We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kate King a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kate, appreciate you joining us today. 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.
There have been many defining moments in my 15+ year career as a licensed professional counselor and board certified art therapist, but the most recent impact is when I shifted from practicing psychotherapy to practicing Radiant Life Coaching in early 2023. I teach depth-oriented transformational personal healing and growth strategies, and it is important to me that I walk my talk and engage this work myself as well. When I noticed a significant mis-alignment with the way I was serving my clients and how the regulatory agencies wanted licensed healthcare providers to practice, I turned inward and explored my inner layers surrounding the imbalance that had presented. Rather than continue with this mis-alignment, I chose to take stock of my values and come into greater balance with who I am authentically as a healer. I realized that it is not within my integrity to align with the medical model of psychotherapy at this juncture because I do not have a strong belief in the diagnostic and pathology-based perspective of mental health through the western medical lens. I took full ownership of my growth-minded, holistic, and wellness-based perspective of psycho-emotional-spiritual health, identified and navigated the layers of fear and uncertainty linked with my longstanding attachment to my licensure and credentials, and stepped into the practice of Radiant Life Coaching. From this new perspective, I can now offer my services in grater alignment and integrity with the values I hold most dear, and the skill base I have developed throughout my training and life experiences.
Kate, 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?
I have been in the mental health and personal growth industry since 2007. I have master’s degrees in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology and Art Therapy, and am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Board-Certified Art Therapist who has recently shifted my practice toward Radiant Life Coaching. The intention of my work is to help clients who are eager to up-level their lives to shine with greater authenticity, fulfillment, freedom, and inner growth. With my lengthy skill base and background as a licensed psychotherapist, I have a vast toolbox of methodologies and practices I utilize with clients based on psychology, science, creativity, spirituality, and transformational inner work. Through individual sessions, group retreats and workshops, and public speaking, I teach others how to fan their inner pilot light so that they can illumine their life from the inside-out. This work includes inquiring within to navigate mis-aligned relationships, identify and heal maladaptive patterns and limiting beliefs, foster deep and generative creativity, and cultivate integration and support within a person’s inner-system for increased self-love, freedom, and meaningful purpose in their life.
The clients who find their way to me have often experienced different kinds of personal development or psychotherapy in the past, however they have not gained the results they were hoping for. These people are drawn toward my eclectic and depth-oriented approach toward healing, and often tell me that our work together has been the most meaningful and impactful inner work they have ever known. It is my great honor to witness my clients in their growth and healing journey, and to accompany them as they delve deeply within themselves and grow in previously unimaginable ways.
I have two published books available. In 2014 I wrote “The Authentic Mother: Creative Art Engagement to Support the New Parent,” which is a creatively-based companion book for new parents. This powerful book offers tools, resources, practices, and support for the multi-faceted experience of early parenthood. In November of 2023, my new book will be released: “The Radiant Life Project: Awaken Your Purpose, Heal Your Past, and Transform Your Future.” This groundbreaking book explores the vast teachings of The Radiant Life Project in an accessible masterclass for those who are ready to boldly step into their most brilliant, expansive, illuminated life. The book contains teachings from psychology, science, art therapy, Buddhist psychology, Internal Family System (IFS) parts work, and so much more. In addition to my two books, I also sell an oracle deck called The Ink & Wings Oracle. This intuitively-guiding oracle deck is comprised of powerful and magical artistic imagery created entirely by me, and fueled with intuitive guidance to help people gain insight and direction.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I have had to unlearn my belief that success is measured by the type of work that is endlessly giving and productive without rest or balance. After supporting a large caseload through the fear and uncertainty of the Covid pandemic, I found myself in a deep and profound state of burnout. I was unable to access my usual depth of empathy toward my clients, and I existed in a perpetual state of exhaustion and nervous system dysregulation that left me feeling constantly tired, wired, and defeated. Unable to tolerate that state of being, and unwilling to sustain the demands of a small business without my normal inspiration and zest for my work, I took a five-month sabbatical from my private practice. During my sabbatical, I inquired deeply about what was working for me, what was not working for me, and how I needed to change my professional offerings to better support my health and wellbeing. During this time I discovered that I had a distorted perspective, as many in Western culture do, about tethering my worth and value to being endlessly productive, busy, and in service of others at the expense of myself. I spent the months of my sabbatical, and many thereafter, re-working my relationship with my work and finding a healthy place of balance. It was during this generative and fruitful time of self-inquiry that I re-branded my business into The Radiant Life Project, where I could offer my services with authentic integrity, alignment, and a new paradigm of psycho-emotional wellness.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Training and knowledge are of the utmost importance in the mental health and personal growth fields these days, especially with so many practitioners who idenitify as “coaches” without any training whatsoever. With that being said, it is also crucial that a person in the industry of self-help, personal growth, personal development, and mental health engage their own inner work and walk their talk. There is a mass problem at this time of providers being so incredibly burned out that the services they offer are diminished in their strength and impact due to the practitioner’s lack of self care and personal attunement. In my opinion, the most effective providers and coaches are those who prioritize their own holistic wellness to the extent where they are serving their clients from a resourced and balanced place and leading by example.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theradiantlifeproject.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theradiantlifeproject/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theradiantlifeproject/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theradiantlifeproject/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChxGCo2H8iWIReg8X6ADubg
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theradiantlifeproject?lang=en
Image Credits
Jewel Afflerbaugh