I've helped a lot of people with their struggles. So I've worked with clients who have businesses like real estate agents, and it's just helping them to understand that as they continue to work with themselves, even during times of pandemic, when we go inside, we can start to be self-sustainable—no matter what's going on in our worlds. So I’m helping my clients empower themselves, get creative, prepare themselves, and be as mentally ready as they can for anything that happens in their life. Let’s work on what's going on inside. I haven't been very fearful, and I think that's really helped my business because I've stayed this strong, steady force for my community, which probably shows when they show up for a session. They want some of that! They're like, ‘Give me some of that light! I need it. I'm not in a good place.’ So I'm helping them to see their own light during a time that, to some, can feel very dark. Well, that kind of leads into my last question: As you're working with clients about COVID-19-related stress and fears, what your advice is for people dealing with those things? This time has been so good for rest, to nurture, eat good foods, and boost the immune system. Now that some states are starting to go back to work and we're coming back into hopefully some state of more normalcy—structure is important because I think if we wake up every day and we don't have direction, then we're sort of lost, and by the end of the day, we feel a little bit useless or feel like we haven't accomplished anything. So I think if we can just say, okay, you know, at this time I go out for a run or at this time I meditate. It can still be self-care and nourishing activities during this time, but just to build in some steps to have normalcy is so important. Setting up structured time where we can do things for ourselves – go out for a walk by ourselves in nature – those kinds of things are really important, too. Tune inside - really feel what you’re feeling. A lot of times we run away from our feelings instead of addressing them head on and sitting with those feelings and understanding them and not being afraid of them and to honor them—this is also a way to help have more flow in life. We are all energetic beings. When we're feeling all over the place, when we're not feeling grounded, when we're not able to stick to a structure because it is hard to work from home, I think that we have to honor that it’s okay. Let's just sit with this and figure out one little thing we can do. It doesn't need to be a monumental step to start shifting the energy.
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