Embracing Authenticity and Overcoming Trauma for Wellness

Valerie Holbert, an intuitive energy healer and Reiki master, joins us on this transformative episode of Everyday Shaman. Once a graphic artist, Valerie's life took a radical turn after a fibromyalgia diagnosis and numerous unexplained health issues. Discover how her deep dive into yoga, naturopathy, and energy healing not only alleviated her symptoms but also unveiled the profound connection between physical ailments and unresolved trauma. Valerie emphasizes the crucial role of addressing internal struggles for holistic healing and growth, shedding light on the power of trusted guides, sacred spaces, and community support.

Transitioning from graphic design to holistic health was no easy feat for Valerie, especially after experiencing the betrayal that shook her trust. This episode uncovers her journey through yoga and trauma-informed care, highlighting the transformative effects of these practices on her own healing. We explore the "dark night of the soul," a pivotal period pushing individuals towards greater self-awareness and healing. Valerie’s story underscores that anyone can become a healer by embracing authenticity and helping others navigate their paths to wellness.

Valerie dives into diverse holistic healing methods, explaining the journey to becoming a Reiki master and the importance of gradual learning and personal growth. We discuss the unpredictable nature of energy healing sessions and the involvement of guides or ancestors. Valerie also touches on the significance of frequency and vibration in our well-being, the concept of "good selfishness," and essential self-care boundaries. Whether in-person or remote, Valerie’s insights into the nuanced world of energy work and the profound effects of ancestral healing are bound to inspire and enlighten. Tune in to learn how sacred reciprocity with Earth and navigating personal energy amidst a sea of external influences can catalyze holistic healing.

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Episode Transcript

Jeffrey Brunk (00:01):
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode
of the Everyday Shaman.
I'm your host, jeffrey Brunk,and I'm very pleased today to
have a very special guest withme.
His name is Valerie Holbert.
Valerie is an intuitive energyhealer, a Reiki master, ryt 500
health and wellness coach andinner presence coach.
Like many other healers, herdeepest traumas and wounds led

(00:25):
to her discovering her gifts andcalling as a healer.
She believes we are living in atime where the call to move
through old patterns andreconnect ourselves to each
other and the planet is gettingstronger, louder and more
intense Now.
So more than ever, we needtrusted guides, sacred spaces
and community to support ourtransformation as individuals

(00:47):
and as a collective.
Valerie believes transformingour struggles and our strengths
is where we all have opportunityto find inner healing and
expansion and extend thathealing to the world around us.
Her experiences have led her toknowing that our internal world
is directly connected to theworld around us.
Valerie says it may feelselfish to do deep inner work

(01:08):
when it seems the world is onfire, but it's actually the
medicine.
It's easy to feel stuck, sad,angry, overwhelmed, constricted
and even afraid.
For many of us, we're findingwe are no longer willing or able
to stay stuck in that place andthe old ways aren't working
anymore.
In Valerie's own journey, aswell as in work with her clients

(01:29):
, she's found that integratingmultiple modalities like
intuitive energy healing, breathwork, guided meditation,
movement parts work and othermind-body practices provide the
safety and space to cultivateextraordinary growth, healing
and spiritual connection.
When she's not with clients,you will likely find her
thrifting, kayaking on a localriver, ocean or lake, snuggling

(01:52):
with her crazy dogs and family,staring at the moon in clouds or
planning her next adventure.
So welcome, valerie, it's greatto have you here.

Valerie Holbert (02:02):
Yeah, I'm excited to be here.

Jeffrey Brunk (02:04):
Looking at your background, it seems like you
seems like we have a whole lotin common.
We do For those that don't know, valerie and I worked together.
What was it more than 20 yearsago?

Valerie Holbert (02:16):
Yeah, in the 90s, right Late 90s yeah, okay.

Jeffrey Brunk (02:20):
And both of us at that time at least for myself I
didn't know that we would endup doing what we're doing now.

Valerie Holbert (02:28):
No, definitely not.

Jeffrey Brunk (02:30):
You know, working in the graphic arts field for a
national baseball publicationis a far cry from energy healing
.
So what led you, or whathappened in your life, to kind
of flip the switch, so to speak,and to take you down this road
of wanting to better yourselfand help others?

Valerie Holbert (02:53):
Yeah, well, you know, on the one hand I
wouldn't have thought back inthose days that I would be doing
the type of healing I am now.
But I was always torn betweenart and healing, but in a more
traditional sense.
I thought maybe I wanted to bea physical therapist or do art

(03:14):
therapy or even massage therapy.
So it was always torn betweenthe two worlds.
But my experience initially itwas around health crisis.
So I in my early 20s had afibromyalgia diagnosis.
That stemmed from a laundrylist of symptoms.
You know, I had vertigo, I hadpretty much chronic pain, some

(03:36):
of that stuff.
When.
You know, when we were workingtogether I didn't really share
it a lot with people andtraditional medicine basically
said we don't know what's wrongwith you.
Here's a prescription forantidepressants or pain medicine
.
You know, those things didn'thelp.

Jeffrey Brunk (03:56):
That seems to be the go-to.

Valerie Holbert (03:58):
Yes, even now, for a lot of people really.
And you know, like we said,this was late nineties and the
triangle area of North Carolina,and so I began to seek out
alternative healing methods.
You know I found yoga.
This was in a church basement.
This was before yoga studioswere around, especially in the

(04:19):
South.
You know, I started seeing likenaturopaths and other types of
healers, massage and even someenergy workers, and you know
things that for the time werepretty out there.

Jeffrey Brunk (04:30):
Well, did you find that when you were going to
energy healers and I know yogacan be very beneficial I tried
yoga as well, and I don't havethe body for it.
You know I'm too compact toreally bend over that way.
Right.
I can do the sunrise easily,but when it comes to bending and

(04:52):
touching my toes, that wasdifferent.
But did you find that it made adifference doing alternative
methods or going to alternativehealers?

Valerie Holbert (05:00):
Yeah, it did.
Even back then it was abeginning for me.
Yeah, it did.
Even back then it was abeginning for me.
And I'll fast forward a littlebit to say that what I was
beginning to find in thatjourney and that I found later
as a healer was that for methose symptoms were showing up
because of trauma in my life,some childhood trauma, some of

(05:21):
which I was just starting toremember and things that I had
been through.
And you know we hold that inour bodies like the body keeps
the score, the issues in thetissues, these sort of things
and that was showing up for mein these physical ways.
And so, yes, I was beginning tofind some relief in those and
some moments of relief.

(05:42):
And also, you know, all ofthose things are designed from a
physical perspective to help usbecome more comfortable in our
bodies, also an energeticperspective.
So it was helping, but it was.
You know it was a slow process.
I didn't have like an instantmoment in that particular
awakening.
I had more of that with somelater things, but it was you

(06:06):
know a beginning.

