We recently connected with Ali Kates and have shared our conversation below.

Ali , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

Hi, thank you for having me. A big defining moment in my career was in May of 2019 my life was turned upside down. My health had crashed and 2 weeks after our honeymoon I was sitting in an IV room for 9.5 months, 3-4x a week.

Up until this point in my life I knew I could handle hard things. Throughout childhood and adolescent I had faced a lot of adversity from sexual abuse to my parents divorce, and the loss of loved ones. On top of that, I had struggled with my health prior to my lyme diagnosis from the age of 13. The truth was, I had been living in a state of fight or flight from this trauma for years. But I did not know how to connect with my physical and emotional pain, I kept shoving it down and “saving it for a rainy day”. For as long as I could remember I had been looking at my life from an out of body perspective. What I mean by this, is that I was able to “handle” hard things but I could not feel hard things.

This changed dramatically when my husband and I lost 3 friends within a year of each-other. These deaths brought up all of my pain that I had disassociated from.

This is when I dove head first into trying to find relief from my pain and became a student of learning about trauma, somatic body experience and embodiment. I not only learned about my own complex developmental trauma and C-PTSD that I was living with but how I could find my strength and myself again, ( post-traumatic growth).

Sitting in the IV room, (where I would receive treatment over the course of 9 long months), I saw people from many walks of life coming through the door. I listened to what was plaguing each person’s life and my recurring thought was this: People need a place to process their grief and develop strategies to transform their lives.

I began to dream.

I would dream about what my life would look like after this constant battle was finished…

From my own battle this coaching practice was born.

Ali , 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?

Yes! I am a Certified Trauma Recovery Coach & Somatic Experience Practitioner (In-Training) I believe that trauma & emotional pain is not just about what happened to you, but how it left your nervous system after said event. The thing that people do not realize about trauma is that it cannot be “out talked” or “out thought”, it lives in the BODY. Most people that I work with (including myself) have tried almost everything under the sun to work on themselves and their emotional pain/trauma but nothing seems to move the needle until they address the trauma stored in the body. The body remembers everything even if your mind forgets and this is why in my coaching practice I focus largely on the BODY.

When trauma is stored in the body for too long it will start manifesting in disease, autoimmune, gut dysbiosis, skin issues, fatigue, weight gain, and more. The key to working through this is learning the tools to move it out of your body.

When working 1:1 with clients, a lot of them come into this experience not knowing how to move trauma out of the body. This is the work that I do with them, utilizing a variety of different trauma recovery techniques that I teach them during our time together. My clients walk out of working together feeling relieved and empowered (their words not mine), which is my mission: to help anxious individuals find relief.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Such a good question. I always think about this, a mentor of mine once told me that being in the mental health space is going to bring up a lot of your old pain. They stressed to me the importance of self-care and continually practicing the things that we preach in this space. I know it might sound elementary, but this has been something that has rung true. When you are working with clients that share similar backgrounds to you, it will activate old pain that you thought you had worked through. This is why it is so important to take care of myself, so that I can show up as the best coach for my clients. The more that I lean into my own practices, the more successful my coaching practice is, so this is number one priority every single day. I would say another element that helps me succeed is having a hobby. This has profoundly shifted my work because it allows me to be creative outside of my own business.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

YES! The first book I recommend to anyone that is starting or has been in business is Atomic Habits by James Clear. He has a line in the book that says, “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the levels of your systems.” This line is so true and something that I am continually reminding myself and my team; that we must have a good system in place in order to succeed. The second book I recommend is The Emotional Entrepreneur by Scout Sobel. This book is incredible, because the reality of entrepreneurship is that it is emotional. On the days where work feels impossible, Scout sets you up for success in this book in the most incredible way. Lastly, I would say Brené Brown and her Dare to Lead Podcast is fabulous. I use a lot of her leadership skills with my team member and really love everything that she has to say.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alikates.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alikates.co/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alikates/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/alikatesco

Image Credits
Emilie Bers