We recently connected with Courtney Garner and have shared our conversation below.
Courtney, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
I started off as a nurse, working 60 hours a week, sleeping terribly, and feeling drained from a busy mind I didn’t know how to shut off. I felt stuck in a restless prison of my own mind and it was affecting my relationships, creativity and health. I felt like I was existing and not fully living life.
I was working a 12 hour shift in Newport Beach one day in 2015 and googled “learn meditation.” I knew I wanted to take a comprehensive course to really experience transformation and maybe use it to help others one day. so I found this certification course that included a 5 day retreat at the end and signed up. I ended up becoming certified and working with the company for a couple years, which helped my build a strong foundation of meditation and mindfulness coaching, along with a hefty tool box of Self Care tools and self healing techniques. I formed my first coaching business in 2016 where I began my career helping others unveil their higher potential to live fully.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My wellness career started with nursing in 2010. My dream job before that was to be a reconstructive surgeon, but being on my own, the amount of schooling wasn’t realistic for me at the time so I settled for nursing and was determined to get in the operating room asap. I landed my first job as a Recovery Room nurse working for various plastic surgeons in Orange County California. I went on to spend more years in long term care and home health, where I found myself spending 12 hours in someones home providing one on one care. It was here that I found myself dealing with a lot of mental chatter and stress and feeling depressed. My relationship felt very disconnected and I was feeling more like I was existing than enjoying life. It took one Google search to find a certification course on Mindfulness Meditation and intimacy through Tantric Buddhism. I figured this would solve my mental health issues, heal some trauma, and fix my relationship. I ended up finishing the program, getting certified as a practitioner and Sexologist, and started my first coaching business.
I used my nursing background to provide holistic solutions for my clients concerning trauma, intimacy and mental health imbalances. Once I started to see transformational results, I knew I was living out my purpose to share knowledge of growth and hold space for nourishing connections. What I really loved were the retreats and meditation events where strangers came together with the common goal of becoming better healers for themselves and realizing the expansiveness of mindfulness brings and how alive life can really be. My goal has always been to be a part of others growth and realizing their potential to heal and find purpose by making a positive impact on their world. I’m excited to be now hosting sound baths and immersive meditation events that focus on cultivating a stronger presence in our bodies. My book called “6 Sensual Secrets, An Intimate Gateway to Mindfulness” is amongst my proudest moments and is a culmination of all my experience and knowledge around evolving through mindfulness. You can order it on Amazon.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
In order to be who I am today, I had to overcome the idea that my voice didn’t matter and that I had nothing of value to say. This was a scar from my childhood of being silenced too often and even being offered money to shut up. I grew up not liking the sound of my own voice and often found myself doubting if I should keep talking while trying to explain things. I wondered if the person listening to me was secretly wishing I’d shut up, so I rushed through stories and spoke quickly to try and get as much out as possible before getting cut off. I also love to sing but didn’t know how and assumed that was my fate, I just couldn’t sing. I knew I had a nice tone that came out sporadically and that I could learn how to sing with vocal coaching. That’s when I discovered Coach Willie Norwood online and signed up for a series of sessions with him during the pandemic. He teaches how to sing through feeling the vibrations, which fit right in with my Meditation & Mindfulness journey. There were times such a beautiful sound came out that I’d never heard before, I started to cry. I’m forever grateful for him and his wisdom. He’s not only a knowledgable coach, but a healer. I went on to release a couple songs and features under the stage name GreenBody Goddess, streaming everywhere. Healing my voice released a communication block I didn’t know I had, and unveiled a better teacher, speaker and partner.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
To succeed as a Meditation & Mindfulness Coach, you have to genuinely love people and be deeply introspective. When working with others who want to change things about themselves, it’s important to remember you are them. Every person is a reflection of you and therefore you can’t judge them or even worse, think you’re any better.
As a teacher and guide, it can be easy to forget your own ignorance, so daily reflection on who mirrored you and how, and also practicing gratitude for being a vessel to carry information to others, is vital. Being a teacher is a big responsibility and you have to be able to check yourself and also be checked by those receiving from you. It’s a delicate dance of confidence and humility.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://greenbodywellness.com/services
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenbodygoddess
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3XAQeffxMyteSP6jBzwXH4_1o0d_fB5B&si=6gBfKf3QBqIT-5j9
Image Credits
Function Presents
Karlton Phresh
Matthew Addenbrooke
MediaMRG