We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sima Clark. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sima below.

Sima, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

While my parents divorced when I was very young and my mom raised us practically by herself, my parents exemplified the level of perseverance that a young lady who would find herself parentless at 19 would totally need to survive in this big gigantic world. I was a freshman at the University of Virginia when in that one year, I lost both parents, two months apart. I was shy. I was smart, but I had low self esteem. As a healing coach, I teach a lot on childhood traumas and while I could name a few that I personally experienced, what I can say is my parents did several things right! One was showing us that you do not give up, and regardless of the cards you are dealt, you overcome. My mom singlehandedly raised us to be smart, strong and compassionate. My dad was a soldier, paratrooper and jump master who traveled the world being great! While our story doesnt look like, my parents created me and that was alright!

Sima, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

12 years ago, I found myself on the brink of a divorce. I remember saying in my prayer that there is no way my life was to consist of working, being a mom and being a wife. Surely God had something special for me to do. A few days later I was on Twitter and noticed a very well known coach which I followed for a few months. I reached out to him and asked if I needed a special degree to be a life coach. He quickly stated that as long as I had a heart to help others and life experiences in which I had learned great lessons, I could learn to be life coach. So, from there, I received my certification and begin taking clients who wanted to create better relationships in their lives. In 2020, I certified myself for the second time and relaunched as a healing and transformation coach. I also received a Masters in Psychology in 2020 which enabled me to study human behavior. I help women create cultivate confidence through healing those broken pieces within themselves. I help women become aware of how their childhood trauma imprints their hearts and behavior and thus play a huge part in cultivating healthy relationships. In 2021, I created the Prepared Woman Academy where women could come to heal and practice self development within community through monthly free coaching, small group coaching, masterminds, short term and long term private coaching and book club. And the best part is – NO MEN ARE ALLOWED!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Over the years, I have learned that I had to unlearn the cliche of “time heals all wounds”. This is absolutely not true. Time does nothing to heal wounds. The sacred healing work that each of us must undergo is what heals wounds. As I was contemplating my subject for my masters thesis, I wanted to choose a topic that would lend research that would help me help my clients in my coaching business. I decided to go with transgenerational trauma. During my research, it became quite clear that time heals nothing. Trauma travels our bloodlines until someone, a courageous someone, decides to stop the bleeding. Trauma imprints our DNA. So, suppressing emotions from trauma do nothing but continue the bleed. After many years being a “strong black woman”, I realized that the conditionalized meaning of a “strong black woman” was her ability to overcome struggles in an effortless way. This is/was furthest from the truth. The truth is she learned to suppress her emotions to survive. I learned to do this from my mother. I knew I must unlearn it. Time doesn’t heal all wounds. The sacred healing work over time does! The lesson is to unlearn suppression and instead embrace emotional intelligence.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe the thing that helped me to build my reputation in the coaching business is my courage to share my own story, my transparency and my normalization of option to seek out others for help.. As I shared my own trauma and pain, my own story of resilience and power, my own refusal to disassociate myself from what really happened and my feelings about it and my own journey of seeking outside help to work through my trauma via therapy and coaching, my influence increased. I believe my followers began to see themselves through me. This single handedly built my influence and reputation in the marketplace.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.simaytina.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachsimaytina/?igsh=MWozNXlwcGc5NHB6Ng%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storian?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sima-ytina-clark-304a0769/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@simaytinaclark

Image Credits
photo credit: Katrena Wize Artography