Jeffrey Brunk (06:08):
I like the issues in the tissue, saying I
gravitate towards dis-easecausing disease and stress
causing ulcers comparison.
And so many people stuff thosethings down, whether it's
childhood traumas or any type oftraumas.
Right.
They tend to hold on to themand that will manifest in many

(06:30):
ways, both emotionally andphysically, whether it's feeling
sorry for oneself or anger,something happening to them
that's causing them not to beable to function correctly.
Now, with fibromyalgia, I alsohad a bit of an experience not
personally with fibromyalgia but, during my upheaval, dark night

(06:53):
of the soul, shaman sickness,whatever you want to call it
boot up the butt.
I was going to court orderedtherapy and did this for 10
years and it got to be.
It got to the point where mytherapist and I it was more of a
friendship visit for an houronce a month.
But at one point one of hercolleagues came into our meeting

(07:14):
, into her office, and asked me.
She said you know, I have a.
I have a have a young girl thatI've been working with and she
has fibromyalgia.
Doctors can't find a cure orcan't find a reason why she has
it.
Is there anything you can do?
And at the point at that pointI was, I think, at my level
three in my Reiki training and Ifound it very one it blew my

(07:37):
mind that I'm in with apsychologist who's coming to ask
for my help.
But there's a lot of sayautoimmune disorders as well
that doctors can't explain andthe go-to for not necessarily
the psychologist but thepsychiatrist is to prescribe a
medication.
And that just further dullsthat inner voice or the ability

(08:00):
to let things go that peoplehave stuffed down inside.
If you don't mind me askingwhat type of traumas were they
that you know of that startedcausing some of these issues for
you?

Valerie Holbert (08:14):
Yeah, yeah, I don't mind sharing.
I'll say quickly that, in termsof fibromyalgia and autoimmune
conditions, we know now, likescience shows, that something
like 80% of people withfibromyalgia autoimmune
conditions have had would scorehigh on a adverse childhood
experiences test or ACE test.
It's much higher in women.

(08:34):
But science is starting tosupport kind of what you know,
we've experienced and knowintuitively about that
connection.
So for me, when I was almostthree, my dad died in a gun
accident and I actuallywitnessed it happen, and so that

(08:55):
in and of itself was atraumatic experience.
And part of the time after thatwas spending a lot of time with
extended family, including anuncle that I stayed with.
That wasn't safe.
There was some abuse from thatuncle that continued on and off
for several years and it wasn'treally until, of course, the
part with my dad we talked about.

(09:17):
But I had made some accusationsagainst this uncle and like,
all of a sudden, memories andthings started making sense to
me that you know, you hear thesekinds of stories and you think,

(09:54):
well, how can someone not know,how can they not remember or
like know that they have thesetraumatic experiences?
Well, you know, our mind andour parts want to protect us,
right, and we also contextualizethese things as children want
to protect us, right, and wealso contextualize these things
as children.
But so I started rememberingthings and realizing that I had
been abused by this relative aswell.

(10:17):
But it took me some time to, youknow, have conversations, like
with my mom about it or withother people.
And I even had a friendrecently that I shared about and
she was like I didn't know thatyou had this experience, you
know.
So I think oftentimes, like youknow, we might not know on a
conscious level, even initially.
Sometimes we might be reallysuper aware of what it is.
But so for me, it was largelyaround those things and I had a

(10:39):
lot of figuring out to do, youknow, and I'd done a lot of
disassociation over the years,right, so, as a, as a way of
coping, and really I found outlater, like I thought, you know,
sometimes it comes in waves,like I thought I'd like done the
work and then in my fortiesagain, you know, then it was
like, oh well, here's anotherlayer for you with some other
things.

Jeffrey Brunk (11:00):
Yeah, that's.
That's sort of the way it goes.
You think you're on one paththat you're meant to be on and
all of a sudden it's, it's.
It can come out of the bluethat, oh, this is not where I'm
meant to be and you're taken inanother direction.
And if you listen and you go inthat direction when you're
listening is a hard part.
Also, letting go or being beingable to have someone to tell

(11:23):
these things to is extremelyimportant.
I've personally worked with somany people that did not.
And again, you and I havediscussed and I've discussed
before men are the toughest onesto work with because they don't
want to admit things, andtraditional therapy I don't
believe is the most advantageousway for someone to go, because

(11:45):
you can still pick and choosewhat you you know, what you want
to share, and not really thethings that are darker and
deeper that you, that you knowabout.
You don't want to put them outthere for fear of men especially
, appearing weak or appearing asa victim.
Be a victim and I'm justcurious when did you, did you
ever reach a point where it waslike I need to work on myself,

(12:08):
and how did you do that?
Because I think so many peopleneed to know how to address
these things with themselves, ofjust being given.
Oh well, you're depressed, oryou're because these types of
traumas like you're discussing.
They're, they're, they're dark,they're, they're difficult

(12:30):
things to get over and theyweren't repressed.
Didn't you remember them, evenfrom that early age, right?
Yeah.
How did you go about addressingthose things on a personal
level, having discussing them toget to where you would be able
to help others within similarcircumstances?

Valerie Holbert (12:52):
Yeah, I mean, I think the answer is kind of a
both and of what you're askingabout doing it for myself versus
a traditional way, because inone of your earlier podcasts you
were sharing the piece of howoftentimes, probably especially
for our generation, that we're,you know, traditional way,
because in one of your earlierpodcasts you were sharing you
know the piece of how oftentimes, probably especially for our
generation, that we're expectedto do things a certain way.

(13:12):
Right, you're kind of expectedmake good grades, you get a good
college, you get a good job, atraditional type of job.
And so while I did very earlyon, you know, do some pretty
unconventional things that Itook initiative on myself
because the traditional medicalsystem wasn't helping at all, I
also still parts of me felt likeI had to stay within that

(13:34):
traditional framework.
You know I could only go so farout of it, both in my career or
even in the healing methods Iwas choosing for myself.
The healing methods I waschoosing for myself, although
some of them, like I said to alot of people, were pretty out
there.
So I was sort of slowly, likeyou know, I moved from graphic
design to yoga, right.

(13:54):
So at a time where yoga wasbecoming more accepted and kind
of focusing on trauma, informedyoga and how psychology overlaps
with that and yoga therapy.
That was like the program I did.
And then I did a healthcoaching training that was
holistic, where I could, youknow, go down that more
traditional avenue of like dietand movement but bring in these

(14:17):
other pieces of what healthmeans.
And then I brought in theenergy training part means, and
then I brought in the energytraining part, so when you were
doing yoga and movementexercises.

Jeffrey Brunk (14:29):
it's a way of quieting your mind, which is
extremely important, but it alsoputs you in a flow and this is
going to sound crazy tolisteners and deep but, it's a
flow of a form of physics.
You're being one with, say, thewind, or you're one with
yourself, but also in flow witheverything around you.
It's a connection.

(14:50):
So I've learned, and I'm sureyou have too, that when you
begin this journey into becominga healer or becoming yourself
and I think anyone can be ahealer, and I don't say that
lightly, I think anyone can haswithin them not necessarily an
energy healer, but if they areat a place where they are their

(15:11):
authentic selves, they're ableto help others.
So when you're doing thesethings in the beginning it's
like taking steps to getting todifferent levels.
There's different tiers With me.
I found that it seemed funny atthe time.
I actually didn't seem funny,but everyone was coming to me.
Can you tell me what my spiritanimal is?

(15:32):
And it started with that typething.
And now being to a point whereI'm working with so much dark
trauma within people, abuse andsuicide attempts and just all
kinds of things, and it's goingfrom hey, here's a cute little
animal to working with darknessand things, and I found that it

(15:53):
was like taking baby steps andthen you reach a point and
there's a break and nothinghappens.
And I've learned that.
It was a time for me to bothrest and be ready for what comes
next and you know, the nextdownload, which is going to be
more intense.
Right Not necessarily going fromzero to 60, but zero to 20.

Valerie Holbert (16:16):
And yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, initially I
was drawn to yoga because I hadthis moment in a yoga class
where I was aware it was thefirst time I had not been in
physical pain, and I didn't knowhow long.
And this was in my 20s.
You're not supposed to behaving pain in your entire body
all the time when you're 24years old or whatever.

(16:38):
And so I was like, wow, it justgave me a lot of hope that if I
can have a moment, you know, aminute without pain, then I can
have more than that.
And you know, as I continuedwith yoga and you know my
training as a teacher,unfortunately, I think a lot of
yoga culture focuses on theasana, the movement and the
practice and, you know, gettinginto a certain pose.

(16:59):
But you know, the other parts ofyoga there's a lot of other
parts to yoga are about likebeing comfortable in our body,
right, like creating internalspace.
And for people who have beenthrough trauma, you know that's
what autoimmune conditions are.
We're fighting our own body, soit can be scary to be in our
own body.
So I think that for me,especially looking back, that's

(17:24):
why I was so drawn to yoga.
It was like these baby steps,like you said, to being able to
be in our body, becauseoftentimes not, pain has a
message, right, and it's justgoing to get louder if we don't
get still and quiet and reallytake a look at it, and it can be
dark and painful, but so youhave to take a step two in

(17:45):
recognizing that you have to letgo of things which can be
frightening because it can leadto change.

Jeffrey Brunk (17:51):
And I found change for anyone can be a
frightening thing, whether it'schanging a job or moving to a
new town, or having a child orwhatever it may be.
So did you feel, as you movedalong and became more cognizant
of what was causing the pain andthe thing?
Was it frightening for you tolet go of certain things and
move ahead?
Because I think that's whatreally holds people back, a lot

(18:14):
of people back, from takingthose steps to better themselves
, because fear is a greatmotivator, in a way that it's a
negative motivator, butmotivator in keeping you where
you are.

Valerie Holbert (18:27):
Yeah, I think fear definitely was a factor
that held me back or maybeslowed me down, because I felt
so this feeling like I had tostay within these traditional
ish you know roles and you know,and being married and being a
parent and being someone who wasdoing a lot of care for others

(18:49):
and not realizing I wasn't doingthat for myself.
And it really took a secondmore like impactful dark night
of the soul experience, when Iwas already kind of in the world
of yoga and coaching and justpretty early on in my energy
healing experience, to reallylike.
I mean, you know, like if we'renot getting the message when

(19:10):
it's gentle, we're going to getit more intense.
And you know, it really tookthat to like knock me on my you
know what and just really beforced into like the next level
and just really be forced into,like the next level?

Jeffrey Brunk (19:27):
Yeah, so when that happens because it's not
that a dark night of the soul orshaman sickness, it's not a
one-time thing, right, and lifestill goes on, even for healers.
And when we don't listen, we'recaught up in the throes of life
and everything it throws at youand you don't hear it.
It's not necessarily refusingto hear it at this point Early

(19:52):
on.
For me it was refusing to hearit because of the fear.
And you refuse it long enough,you do get the boot up the butt
and it is more intense.
So you got to that point.
Did you get to a point whereyou got it like?
It's like, if you're not gonnalisten, here's the slap yeah,
yeah, I did.

Valerie Holbert (20:12):
I um, I mean, and I can share what that one
was if, or be more general aboutit.
I don't know what's morehelpful in the, however, context
as much as you want to share,feel comfortable sharing.
You know it's up to you yeah, Imean I'll share it because it's
something that I thought aboutsharing for a while and before I
was actually separated and onthe way to divorce, I had

(20:33):
reasons to kind of not share itso much.
But so we my partner at thetime and I were looking for some
support in our marriage and notreally resonating with
traditional therapy, and so wefound someone who was a coach
and had presented themselves asbeing trauma-informed and spoke
this really spiritual languageand these things that just

(20:55):
sounded like things that Iresonated with.
The short version is that thisperson, who was a woman and my
husband at the time, developedwhat started as an emotional
affair and then turned into morethan that, and my partner at
the time lied to me.
This woman lied to me.
This was a healer in ourcommunity.

(21:17):
So it was months before I foundout and she posted on her
social media.

Jeffrey Brunk (21:23):
Healer in name only.

Valerie Holbert (21:25):
Right, right, yeah, and it was just so.
There was, like thistriangulation of like there was
a betrayal with my partner.
There was a betrayal with her.
There was I had all this fearin our community where we had
overlapping spiritual groups.
I felt like I couldn't speakout, you know.
But I wanted justice and latermy partner and I did reconcile

(21:48):
and try to work things out andthen separated again a year ago.
But when that all happened, whenthat hit the fan, I was just
devastated.
I never thought that that couldhappen in my marriage.
I had a lot of shame because Ihad found this woman.
I was the one that took usthere.
It was truly that dark night ofthe soul where, like you know,

(22:09):
you have these moments whereyou're just like in the grocery
store, crying, staring at theyou know whatever's in front of
you.
But it was also such a gift.
I mean I realized I was stilldisassociated, I'd still been
disassociating about so manythings and, like when you're
knocked down, like that, youjust you can't disassociate
anymore, like you're crackedopen to the point that you have

(22:31):
to rebuild yourself, you know.

Jeffrey Brunk (22:33):
And so your your issues, I mean stemming from
your childhood experiences andthen this happening trust was
something you struggled with.
Yeah, absolutely Trust wassomething you struggled with.

Valerie Holbert (22:44):
Yeah, absolutely.

Jeffrey Brunk (22:45):
That's something I believe that people that are
more open and aware they're sosensitive, but when it comes to
family and those closest to us,that's where we're most
vulnerable.
Yeah.
Because we don't expect it.
Then it leads to can I trust myfriends?

(23:08):
And then, eventually, if peopledon't recognize it within
themselves that that is a shadowelement of themselves, it can
lead down the rabbit holes ofYouTube.
And then, all of a sudden, theconspiracy theories and you're
living on the planet as a lizardperson, or lizard people are
all around you.
you know, because you don'ttrust the government, you don't

(23:28):
trust anyone, and I'm not sayingyou specifically.
So, yeah, those, those issuesof trust.
It's kind of like the diseasething or the stress causing
ulcers.
Issues of trust can alsomanifest themselves emotionally,
but you would also repressthese things.
It takes people a while torecognize things, and sometimes

(23:51):
it's days and sometimes it'syears.
Uh-huh.
Now, after the body and theyoga exercises, and you still
practice.
Yeah, where did that lead youto?
What was next?

Valerie Holbert (24:08):
still practice.
Yeah, where did that lead youto?
What was next?
So after that I had started aprogram for the health coaching
because because there werethings about changes in diet and
stress management and that sortof thing that were helpful for
me at the time and I wanted to.
I wanted my work to help otherpeople and we touched on this
before but oftentimes for peoplewho are experiencing these
autoimmune conditions and sortof mystery symptoms, they don't

(24:30):
get help from the traditionalmedical system and feel very,
you know, not heard or seen orsometimes even told.
It's all in their head and youknow.
So I wanted to be able tosupport people moving through
that and I had always beencurious about energy healing and
Reiki and found someone to dolike a one-on-one training with

(24:52):
for my Reiki over an extendedperiod of time.

Jeffrey Brunk (24:56):
How long?
How long was the period of time?

Valerie Holbert (25:00):
For that Reiki one was probably maybe six to
eight months, and then anothersix to eight months for Reiki
two.
So a couple of years for oneand two with this one person.
She'd stopped doing classes andwas doing it one on one, and
then I had like another yearbefore I went and did Reiki
three.
So you took time, which I thinkis important.

