We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erin Collins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Erin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I began with a career in mental health in mind. After graduating college, I went to work in the psychiatric unit of a local hospital with the goal of helping people through some of the hardest moments of their lives. One of the benefits of getting in to this world is that you are encouraged (and in some graduate programs, even required) to seek out your own therapist to care for your wellbeing as you care for others. Later, my therapist would plant the seed that would bloom in to my current career.

After years working in a hospital setting and later for a company that trained mental health practitioners in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (my first introduction to the power of regular mindfulness practice) I took a break to raise my newborn son, always with the intention of returning to my mental health career. The time goes so fast and I kept putting off returning to that world, knowing it would still be there when I was ready. Then the shift happened.

My son, days after his second birthday, became ill. He was hospitalized and after a cascade of unexpected complications, ended up on life support, circling the drain. Once he was comatose, the daily care for him ceased and there was so much waiting. I couldn’t even hold him and just sat next to his bed feeling useless and frozen. I would binge Netflix to dissociate and pass the time. My mind was understandably muddled and my body frozen in a nightmare.

The biggest miracle of our lives occurred when one of his doctors figured out a path forward and came up with the treatment plan that saved his life. We got him back largely in one piece and I was beyond grateful. In my mind, I knew that I was the luckiest mom…not everyone’s story unfolds that way. I felt the gratitude in my mind, but my body never came back from that frozen state, zoning out and waiting for the worst. What followed was a lot of memory loss related to trauma and a spiral of anxiety I couldn’t “think” or “talk” my way out of.

My glorious therapist had worked with me for years and one day said to me, “Erin, I hear the words coming out but they don’t fit. How does this feel in your body? Where do you feel it?” I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I was aware of my body, of what my breath did when a half-formed memory returned, of how shaky and tight everything in my abdomen became when a noise startled me. I was disconnected from myself. He recommended I seek out embodiment practices that would allow me to communicate a sense of safety to my body. To remind it that the worst was over and we were safe now.

This searching led me to a few different practices that reawakened my body, allowed me to move emotions up and out instead of freezing. Some were soothing exercises to slow me down. Others were to shake things up in my body and give the big energy a place to go. My favorite modalities became transformational breathwork and sound healing. I developed a somatic “bag of tricks” to assist me in navigating my emotional world in a way that I no longer froze. My energy had safe places to go, no angry outbursts and no dissociative binging of television needed.

Fast forward, there is a global pandemic and things are shut down. People are scared, politics are fiery, my tiny island I live on has no hospital so things are locked down even more because people are so frightened by our lack of access to healthcare. It’s lonely and everyone is on edge. During that time, my younger son became ill. We were back at the hospital, this time without visits from family and friends allowed to come support me. A code was called overhead for my son and I was transported right back to that worst time in my life. But this time I had tools. I would stand in the hallway, hugging my hands around my torso, rocking back and forth, patting and soothing myself as I did grounded breath practices. People walking by looked at me like I was nuts but I didn’t care. When the big energy of anger (those “WHY ME!?” thoughts) bubbled up I would go to the bathroom to shake my body and use my activated breath exercises. The tears could flow and I could experience release and relief in a safe space. Visitors weren’t allowed to come help me through this difficult experience, but I had a friend in myself. My body and I were friends now and I was intimately aware of her needs.

This practice was transformative. My son ended up healing and oddly enough, I think some of my trauma from my first son’s hospital stay was healed during this time as well. I was able to be so present with my little boy when he needed me most and when he would go to sleep at night I would be so present and kind with myself, breathing and shaking, patting and rocking, journaling what had happened during the day and practicing maintaining my breath while I relived the day as I wrote. I suffered no memory loss or debilitating anxiety after this event. And I knew these were the tools I wanted to teach, the way I wanted to contribute to the field of mental health, and ultimately the way I wanted to impact my community.

I opened a studio on my island for connecting neighbors through somatic practices. Through embodiment and vulnerability. Claro Vashon was created to be a safe container with trauma-informed teachers who lead classes that bring us back into our bodies, to create a safe and trusting environment within our own vessels. While so many of these tools are available online, we needed a cozy environment that would bring neighbors back together after we had all gotten used to being so very alone during the pandemic. We could witness one another and love one another as we overcame the collective grief of such a lonely time. Friendships are being formed in this space and there is room for differences. We are listening to our bodies and connecting through dance, yoga, transformational breathwork, sounds healing, and gentle nervous system practices along with big energy releases. My neighbors are building their own “bags of tricks” to support their unique bodies through the tough stuff of life.

I always smile when I think that through the biggest personal tragedies in my life, and out of the ashes of a global tragedy, this heart-centered business was built. There is always hope on the other side of the unimaginably painful parts of life. I love that my business is built upon the foundation of my steadfast belief that there is always goodness available to us.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I specialize in leading individual clients and groups through transformational breathwork and sound healing sessions utilizing crystal sound bowls.

Transformational breathwork is an active meditation practice that brings the body into an altered state of consciousness using the breath as a tool…no drugs needed! It is big energy and I think is best experienced with the support of a trained and experienced guide. I help clients feel safe during this transformative practice and assist them in grounding back down and integrating the journey afterward.

I am most proud of the community connection that has been created in my studio through people being willing to vulnerably explore somatic healing together.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Get to know your team members well and allow their strengths to guide how you shape their position within the company. Be flexible and willing to change up roles as much as you can within reason. I find my teammates perform at their best and serve our community better when I am open to them changing up classes to better fit their strengths so that they are always teaching from the heart. And they appreciate when I trust them to use their intuition to guide their classes.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Start With Why by Simon Sinek.

I have read this book more than once and keep coming back to its lessons. It can be easy to deviate from mission when money isn’t flowing in quickly but there is destruction that comes from deviating from your WHY. Keep the reason that you started this thing at the forefront. None of us want to see our entrepreneurial vision slip away and lose our fire for what we do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.clarovashon.com
• Instagram: @clarovashon