Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cyndi Maurer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Cyndi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?
Into the Known was born out of a desire from friends were clairvoyant readings & energy healings. After pursuing & receiving my doctorate in Childhood Studies, I was certain that higher education was not for me, but I wasn’t sure what I desired to do. After an intuitive training program, I discovered that the combination of my higher education – particularly in ethnography & qualitative research – supported energy work in a very unique way. Once I began offering sessions to friends & family, they began to refer their friends & family to me. My business is built on the support of my friends & family. My family of origin may not understand what I do, but they speak about it to people who may be interested. My business exists because of the referrals from my friends & family.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a clairvoyant, which means I see energy, & I work in spirituality, health, & wellness to help individuals find their answers & create the life they truly desire. I am also a scholar who focuses on children’s play, media, & friendship. While at times living in two worlds – one of energy & one of science – can be confusing & hard to explain, it is absolutely my path & the most rewarding decision I have ever made. This combination allows me to meet clients where they are, offer language that supports them, & be very honest about the limits of what I am able to do. For example, other energy workers may make promises of guaranteed outcomes or particular future endeavors, while I work diligently to dispel these myths. I want every client to feel seen & heard where they are in the present moment.
In my 20s, I wanted to learn to read tarot cards. The Secret had just come out. I thought cards held the answers to the future. (For the record, they don’t.) When my father heard that I had become interested in tarot cards, he invited me to his meditation center where I learned a particular type of meditation that led to intuitive reading. Over the course of 15+ years, I have honed in on what I call my innate, intuitive skills. Simultaneously, I pursued my doctorate in Childhood Studies from Rutgers University where my studies focused on ethnography – the study of cultures – & qualitative research. The combination of formal education & intuitive training has created a unique way to communicate with clients.
I offer clairvoyant reading sessions where I look at a client’s energetic field to help put language to the challenges they’re facing & validate their current experiences. Each session begins with my asking for the client’s full name & identifying them in space & time using the symbol of a rose. From there, each session focuses on what the client would like clarity around. I will also help them move any energy that no longer serves them or is not theirs. Many clients opt for multiple sessions, & what is most rewarding to me is watching a person move from a space of uncertainty to certainty.
I also work with children & teens, teaching them meditation, mindfulness, & energy tricks that help them to be more present, understand what is theirs to manage, especially in friendships & family relationships, & to better emotionally regulate. Working with children has been a lifelong mission, & one that is particularly fulfilling. Each child & teenager is different in their needs & requirements of my support. Regardless of age & gender, I ask myself what would have supported me at that age. From there, we work together to ensure they have the support needed to navigate today’s childhood & teenagehood landscapes. The family system as a whole will also be addressed when & where necessary.
Recently, a mom of a nine-year-old girl shared a few moments that occurred between sessions with me. After a particularly rough week, the nine-year-old & I had a great session working on understanding what is hers to worry about & what is for others to manage. Part of our goal in working together is emotional regulation & learning how to separate from the world. At nine, she is quite empathic & feels everyone’s emotions. After this session, her mom shared that she asked if they could move to be closer to me. While we work together on Zoom, we have not met in real life, & this comment brought to light how much impact I have on her life.
Perhaps my favorite moments in my practice are when my scholarly background comes to meet my spiritual practice. Academically I have a strong background in LGBTQI+ youth & have been given several opportunities to work with clients about understanding their child or teen’s gender identity. Through conversation & energy sessions, I have helped parents & their children address & move energy around gender identity. By focusing on the family as a unit, acknowledging each parent as an individual, & validating each child within the family, I am able to support an understanding of gender, choice, & agency. I am lucky to have worked with a transgendered teen since they were 13, now 15, in teaching them about energy work & how to share their very personal journey with the world.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to unlearn that everyone desired to be helped & healed. From the time I was a child, I looked at the world & was very aware of people’s emotional spaces & pain. I would do everything in my power to make others feel better, often to the detriment of my health. I would say yes, even when I didn’t want to do or support something. I would put other people’s needs before my own. I was a classic people pleaser, which, in my world, I call the Unconscious Healer.
An Unconscious Healer is someone who’s incredibly empathic but does not have the skills & training to understand how to help others. They often make other people the priority & will go out of their way to help others. They will also offer a ton of solutions, & likely be the person who carries everyone’s problems.
It took decades to understand that not everyone can be helped & healed. People have to truly desire to heal & be ready to manage & deal with their pain & trauma to move forward. As a practitioner who wishes to help & heal others, it was incredibly frustrating at first to understand that step one was actually having the person acknowledge they wanted to be in a better space.
There is no single moment where this set in for me, but I can say it was related to my family. As the youngest, I always tried to get my siblings & parents to understand where the others were coming from, in hopes of fulfilling my dad’s dream of a Griswold Family Christmas. Take a moment to read that. I wanted my siblings & parents to get along so my dad could have his dream. Over time I began to realize that everyone in my family of origin had their experiences that informed their relationships with each other & how they could (not) show up to family experiences. Eventually, I understood that it was their problems to solve, & my meddling was only hindering any successes they may have found.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The best source of new clients for me has been referrals. As a service-based business, my reputation & skills are the foundation. I can count two clients who have not come in on referrals & came directly through social media. Otherwise, my entire clientele base originates from a single point.
When I began my business, I was advised that social media was everything to my clientele. Three years later, my social media audience & my clientele are two completely different demographics. And I’m not doing anything wrong. What I offer clients is incredibly personal & very challenging to share in public forums without deep, personal testimonials. What I can offer on social media are the basics of energy work, like how to incorporate tarot in your life or how to spot a psychic scammer, or how to separate your emotions from the world around you.
How you engage your clients & what you share with them will likely determine who & when & how they refer people. I have yet to have a client have a bad experience with me, but I can say that many have had bad experiences with other energy workers. What makes my client relationships so strong is a combination of transparency, personal story, & the ability to not judge.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.intotheknown.com
- Instagram: @into_the_known
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/intotheknowncyndi
Image Credits
Gina Casey