Jeffrey Brunk (25:21):
Yeah, I totally agree with you.
I went.
It took four years for mebecause I didn't get it.
It's just took taking timebetween the different levels of
myself.
And it's funny because lastnight my wife was on Facebook
and saw one of those ads becomea Reiki master online and over

(25:44):
the weekend.
Oh, those things just reallyripped me.
And she replied.
She put a post on there and Iwas so proud of her for doing
this about.
She kind of ripped them, butshe does it in a nice way you
know about.
You can't learn Reiki online.
You can't become a.
Reiki master in a month or twomonths, because they're

(26:07):
money-making things.
And.
I've run into Reiki masters orReiki practitioners in the past
that look at it as just abusiness.
They don't approach it with asense of actually wanting to
provide betterment to people.
It's a way to have a businessand make money.
And I've been turned back.

(26:28):
I was once turned away from areggae master and she said I'm
sorry, I'm not taking newcustomers, new clients, and I'm
like how do you turn people away?
And so for to hear that youtook the time to actually take
these things in and make thempart of who you are and use them
properly.
That also gave you time to, Iguess, further discover where

(26:51):
you're to go next.

Valerie Holbert (26:53):
Yeah, and I think that piece is so important
because I know a lot.
For some people, reiki is atool that they use for
themselves and it might not be apart of their work.
And for me that know this thatsecond wave of the dark night of
the soul came kind of in theearly stage of that, after I'd
started it, but pretty early on,and that was also a powerful

(27:14):
part of really opening me up.
You know, I I learned quite afew things during that time,
including that I was, I was nota good receiver.
I wanted to help other people,but I was terrible at letting
other people help me andrealizing how important that is,
how vital that is, that I can't, couldn't really be fully

(27:36):
present for other people, youknow, if I wasn't letting other
people do that for me and doingit for myself.
The reason why that the timingwas like that for me?
because then when I starteddoing um, practicing reiki on
others, it was just like all ofthese things started coming
through and happening in waysthat were well, I mean, I guess,

(27:59):
to my like thinking mindunexpected, but also parts of me
always knew and had experienceswith um, but the back to the
time piece I do.
I personally think that isreally valuable and my teacher
said, like you had, there werecertain things that we had to do
before she was even willing tomove on to the next level.

(28:19):
You know, a certain number ofdays on a personal practice, a
certain amount of time doingthis, a certain number of
distance sessions on otherpeople.

Jeffrey Brunk (28:30):
Now, when you have worked with others, do you
find that the ones that may havemore traumatic things in their
lives are more open, and haveyou seen, within anyone that
you've seen them go on to, toalso help people?

Valerie Holbert (28:50):
Have I seen others go on?
I guess I'm having troublethinking of a specific example
of that, but but I think that'svery common, you know, because
for people who have been throughthose kinds of experiences
intensely, you know I thinkthere is a real desire to help
experiences intensely, you know,I think there is a real desire

(29:11):
to help other people.
You know that we know and seeare struggling.

Jeffrey Brunk (29:17):
Yeah, I know.
For me I from a very young age.
I always knew I wanted to helppeople, but I didn't know how.
I was supposed to or what I wassupposed to do.
So I think that kind of led ina way to having six page resume
worth of jobs and looking forwhere I was supposed to be, and
then probably an eight pageresume that would include all of

(29:40):
my religious searching.
And I can name a couple ofspecific examples, but of people
that I'll use Dan as an example.

Valerie Holbert (29:49):
Right.

Jeffrey Brunk (29:50):
He didn't go through.
I mean, he's had his traumas inhis life but he didn't get the
boot up to Key Street.
He came fairly quickly throughit.
But I've also seen people thatdid go through things that they
were in a hole that seemed tothem impossible to climb out of
and now they're doing very well,and others that really weren't

(30:13):
in a hole that I worked with butthey didn't do anything to help
better themselves and now theyjust you know they'll be better
for a little while and go backto the same place because they
it's not like taking penicillinfor an infection.
When you receive any type ofhealing.
It's a two-way street and youhave to do things for yourself.
So it makes it frustrating forus, because we know what's

(30:38):
happening and we know what canhappen, but we can't do anything
to help the person change theirmind or to see things until
it's time for them to see it,whether it's in a good, peaceful
, transition type way, like itwas for us, with the slap across
the face from the divine that'sgoing to listen.

(30:58):
Especially if you're meant tobe and I think we're all meant
to help others, right, I thinksome of us are meant to help
others in a greater way, and notindividually, but collectively
as well.

Valerie Holbert (31:11):
Right.

Jeffrey Brunk (31:12):
Which leads me to something.
And I have I'm just going toread this this was in things you
sent because I want you toexplain this, because I'm not
exactly.

Valerie Holbert (31:21):
Okay, I hope I can.

Jeffrey Brunk (31:24):
One of the downloads that I've gotten and
also come up in sessions as aclient, around sacred
reciprocity with Pachamama andhow she wants us to release to
her for composting and to clearheavy energies.
I think a lot of us feel guiltyabout that because of what
humans have done to the earthand that actually disconnects us
even more.

(31:45):
So what exactly are you sayingthere?
Maybe?
I'm too much on the wordcomposting.

Valerie Holbert (31:55):
Well, I'll see, I'll see if I can explain
myself.
So, yeah, well, it's come up inquite a few different ways over
the last few years repeatedlyand for me, when I hit, when
things come up repeatedly, youknow I'm definitely like okay,
like I'm paying attention tothat.
And for me, when things come uprepeatedly, I'm definitely like
okay, I'm paying attention tothat.
And it has shown up both formyself and hearing other people
say things.

(32:15):
So I have a friend who's ashaman that I see regularly.
I still see other healers as animportant part of what I'm
doing for myself to show up forother people.
And a lot of the sessions thatwe've done have been where we're
calling in the spirit of theearth, pachamama, to help
release and clear heavy energy,or Hoochah right, and you know,

(32:40):
and part of the sacredreciprocity in those sessions is
, you know, giving thanks andbreath back.
And then, but outside ofsessions, I find myself running
into a lot of people, especiallyhealers or people who are
really conscious about the earthand wanting to treat the earth
better, but they have so muchguilt that it's like, instead of

(33:02):
wanting to interact with theearth in a way of ritual or
feeling okay about giving to theearth.
They feel guilty about thatbecause of the damage we've done
as humans to the earth and it'sactually blocking them from
being able to connect to theearth.
Right, it's Mother Earth.

(33:23):
She wants to nurture us and shewants to take what's no longer
serving us and, you know,release it into the earth.
That's what I mean by thecomposting right, like I've even
had some guided meditationswhere it's like you know,
visualize that what you'rereleasing, going to the earth
and things growing up from that.
So I think this like guilt andshame around, oh, like humans

(33:45):
have destroyed the planet, whichin a lot of ways, we have right
.
But but you know, like thatdoesn't mean that we can't still
interact with the earth andwith Pachamama in these ways
that are still reciprocal.

