Conscious Choice: Initials Aren’t What You Stand For

September 2006 | Whole Brain Adviser

Initials Aren’t What You Stand For

By Nancy Ging, LCSW

Dear WB Adviser: I have innate gifts of intuition, healing and animal communication. I’d love to share these gifts, teach workshops and do readings, but I have no credentials of significance, no initials to put after my name. I can relate to many of the masters in the art world that were self taught and had very painful life experiences...does anyone ever consider that a degree? — Zena

Dear Zena: Life experience and innate gifts always have been and will be more valid and valuable than any initials decorating a name. It is the kindness and inspiration, the beauty that makes a meeting with such teachers, artists and healers memorable rather than those oft mysterious credentials flanking a name. Do not let anything keep you from offering the world what you have to give! Gifts of the Spirit are meant to be shared. Do your soul’s work and remember that it’s never too late to acquire degrees and such. Initials after a name are useful for those who have them for they signify that the name belongs to someone who has had the necessary structure, support, and discipline to have jumped through a series of hoops in a particular arena. This can make everyone feel more secure and give a practitioner more credibility. But, just between us girls, many of the most helpful souls from whom I’ve benefitted in my own journey have had no formal credentials, and some of least helpful have had impressive looking ones. Certification is secondary to genuine substance or heart. Those who offer services are people, first and foremost, hopefully reasonably balanced people transmitting energies that uplift and harmonize. There are no credentials for wholeness at this point, but perhaps there will be someday when vibrations can be tested and monitored over time. Accreditation is obviously important in the scientific fields but less so in the informal areas of helping where application of intuition and kindness is what matters most. And life experience counts! Here’s some heartening input: some academic institutions even give credit toward various degrees for life experience.

Dear Whole Brain Adviser: Are some families really “star-crossed”? I’m thinking of getting more deeply into a relationship with someone from a family that has one drama after another. Am I nuts? — Joe

Dear Joe: No, not nuts. In fact your eyes are wide open and you’re wisely aware of the complexity indicators present. Since birds of a feather do indeed flock together, this is a fine opportunity to review the intricacies of your own nest and family tree as you observe your friend’s family with compassion.

Thank Godness that we live in a time which offers us ways to liberate ourselves from the emotional burdens we carry for our parents and other ancestors out of our love and loyalty. I’m speaking not of genetics but of energetic patterns. Take note of Family Constellations web sites and Bert Hellinger’s books, starting with Love’s Hidden Symmetry. You’ll find that your friend, like you and all of us, can outgrow patterns of dysfunction that often have very deep roots. In fact, the juicier and more repetitive the family dramas, the farther back in the family tree the root causes of the chaos may be. If your friend is curious about the burdens being carried for this beleaguered family and wishes to claim this life for him/herself, liberation is truly possible and history need not repeat itself.

Now if someone will forward this to the Kennedy clan….

Nancy Ging, LCSW is a Chicago-area holistic psychotherapist.

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: