Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Barbara Collier. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Barbara thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

I always had a really difficult time learning in school when I was young; too much distraction, terrible test taker, too many things going on at home to concentrate, always the new kid… I eventually dropped out of high school. Something greater than myself nudged me back to school as a young adult. I decided to take the exam for the GED (general education degree). Despite my being a terrible test taker, not only did I pass it, I got a high score. So I was invited into the honors program at the community college I was attending. The teachers who taught at this community college, really loved teaching. For the first time, I was believed in as a student, as a person who could learn and think and contribute. It was a game changer moment. During those years earning my Associates Degree, I fell in love with learning. I received a full scholarship to a well-known University with a good academic reputation. I learned to stay with what I loved to learn, what turned my heart and mind on. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I would end up cultivating and curating an ideal job, in an ideal setting, working with inspiring people, doing what I love.

Barbara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My journey has been a blend of a deep exploration into my own mental and physical health as well as becoming a mental health / wellness professional. My personal growth has been intricately woven to, through and with my professional growth. I had a career change as an adult. I went from being an ICU nurse, to an at home mom, to eventually getting my master’s degree in psychology. Each failure, struggle, trauma, loss, hardship, achievement, success informed the steps I took. Some were much more difficult than others, some remain unfinished. All and all things were shifting. I was piecing myself back together, claiming and reclaiming myself. Slowly but surely, I was gaining more capacity and becoming more capable. Having worked with children in different settings, learning about child development, sensory, and brain development, very much helped me understand more about what children need and how people grow, and how different adverse experiences at different times can have a huge impact on how a child comes to understand themself (or not as the case may be). I started out working with very young children in dire situations. Because I was working with children who were often pre-verbal, talking and talk therapy was not my focus. Instead I took a relational and somatic approach. More Being than Doing. Understanding the relational needs of a child, the need to connect and be seen helped me in understanding adults with complex physical health conditions, for whom it might not have felt at all safe to be seen or known. And I got to see first hand how those early childhood experiences impact the body all throughout life. And also how connections and touch can make a huge difference in supporting a person in finding their way home to themselves and to belonging. Presently, I work with all ages. I work relationally and somatically and I work in Nature with Horses. Because they can teach us so very much about life, connections, relating, belonging, embodiment and presence.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I think in my journey, I have had to unlearn a lot of things. Much conditioning, assumptions, expectations, and ideology. From a one-track heteronormative growth curve; go to school, the college, graduate, get a “good job”, get married, start a family, travel some if possible, and eventually enjoy retirement. To pretty much not that. Simply put, my trauma and neurodivergence put me on a different path. I couldn’t and didn’t learn “normally”, I didn’t fit well, my body seemed to function differently than other peoples did. As a result I thought I was broken. I hoped and dreamed that one day I would fit in! One day, I would be just like everyone else. I would get to share similar stories and laugh with others and similar things. If I could just figure out how to get fixed. I had to unlearn all that talk! All those narratives that pointed to my brokenness, my lack of worth, my lack of belonging or mattering. I learned through tons of time in Nature and with animals (where things inherently made Much more sense), that we all belong, we all matter. We all count. We all have a precious place in this complex world.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I have had to pivot numerous times. I learned to pivot as a child really. We moved a lot. Things were never consistent or predictable. Things always felt overwhelming. I was constantly pivoting, desperate to mitigate the overwhelm. That actually taught me in a strange and round about way that I could sense when things were getting worse, that I could read a situation, and gauge it in myself what was too much, when I would collapse and fall or whether I still had enough to get out of the situation. I had to start over many many times. So when it came to be returning to my chosen career after having given birth to my son, I was able to feel that it no longer felt congruent to me. That career no longer felt like the right path for me. I didn’t know why exactly, but I just knew it was so. Lo and behold, my previous career informs me literally everyday. It very much supports what I do now professionally, and it helped me so very many times as a mother, friend, family member when folks I loved were ailing. I didn’t have to picot and leave everything behind. What actually happened was that I simply took the next best step for me.