Jeffrey Brunk (33:59):
Yeah, we have to.
I mean, I think it's the earthis healing and the earth is
going to be here long afterhumankind is gone.
It's regenerated itself manytimes, you know.
Giving back to the earth, I doa thing here.
We live way down in the woodsand I like taking night walks,

(34:21):
and whether it's during thosewalks or it's during times that
I'm outside during the day, Ithank the earth for what it's
given us and for allowing us tobe here.
And.
I also apologize for what wehave done with intention.
I think everything's importantto do with intention, and I have

(34:42):
also gone around not just the10 acres we're on, but the 10
empty acres beside us.
I tend to incorporate, for somereason and it's not that I
studied it, but Native Americanor indigenous traditions and
methods, and so I'll giveofferings and blessings to the
land but also ask for notforgiveness.
But I apologize for what peoplehave done in the past past,

(35:06):
what people have done currentlyor what they're doing currently.
What we're we're not aware.
People are not aware of theconnectedness of, say, an
example, so much as like a deadtree falling and how it feeds
life in other ways.
The tree may be dead, but it'sfeeding the soil, which is
feeding insects within the soil,which is then feeding the birds

(35:29):
, and it comes around in such abig circle and people aren't
aware of how nature takes careof itself, but it also takes
care of us.
Right, we've gotten away fromthose traditional, really
ancient ways of thinking that wecall them ancient ways, but
they're the right ways.

Valerie Holbert (35:46):
Right.

Jeffrey Brunk (35:47):
Because everything is given to us and
everything right.
You know, order something fromAmazon, you got it the next day.
You want information.
You know it keeps us even fromgetting outdoors and
appreciating the earth, orappreciating the beauty of a
single bloom on a flower, or thesound of a bee.
Yeah.

(36:07):
You know the small things thatcan help us awaken to other
things within us that we need toaddress.

Valerie Holbert (36:13):
Yeah, yeah, and I think you're absolutely right
and it goes back to that kindof both and piece, that it is
important to go out into natureand to apologize and to do
things that we do have controlover in terms of how we're
treating the earth.
And it's also important toreceive from the earth in the

(36:37):
ways of releasing but also justreceiving the beauty.
I was just running into so manypeople that were like the guilt
of that was keeping them frombeing able to connect with the
earth and, interestingly, it'skind of a parallel to what I was
saying before about receiving,like being able to receive from
other people in order to morefully give.
So, yeah, I just think thatit's important to not let that

(37:02):
sort of guilt or fear or likethe world's on fire and the
earth is mad at us or mad at meto be in the way of finding the
ways to connect, you know, withnature.

Jeffrey Brunk (37:15):
Yeah, I don't believe the earth is mad at us.
I believe the earth is reactingto our own actions that we,
whether we're aware of them ornot, have affected it.
It's not that it's purposelygoing to come back and bite us
on purpose.

Valerie Holbert (37:32):
Right.

Jeffrey Brunk (37:33):
We're we're creating that for ourselves.

Valerie Holbert (37:36):
Right, and so if we change what we're creating
right, that's where thatinternal work comes in.
Like it's just also connected.
So, um, I don't know if thatmakes it any clearer or not, but
I think that that's kind ofwhere that was coming from as
above so below, as within,without a quote that a lot of us

(37:58):
have heard, and I think that'sit's a divine connection, like
the yin and the yang.

Jeffrey Brunk (38:04):
There's a balance between the two, the divine and
the earth, and everythingoutside of outside of it more
vast than just our universe orjust our.
God.
And everything being energy, ourthoughts, our words, our
actions, everything we do.
I was very conscious, when Iwas writing my memoir, about

(38:25):
every word that I wrote.
And there's a funny story aboutthat with me is I remember
staying up one night.
It was 6 am when I finishedwriting this chapter and I had
saved it on my hard drive.
I'd saved it on a thumb drive.
I'd saved it in the cloud and.
I got up to go get something todrink and go to the restroom and
I came back to work on it somemore and it was gone, not just

(38:48):
from one place, all of them.
And I'm like, ok, that was notmeant to be here.
But I was very conscious of thewords, because even a keystroke
and the words you put have.
There's energy behind letters,and for thousands of years
people have understood that theletters themselves, the way

(39:08):
they're shaped, the way theywere designed, they hold
significant energetic propertiesto them.
Right, I mean, it gets down tosuch a minute size.
It doesn't matter how small theintention or the action or the
word is, it's, it still has aneffect, it has a ripple effect

(39:30):
on everything.

Valerie Holbert (39:31):
Right.

Jeffrey Brunk (39:33):
Everything in this realm, everything we can
see, but also in the realms thatyou know the unseen yes.
And it's the unseen that reallythat's where it ripples the
most.
It affects us like with theauto autoimmune disorders, the
disease you don't see thesethings, but we pick up on them.

(39:55):
Yeah.
I'm curious when you work withpeople in your practice now,
what is the way?
How do you go about doing asession?
I know it varies because I knowit does for me from person to
person.
So how do?
you go about your practice andworking for a specific
individual.

Valerie Holbert (40:14):
Yeah, it can vary a lot by person and
sometimes if I have the luxuryof being able to see clients,
and I know we're going to havemultiple sessions, we may do
some sessions where we're doingmore somatic tools or some parts
work, and then another sessionthat's more focused around
energy work, but it's not alwayslike that and so if it's a one

(40:37):
session or will, you know,people will fill out a little
intake, but I like to have agood amount of time before we
start.
You know, moving into theenergy healing part to check in.
You know, moving into theenergy healing part to check in,
you know, like, what's mostalive, physically, spiritually,
emotionally.
I like to ask people if theyhave guides that they know of
ancestors or other types ofguides, and you know, just

(41:01):
really talk a little bit beforewe move into the session.
Now, that said, I also sharewith people.
You know we might have anintention that we've created
together of where things aregoing to go and it might go
somewhere totally different.

Jeffrey Brunk (41:14):
Yeah, yeah, I do that too, and I I do sort of the
same thing, because I have aphone or video consultation with
someone who contacts me yeah.
I've never had one that lastedunder two hours.
It says on my website one hour.
No, because I don't havelimitations on that.
But, when I work with someoneand have an intention, it starts

(41:37):
with that intention, but whatleads to?
Who knows?
And I tell them and I also letthem know before I will do a
shamanic journey.
Have no expectations, because Ican tell you if I had
expectations of what I ashamanic journey.
Have no expectations, cause Ican tell you if I had
expectations of what I wouldencounter on the journey, I
would be wrong a hundred percentof the time.

Valerie Holbert (41:55):
Right, yeah, yeah, absolutely, and so I've
shared that piece as well.
I also let people know I'vecome to let people know.
You know, I, I I'm stilldabbling a little bit with what
exactly to call what I do.
Um, and I use the word reikibecause I think it's more
accessible for people.
Yeah, it's for a big reason,but the intuitive piece, you

(42:17):
know, I do let people know theremay be things that come through
spirit, guides, ancestors, allkind words, all kinds of
different things, but I, I don'tever know what those are
because that's not me, and soyou know, I just want to like
help set people's expectationswith that.
But we'll usually start with aguided meditation on the table

(42:38):
and then I also let people know,you know, we, I may move around
your body and sort of thattraditional reiki format, but if
, but more than likely, we'll becalled to a specific place and
then kind of follow where thatgoes Like when you go through
the classes it's sort of like astep-by-step formula that you're

(43:01):
taught.
Yeah, which I think was helpfulinitially just as a structure,
but for me personally that wasjust more of a gateway to
opening up a lot of things forme and I honored the practice
and the.
You know the history of itdeeply, but how I use it, you
know it's more intertwined.
And then after the session, ifit's in person, we'll sit down

(43:24):
afterwards.
I'll let them, you know, asthey are ready to come back, and
I'll share what came up.
I don't usually share duringthe session because often people
are having an experience, youknow, and if it's called to you
I will share and I'll share inperson.
We'll often draw a card indistance sessions.
Now, I'm curious.
It sounds like you do mostlydistance, but I've, you know, I

(43:47):
was really surprised howpowerfully things came through
in distance sessions.
I've even for myself, like Ididn't.
There's something about nothaving the density of the
physical body in front of me andin our space, since we're
working out in the quantum fieldanyway, that, um, I mean I
don't want to say it's morepowerful, but oh, it is, it is.

