We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liat Alon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Liat, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was your school or training experience like? Share an anecdote or two that you feel illustrate important aspects or the overall nature of your schooling/training experience.

When I was in graduate school for Marriage and Family Therapy, several classes addressed the proper way to treat “mental illnesses” (things like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, severe anxiety, trauma, etc.). I was taught that the most effective form of treatment was with a combination of therapy AND medication.

The message was clear: as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist I would be expected to refer any of my clients who presented with one of the aforementioned diagnoses to a psychiatrist who could prescribe medication. Not only would that psychiatric referral be expected of me, but if I did not make the referral then I would be practicing unethically.

I remember feeling uneasy during these lectures. Was I supposed to blindly accept that medication was the answer to mental health as a clear and hard fact? If so, why did it feel so intuitively disconcerting? I remember one lecture in particular. The professor discussed ADHD in childhood. He made the argument that children with ADHD who were on medication showed vast improvement in academic performance. I had a strong visceral reaction to this claim.

Is academic performance the end all be all indicator of a child’s worth and potential contributions to a community? What if a child is not able to sit quietly in class because his body needs to move? What if that child is meant to be a great athlete? Or a dancer? Or a creative thinker? Or what if it’s just a f*cking kid and kids have energy and want to play and interact with the world because that’s actually healthy!

But because the child does not function in a standardized classroom he is put on meds in the service of being a manageable student. Doesn’t the large percentage of children diagnosed with ADHD tell us that there is something wrong with how we are running our classrooms, rather than the problem being with the children themselves? I raised my hand in class and said as much to the professor. His response was dismissive.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not all the way to one extreme shouting, “medication bad,” however and instead I live in the world of the “both and.” Here, in the land of the “both and,” Western perspectives on healing AND more holistic, intuitive, practices rooted in (my current obsession) the Wisdom Traditions (e.g. Yoga, Hermeticism, Kabbalah) can co-exist. Everyone can take what works for them and leave the rest.

The Wisdom Traditions teach us how to engage with what the Western Medical System calls “symptoms” from a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT (and incredibly healing) perspective. The Wisdom Traditions teach us that our darkest moments can be initiations into becoming more evolved and mature versions of ourselves.

The Wisdom Traditions teach us how to relate to our darkest moments and follow them to our inner “gifts.” A spiritual emergency (sometimes called an awakening) means our shittiest moments can initiate us into more evolved, mature, and conscious ways of being in the world

It is so interesting to me that one cultures “sickness” is another’s culture “access to special innate gifts.” Depending on how we relate to (whatever you want to call it- symptoms or gifts), we can be met with powerful results.

Ok, so circling back to your question about my experience in graduate school. I guess I could say that in this particular flashback, my inner knowing DID NOT resonate with what the expert in the room was telling me. I learned just as much from this teacher who I didn’t agree with (because what I didn’t agree with taught me more about what I did agree with). It taught be about trusting my inner authority above any teachers or gurus or experts in the room.

It taught me the nature of the Mental Health System (and where the System itself could use some healing).

I also had incredible teachers in graduate school. Teachers whose lessons and energy resonated so deeply for me.

To anyone who might be reading this and entering some sort of school or training program…remember never to give away your power to any teacher. We learn from the teachers who teach us things that resonate for us, and we also learn from the teachers who teach us things that do not resonate for us. Trust your inner authority on the journey.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My practice, The Wild & Authentic Path, is for those who are interested in personal growth, conscious living, and awakening. I’m a therapist turned Teacher of the Wisdom Traditions, Healer, and Good Witch.

I’m currently most excited about Conscious Community events, workshops, and retreats that meet once a month in the Los Angeles area. Each month the program is different, although generally we either learn about a specific Wisdom Tradition or else engage in something experiential like a ceremony, collaboration, or retreat.

This month we meet for a mini retreat called “Embodied Wisdom: Art, Yoga, and the Journey to Inner Knowing” on Sunday, January 28 from 12-4:30pm in a stunning property overlooking the Los Angeles mountains.

Through meditation, art, Yoga, and Imagery Journey (to live drumming), we learn to connect to and embody inner Wisdom/ Soul/ Self/ Source/ Higher Self (choose the word that gets you to the experience of an inner anchor).

I’m collaborating with my soul sister, Sharon Uy, she’s an art therapist with a spiritual twist. I’ve been wanting to collaborate with her forever, and the way we’re coming together to Co-Create this sweet offering for the community is so rejuvenating and fun.

I’m grateful to be offering affordable options $11-$111 suggested donation, so that this work is accessible to all who hear the call. I am excited about experimenting with a non-capitalistic based energy for my business and my practice.

February’s Conscious Community event is a class about one of my favorite Wisdom Traditions called Hermeticism (Egyptian Mysticism).

For more about the monthly Conscious Community events in and around the LA area or to join the LA email list, check out www.wildandauthentic.com/conscious-community

If any of this resonates, you are welcome to join us, with love.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the lesson that taught me something like, “go! go more efficiently! do do do! keep going, be successful…” Drill Sargent sounding cultural value of the Societal Matrix.

Once I unlearned this, I was able to reconnect to the Natural rhythm of things. It is a rhythm of cycles and seasons- winter, spring, summer, fall. Time to work, time to rest, time to play, time to heal, time to sleep, time to be wounded, time to ascend into higher states of consciousness.

Once I unlearned the Matrix value of being impressive and successful (my ego is still working on unlearning that one), but as I unlearn this value, I can tune in more accurately with the natural seasons and cycles within and outside of me. I can intuitively allow myself my personal growth process (and choose to prioritize it above the noise coming at me from the Societal and Familial Matrix).

When I live from this perspective (or practice living life from this perspective), I connect to wise wanting. I desire what is “right” to desire because it somehow fits in with the greater flow. I also know what to do in order to support its unfoldment.

This requires a lot less of my energy than the Societal Matrix value of “go! go! go!”

When I am tuned into my inner knowing and the flow of life around me, I know how and when to act or not act. I learned that we often waste a lot of unnecessary energy on do! do! do!ing, because we think that action is the only way to lead to results. I learned that non-action, bei-ing (especially in moments when I am not centered within myself, or when I am not in my Higher Self state of consciousness)…I’m better off just laying in bed and watching Netflix all day then taking action.

Yup, that’s right. I let myself have those days of being a lump of unmoving human, guilt free. My body is recharging. I am stopping myself from getting pulled into a whirlwind of action that might cause more damage than help. Sometimes action moves the momentum in a misaligned direction. If you ask me, any time I’m in bed, watching Netflix, I am not causing unnecessary issues that I will later (when back in touch with Higher Self) have to fix.

The Wisdom Traditions teach me how to reconnect to my Higher Self or Inner Knowing before taking action. First be connected to the place that feels “right,” then act from that place that feels right. For me, this is a practice in the art of maximum impact with minimal effort to direct outcomes. Because, the truth is, when I act from my wise part within, I get things done faster and with less effort.

Anyways, for those who choose this lifestyle (one where we prioritize our healing and personal growth).. it’s a process and a trip and it is absolutely not for everyone.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

Hell no.

I feel like I’d do something way less deep and intense.

I see myself working at a record store with co-workers and a boss who are good friends. Listening to music and hanging out all day. If any 90s babies are reading this, think: Empire Records vibes.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wildandauthentic.com/conscious-community
• Instagram: @wildandauthentic

Image Credits
2 illustrations (snake shedding old skin and 3 people gathered around tree) by the insanely talented artist amalia restrepo (find her on insta @amalia.restrepo