In this episode of RAW, I interviewed Sophie Leung, a Hypnotherapist, Intuitive Life Coach. She shares about her journey from feeling trapped as a young corporate woman to becoming an empowered intuitive leader who helps others discover their true purpose.
The role of Hypnotherapy in healing
Sophie focuses on integrating hypnotherapy, forward-looking coaching and enduring spiritual principles in helping her clients. Given I am already familiar with coaching, my biggest curiosity lies with how hypnotherapy and spirituality comes into her work!
- Hypnotherapy is a very effective modality because it helps clients to access their subconscious level on making sense of earlier memories which played a role in forming our limiting beliefs. Her example given was co-dependency. If you had an authoritative/ absent parent figure where your love was not being reciprocated from a child's eyes, you may learn to over give and please others in exchange for attention and affection. When the hurt inner child is not being healed, one could repeatedly sabotage adult relationships. As such, by connecting the dots and making sense of the meaning of the past, one can release negative emotions and begin his/her healing journey.
- Sophie will continue to use life coaching to help customers create a tangible goal, and hold him/her accountable from point A to point B. She supports clients' mindset shift when going beyond comfort zones to achieve their goals.
- Last but not least, Sophie includes enduring spiritual principles in her work to help clients connect to something bigger than themselves. The result being that clients can strengthen their intuition and use their own inner guidance to thrive on future challenges, than continue to be dependent on a coach once their sessions with Sophie ends.
I am impressed how Sophie helps her clients holistically to achieve sustainable transformation in mindset, behavior and outlook in life.
Sophie's self discovery journey as an empath and healer
Sophie used to be an over giver in her past relationships and work. She was meek and seldom truly owned her truth and her voice. Instead, she over-gave and struggled with a poor sense of self as a result.
This also showed up in unhealthy romantic relationships. Without taking breaks to heal from her past breakups, she quickly filled her void with new people.
When her last relationship ended, she discovered the concept of "co-dependency", and she decided to focus on inner work and break the cycle. After encountering hypnotherapy, life coaching, and spiritual coaching, she is now clear of what she wants in her next relationship. She has learned the skills of taking care of her energetic boundaries instead of absorbing others' energy. She is also passionate to share her multiple modalities to others who are looking for transformation.
Finding gratitude in every interaction and relationship
Sophie believes that we always meet someone in our lives for a reason. If you are a believer of past life, it adds an extra layer of meaning to all our relationships. If you believe in God, every life has been touched by God at least once, whether you are aware or not. You could have been derailing in life, and someone just happens to nudge you back in the right direction. This is God’s work. All in all, if you allow yourself to trust spirituality, it is a very personal and magical experience that is difficult to be put in words. However this expansive energy can be felt and recognized when it happens to you - that's when you may have feelings of awe, humility and surrender to a high being.
Indeed, this reminds me of the Japenese concept of "Ichigo ichie". Ichigo ichie can be translated as, "Once, a meeting" and also as "In this moment, an opportunity." What this means to tell us is that each meeting, everything we experience, is a unique treasure that will never be repeated in the same way again. Keeping this in mind helps me to be more mindful of every interaction I encounter, and to pay more attention to learning the possible lessons I can learn from each person I meet.
Breaking the Generational Trauma
Sophie believes that our ancestors bless us, and they have also passed down some lessons that they have not fully learned. You learned by copying your parent's behavior, and your parent learned by copying his/her parent's behavior and so on. Knowing this gives Sophie a greater motivation to resolve the negative behavioral patterns that have been passed down to her from earlier generations.
She is now clear that her life mission is to break any cyclical behaviors that have been passed down from the previous generations. By reclaiming her self-worth, voice and authenticity, her greatest wish is for her future children and grandchildren would have a new blueprint to learn from and grow to empowered leaders.
This reminds me of my reflection of loneliness and fear of rejection, and how my mother and grandmother were also lonely and fearful (blog post here). And how important that through our efforts in developing self awareness and healing, that we break the generation trauma.
You just need a One-Degree-Shift in your mind
So great, I am now aware, how do I start to stop the cycle? Sophie advises, "just one degree shift in your mind can start a ripple of massive shifts in your life." To stop the self-sabotaging behaviors and release limiting beliefs, the first step is to be more open and authentic with yourself then your relationships.
“If I was not authentic before, the relationships I had were not authentic as well. If I don’t speak up and share my opinions, likes, and dislikes, then I will just be misjudged.”
When you’re able to be open and vulnerable to others, they get the privilege to see who you truly are. That is the most powerful way to create a deeper connection with someone else.
For example, to heal her relationship with her father, Sophie chose to be more open and share her views and opinions with her father. This allowed her father to understand her more which creates an opening for authentic connection.
- Have that one-degree mental shift in receiving love from your parent, accepting their way may not be the way you like it to be.
- Have that one-degree mental shift to open up, and reveal your true self (little by little), instead of playing the role to fit other's image.
Closing note from Sophie: Keep Shining your Light
Sophie wants to tell you, dear readers, that you matter in this world.
Everything that you do, every interaction creates a ripple effect in this world.
It’s so important to understand who you are, create meaningful relationships with your family, friends and your romantic partners. We are not separate. We are all connected.
Having this one-degree shift will create a positive shift in your entire being, the way that you show up, and the way that you interact with the world!
Epilogue
Feeling repeatedly burnout this year, as I re-read the transcript, Sophie's advise rings so true that we should not stop doing our inner work. We need to constantly and intentionally let go, to clear our "junks" from the past such as insecurities, unresolved suppressed emotions such as grief, disappointment, sadness, frustrations and anger. Only when we create space, we can receive and give.
Once we do the inner work, we become better versions of ourselves. We level up in our relationships and we help the world become a better place for everyone.
All photos courtesy of Sophie Leung
To find more about Sophie Hypnocoach, contact her at https://yourinnercoachingjourney.com/ Follow her at @sophieleunghypnocoach on Instagram.
If you have inspirational stories to be featured on RAW, do connect with me at hello@relatingauthenticworld.com