(44:08):
Yeah, I mean, I guess.

Jeffrey Brunk (44:10):
And I say it this way and it's not a, I don't
mean it as a slam, but I tellpeople I think Reiki is kind of
like a bandaid but shamanicjourneying or doing it distance
wise.
I would prefer, because it'sI've been on a cellular level,
within individuals to be, ableto heal someone, no matter

(44:31):
whether it's trauma or physicalpain, is it's more?
It's down in the dirt.
Right you know, instead of justtemporarily, I think raking in a
way for a lot of practitionersand I'm probably get a lot of
flack for this is it's almostlike a spa-like experience that

(44:51):
doesn't last.
But there are things you can dodistance-wise that can release
people from certain thingsancestrally and science has
shown that traumas that happenedto ancestors of ours hundreds
of years ago.
They changed.
It changes DNA and it continuesto change DNA and that's how it

(45:14):
passes forward, and it canaffect us physically in a lot of
ways that we don't understand,and I'll use an example of, say,
not being able to conceive orwhatever it may be.
It's from something thatpossibly happened many years ago
, that traumatically changedsomeone and it passed forward

(45:37):
through a family line and youcan't see that during a hands-on
session, because it's not Ihave done hands-on sessions
where it's almost the same asbeing in a trance-like state and
leaving like it is during adistance session, but most of
the time you're aware of walkingaround the table.

Valerie Holbert (46:00):
You're aware of your eyes, where your hands are
or whatever the case may be, soyou're not 100% committed to
that intention and that focus isyours in a distance yeah, I, I
think that is a good way ofexplaining that and I, although
I will say I do have a lot ofclients that come to me and

(46:20):
afterwards they're like wow,that's really different from my
other reiki experiences because,like I said, I'm using that
word because I'm still trying tofigure out, like, how do you
put a, how do we put a word tothis Exactly?

Jeffrey Brunk (46:32):
Yeah, gosh, I hate titles.
But I agree with what you said.
It's like people are searchingfor someone to help and they
Google.
They'll Google Reiki.
Or I did not want the wordshaman to be on my book.
I told my editor because I donot title I mean, it's a very

(46:54):
revered title and the book isthe everyday shaman and
everything I've had, you knowbut I did not want to use it and
I still don't like, I don'tcall myself that and I don't
call myself a Reiki.
I don't like titles becausethat's ego.

Valerie Holbert (47:08):
Yeah.

Jeffrey Brunk (47:09):
That's an ego thing, but at the same time,
that's how people find you.

Valerie Holbert (47:13):
Right.
So, yeah, I'm still navigatingthat a little and I, you know, I
call my sessions, I've beencalling them like soul alchemy
or soul alignment, and seeingkind of what, how those words
land.
But the ancestral piece thatyou mentioned and past lives, I
did do some training withancestral work.
That also really took things toanother level, both personally

(47:36):
and professionally, and a partof my session usually at the end
is, you know, naming, of course, inviting healthy and healed
ancestors in the beginning, butnaming that the work that we've
done is, you know, is for thetrue and highest good and for
healing of this person in allplanes and in all directions,

(47:59):
backwards and forwards.
Because I think not only can webe infected, be infected, be
affected by the you know thetraumas of our ancestors, we're
also affected by the.
You know the traumas of ourancestors, we're also affected
by the gifts.
So the burdens and the gifts ofour ancestors and the work that
we're doing now because, likeyou said, we're it's not just
this planet in this dimension,right.

(48:20):
So, like what we're doing, itis the healing work that we're
doing, changing our frequency,is healing in all directions,
right, like it's serving ourfuture generations as well as
backwards as well as in allthese other directions, and so I
think that's that piece, too,that we touched on that in my
bio about people oftentimes justfeel like, oh, I, just I can't.

(48:44):
It's so selfish to spend moneyon this or to, you know, work on
self-care.
But if we can reframe it alittle and science shows that,
you know, we see science nowthat supports this right Changes
, water composition and prayersthat affect people.

Jeffrey Brunk (49:00):
Part of my thing was when I was probably close to
the peak.
Now my my wife's going to be aguest on the show at some point
and she's going to give herrendition of what I went through
, because a lot of it I don'tremember.
It was really from.
It was not pretty, but at onepoint.
Here's a guy who myself barelygraduated from high school

(49:23):
because I was never good in mathand I'd failed my geometry exam
my senior year and I had topass it to graduate.
But I worked so hard theteacher so he passed me because
I failed by one point.
But at the peak of all of thisthat was happening with me, I
gained an understanding ofquantum mechanics and quantum
physics.
Now it's not that I could standat a board and write equations,

(49:46):
Right.
But I understand how understoodhow frequency and connection
were.
I saw the trees composed ofnumbers.
It was just bizarre.
I saw the days in colors, soI'd wake up and see a day.
It would be a tint of red orgreen or blue or yellow, and I
knew red was a day it's like dayit would be a tint of red or

(50:07):
green or blue or yellow, and Iwas a day it's like be on guard.
But I had that understanding andI had never studied that before
.
But the frequency and vibrationare everything.
For people to understand that,even when you're around them, if
they're having a an off day, abad day, they're angry, they're
frustrated and there's a lot ofanger in the world now.

(50:29):
Part of that.
It transfers over, even beingaware of how you are as a person
and the people you're closestto.
When you pick up with the onesyou're closest to, you pick it
up really quickly.
It's like what's wrong with youand what's going on, but it
transfers over.
It's like what's wrong with youand you know what's going on,
but it transfers over.
It has that ripple effect.
Part of what you're sayingabout the self-care was it

(50:52):
exactly the selfish part?
It may seem selfish.
I call one thing that's veryimportant good selfishness and
that's taking yourself out of asituation, be it a social
situation or a conversation, andjust getting away from it.
That doesn't mean just notspeaking.

(51:12):
Sometimes not speaking speaksmore than words.
Taking yourself out of a place,no matter what the other people
think, is part of self-care.
It's really best for yourself,because how can you help other
people in any way if you're nottaking care of yourself, and
that's just one way to do it.

Valerie Holbert (51:31):
Yeah, 100%, and I'm glad you brought that piece
up because it relates toboundaries, which was another
big thing for me that I had tolearn in some hard ways, that I
realized that I probablycouldn't have been fully able to
move into energy work atearlier points in my life

(51:51):
because I didn't have, I wasn'treally boundaried enough and to
be able to move myself fully outof the way and distinguish.
You know you're talking to Danabout the highly sensitive
person and I grew up that way,like I call myself spongy or the
canary in the coal mine and youknow a lot of people like that.
We have a hard timedifferentiating other people's

(52:11):
energy in our own.
So I like an impact.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I've calledmyself that before too, and so,
but it was important, essentialto be able to discern that
before I could move into theseother realms and be able to move
my own self out of the way anddiscern.

Jeffrey Brunk (52:26):
Sometimes it's the people that have gone
through some of the moredifficult traumas.
If they're like the ones youdescribed earlier, as a child or
anything that happensphysically, those are the people
that seem to be able to have agift for helping others the most
, because they are able torelate to others in ways that

(52:48):
most others can't.

Valerie Holbert (52:49):
Yeah, and it was a survival method for a lot
of people, because if you,especially as a child, been
through deep trauma like that,what we learn is that, oh, I
have to really understand whatother people are experiencing
and thinking in order to reactin ways where I get, you know,
taken care of, where I'm safe,and so I think part of that

(53:12):
comes from having to be hyperaware of energies of other
people, you know, and so somenurture, some nature.

Jeffrey Brunk (53:21):
And that's a double-edged sword.

Valerie Holbert (53:22):
Yeah.

Jeffrey Brunk (53:23):
My worst nightmare would be like to be in
Times Square at New Year's Eve,right, so you want to sort of
seclude yourself but at the sametime have to be out there.
Right.
And so when people aresearching, they may not totally
understand what's going on, butit's the strangest thing and
they just need someone to talkto.
Yeah.
Emanating from us is thisacceptance?

Valerie Holbert (53:46):
Right yeah.
Emanating from us is thisacceptance, Right yeah, and
that's a real different way thanI think most of us operate,
even with the best intentions,and that comes from that
internal work, right Of likebeing comfortable with ourselves
.
That interesting that you saythat has actually been a part of
the inner presence training, ofthese exercises where we have
to sit in silence with ourpartner and or sit in silence

(54:08):
and you know, practice sessions,and it is so valuable because
that space it does allow for somuch and you know so much of our
pain and discomfort or anxietycomes when we don't feel like we
have space or spaciousnessright.

Jeffrey Brunk (54:23):
It's like constriction and yeah, I think
that's a real gift.
Like you were saying.
The prescribed described itpretty closely.
As I say, you know, you graduatefrom high school, you get you
know, you go to college, youhopefully get a good degree and
a good job, and then you findthe right person, and then the
house, and then the kids and allthe sack and then you die Right

(54:45):
.
So after we moved here it wasup at the top of the driveway
and I looked and I'm like, oh myGod, it's a call to sack.
So I came back and told my wife.
I said we've got to move.

Valerie Holbert (54:54):
You did.

Jeffrey Brunk (54:55):
Oh, no he met a neighbor and he doesn't like
them and I said, no, call it asack Following that path.
A lot of people are still onthat.
The younger generation is not.

Valerie Holbert (55:07):
Right.

Jeffrey Brunk (55:08):
There's two good things about that.
There are a lot of youngerpeople that are a lot more aware
.
Most that I've encountered orworked with are in their early
20s between 20 and 30, that areold souls and very aware they
are the ones that are needed now, but they're going to be needed
later as well.

Valerie Holbert (55:26):
Right, yeah, absolutely I am.
My daughter is 19 and shedefinitely came in that way and
listening to dance podcast thatyou guys did recently.
She was highly sensitive,empathic child, you know, and
she's chosen not to go to her.
She made great grades in highschool but she was just like mom

(55:50):
, I need a break from school,like, and the four-year school
is just not for me, and you knowwe fully supported her in that.
But even in this day and age,there's a lot of people that
they just assume she's going tocollege or that she's taking a
gap year and will be going anddoing those like right steps of
things.

Jeffrey Brunk (56:05):
They don't know.
Trades pay a lot better.
And then you go to college andthat's a whole lot of money a
lot of times, but it's what'sexpected.
I was lucky to have parentslike yourself that just said you
can do anything you want to do,and they gave me that freedom
and for a long time I kind ofresented how much freedom they

(56:26):
gave me because I made a lot ofmistakes.
Right but you can't grow withoutmaking mistakes and failing, so
it's really good that you allowthat with your daughter.
I know my mom and dad.
Later in life I realized theystruggled with a lot of that,
but they knew they had to havethat to grow.
What is your daughter doing now?

Valerie Holbert (56:47):
Yes, she's been working since she graduated a
year ago.
She's been working two jobs,you know, and one of them is a
barista, and you know, and sheworks with people that have gone
to college and you know, andshe's actually making good money
, like she's.
She just opened up her ownmoney market account and she's
working to build her credit, butshe doesn't know what she wants

(57:10):
to do.
She's thought about so manydifferent things and you know.
So this is just her time tolike experience that and ask
those questions for herself andher own.

Jeffrey Brunk (57:16):
You know, she just moved into her own
apartment with her boyfriend andher bestie and just finding
herself yeah, that's a wholeother thing is being okay with
not knowing what you're supposedto do or what you want to do,
being allowed to try to havetime to figure that out and find
it on their own, whether itcomes in their twenties or their
forties or fifties.

Valerie Holbert (57:36):
Right.

Jeffrey Brunk (57:37):
If you're not growing, then it's time to move
on.
At least keep looking.

Valerie Holbert (57:42):
Yeah, it's true , I mean I kept trying to.
There were things I enjoyedabout being a graphic designer,
because I did like the creativeaspect of that, but I kept
trying to be like, oh, maybe ifI'm a graphic designer for a
nonprofit, like in that way I'mhelping, you know, cause that
call to help was always there,and so I kept putting it into
the traditional, accepted waysof doing things.

(58:04):
And you know, then I'll be ayoga teacher and a coach and I
think most people would say thatwhen they're doing this type of
activities, whatever it is forthem, whether it's artistic or
something else that they're in,you know, a flow state, right,
and where you're not almost likea meditative state, right, or
you're not thinking about things, it's just you're almost
channeling and yeah, and so I dothink it's super important.

(58:26):
And one thing I work with withclients of, like you know,
because often we're kind of toldwhat those things should be,
what we should be doing, whattype of exercise we should be
doing, what type of activities,and we don't even allow
ourselves to ask or imagine like, well, what are the things that
like that that bring me joy?
What would I be doing if Ididn't try to put it within the
framework of what is acceptable.

Jeffrey Brunk (58:46):
And if you try to put it in the framework of what
is acceptable, you may not doit, because it's not that it be
something necessarily that'sillegal or whatever, but it's
still something that's for you.
It's for you individually, notfor them.
We end up being pleasers andwanting to make everyone happy
them.

Valerie Holbert (59:05):
We end up being pleasers and wanting to make
everyone happy.
Yeah, and that goes back to theboundaries piece, you know, and
I, I mean, I realized, evenjust in the last few years, I
realized about myself that, likeI would sometimes say, yeah,
I'd been a people pleaser, Iwould say yes to things,
literally before I even pause tosee if that was like my real
answer and like parts of me, youknow, might even have a
physical reaction than saying no, oh my gosh, yeah.

Jeffrey Brunk (59:29):
When I, when I've read your bio and your resume,
it's like you've got a lot ofsame shamanic traits and the
same sounds like a lot of thepractices, both hands on and via
distance, are shamanic with theconnection to the earth.
Both hands-on and via distance,are shamanic with the
connection to the earth, theunderstanding of the quantum

(59:49):
field and the vibrations andfrequencies and using those in a
positive way for betterment.
Those are shamanic thingsyou're doing.

Valerie Holbert (59:55):
Part of that has come from.
I have the friend that Imentioned, who's a shaman, who
I've worked with over the yearsand I even have done a couple of
trainings or workshops with her, and I also, similarly to you,
will record and send a recap ofthe experience to people.
And I asked my friend oncebecause you know, there's not

(01:00:15):
necessarily a lot, butdefinitely sometimes things come
up about appropriation, rightWith integrating things from
shamanism or from yogictraditions or different places,
because I do find myselfintegrating a lot of different
things, some of which I havereally specific training in and
some of which are more intuitive.
Yes, yeah.
And she said, yeah, I don't,you know when, when she talks to

(01:00:39):
her guides, both in the unseenand you know, seen, that they
would say you know, it's not,it's not ours to give permission
to people to you know, seen,that they would say you know
it's not, it's not ours to givepermission to people to you know
, use or not use, it's not likea, we're hiding these things
away.
So you know, and people resonatewith different things.
So I I think it's reallyvaluable to give clients
different tools and and alsojust follow.

(01:01:01):
Like I was saying before, Idon't always know where things
are going to go in a session orwhat's going to come out of my
mouth or what kind of weirdsounds I might make, or I don't
know.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:01:12):
So you know, it just kind of comes yeah, and
it's very important what youjust said, the way things
resonate with people because,some are way ahead, some are way
behind, to be able to comeacross to people wherever they
may be.
Because it may be you're usinga singing bowl and it's whatever
frequency that you're using ofthat bowl that causes someone to

(01:01:34):
open up a little.

Valerie Holbert (01:01:35):
Right.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:01:36):
But before we go, if you have other things that
you want to say, like where youare and your practice, and how
people can reach you.

Valerie Holbert (01:01:44):
Yeah, well, to that piece in terms of where I
am physically.
Most of the time I'm inAsheville, north Carolina, in
the mountains, and I do have anoffice space where I can see
people in person.
But, like you, I can see peopleanywhere and, have you know,
I've done sessions with peoplein comas and all over the
country, and so distance is nota barrier.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:02:07):
Yeah, Can I ask you about that?
Yeah, no problem.
How do you explain that?
Because people, you know I getasked a lot.
So how do you explain to peoplehow to do a distance session?
Because it doesn't make a lotof sense to a lot of people.
So how do you explain it?

Valerie Holbert (01:02:23):
Yeah, well, I mean, that is a tough one
because it does require acertain amount of faith in the
unseen and the unknown.
And oftentimes, if I feel like,especially it's someone who
doesn't have a like intuitiveunderstanding with working in
the quantum field or that sortof thing, because I'm like you,
I'm not a scientist, I can'texplain it really in the

(01:02:44):
scientific way.
But I'll say well, have youever had an experience with
prayer Because most people have,or a lot of people have where
you're either praying forsomeone else or someone praying
for you, where you really wereable to feel that and you named
this earlier or in one of yourprevious podcasts where you're
thinking about someone and theycall, or you pick up the phone

(01:03:05):
literally before it even rings,and it's that person.
You a synchronicity, somethingthat you can't explain, but you
know, you have a very distinctknowing that you are connected
to that person, or somethingthat you have thought has
affected them, you know, faraway, and so most people can
grab to little.

(01:03:27):
It's kind of like what I wassaying earlier about the you
know one minute experience inthe yoga class.
If someone can grab to like, ohyeah, I had one tiny experience
like that, I can be at leastsomewhat open to the possibility
of these larger thingshappening.
Sometimes people have toexperience it for themselves.
But you know, it's a hard thingto explain, to say, oh, I had a

(01:03:49):
session with this person whowas in a coma and the names of
their nurses came through andall this other information that
me human, me had no way to know.
But that goes back to thatpiece that we were talking
before about just getting out ofthe way and trusting what's
coming through.

(01:04:09):
Being a vessel, yeah, I mean, Iappreciate the people that want
to understand it from ascientific standpoint and I like
that there is more informationcoming through, like with um so
lynn mctaggart, where she doesthese big scientific because
she's a science.
A scientist experiments on,like getting a certain number of
people to meditate on, likemaking it rain in the Sahara or
you know, whatever the event is,and being able to track these

(01:04:30):
things scientifically, or seeingit in water crystals, and you
know things like that.
So I'm glad there is science tosupport it.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:04:38):
It's getting better, but it's still,
unfortunately, a field thatwe're in that's kind of looked
at as pseudoscience, butexplaining that's difficult.
So thanks for sharing that,because you actually gave me
some insights on how to share alittle bit better.

Valerie Holbert (01:04:51):
Yeah, it's a tough one and I do think, you
know, kind of going back to thatpiece about things speeding up
and becoming more intense, atleast I'm finding that because,
like the squeeze is more intense, I think, for a lot of people.
I think people are a littlemore open maybe than they used
to be, and more people arehaving their own experiences

(01:05:14):
that they don't have a way toexplain, and so when somebody
gives them a window for that,it's sort of like the light bulb
going off of, like oh okay, Ihave had some experiences like
that.
I just didn't know what to callit or what it was.
So I think that's encouraging.
I find that, you know, I'm justfinding that people who I

(01:05:36):
wouldn't have thought would beopen to certain things, you know
, I'm having to like check myown judgment more often, you
know about that for lots ofdifferent reasons, and being
really pleasantly andencouragingly surprised.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:05:50):
Sometimes the ones you would least expect to
be open are the ones that aremost open.

Valerie Holbert (01:05:56):
Yes, yeah, truly yeah.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:05:59):
But we've ventured way off, so you're in
Asheville.

Valerie Holbert (01:06:04):
Yeah, like you said, I know we could go.
We could probably talk foreasily another two hours.
But yeah, so I'm in Asheville,uh, the mountains of North
Carolina, so I'm in the processof changing, kind of I was
touching on that before I'mchanging some wording on things,
but currently my website is www.
nourishcenterasheville.
com and people can book throughthere.

(01:06:26):
They could also find me on www.
be well black mountain.
com website.
That's where my office base is,black mountains, a little town
just outside of Asheville.
It's really where a lot of mycommunity is by mountain.
It's very, very close by.
And yeah, like we talked abouta couple of different times,
distance sessions.
You know, location is not anobstacle, maybe even a benefit.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:06:49):
And you're in a great place up in Asheville the
mountains and the nature.
You're in a great place, yeah.

Valerie Holbert (01:06:55):
I'm really fortunate beauty and nature
that's within really closedistance and proximity and also
surrounded by so many otherhealers and healing centers and
Sedona of the East.

(01:07:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So come, come see me inAsheville, or, or?
Or reach out from wherever youare in the world.
Yeah, or reach out fromwherever you are in the world.
Yeah, we'd love to connect withfolks.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:07:27):
So right now it's nourishcenterashvillecom.

Valerie Holbert (01:07:30):
Yeah so everyone.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:07:31):
Please go to the website, check that out.
And the other was Be Well,Black Mountains.

Valerie Holbert (01:07:37):
Be Well, black Mountain, yeah, black Mountains.
Singular.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:07:41):
And I want to thank you for being a guest.

Valerie Holbert (01:07:43):
Appreciate the opportunity to be here and I I
feel the same way about you.
Know what you're putting outthere with your book and the
things that I've heard on yourpodcast so far that you're
sharing about your journey tojust it's really important right
now.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:07:55):
Well, thank you.

Valerie Holbert (01:07:57):
So many people going through this that don't
understand, that are justoverwhelmed with what's
happening internally andexternally.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:08:05):
Appreciate you saying that and I really
appreciate you being here.

Valerie Holbert (01:08:08):
Yeah, yeah, it's been great.
I'll look forward to next time.

Jeffrey Brunk (01:08:11):
Okay, thanks, valerie.
I want to thank everyone forjoining us and we'll be back in
the near future.
See you then.