Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Katie Mason. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Katie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I’m a big dreamer (I’m talking night time dreams here). I moved to Denver, Colorado 24 years ago because of a dream and I never looked back. My dreams guide so much of my personal, professional and creative life. I teach dreaming practices to clients as a licensed psychotherapist. I’ve developed my own relationship with dreaming as a guidance system for my health, my healing, my relationships. And so much of my creativity (poetry, joke ideas, and even a full on solo dream performance) come from my dreams. It’s a risk I take over and over again, bringing dreams from my psyche into my life. There’s insight in the dreams but that doesn’t mean they translate automatically to waking life. It can be a turbulent transition bringing night time images into form, its not always what I thought it would be. However, I’ve learned that if I can surrender to the process and fully trust in the wisdom of the images, they unfold in some magical way.
Katie , 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’m a licensed psychotherapist, coach, mentor by day and a dream performer, comic, poet by night. I help people unlock blocked emotional patterns so they become more successful in their businesses and relationships. I know how to dive into the depths to reach the root of issues. People come to me when therapy didn’t work before. I have a refined intuitive skill set and years of experience navigating unconscious patterning. My background in depth oriented approaches (like dreamwork), paired with a direct sensibility and honesty, makes me a very effective guide.
Then I get on stage and I push personal limits. I take risks to express myself. I want my clients to live a fully empowered authentic life, so I walk that talk on stage. I blend comedy, poetry, storytelling. I explore creative themes like the transformative power of color (for example). I’m currently in a show about fear and grief where I share about my journey with chronic illness and losing a parent to addiction. I want to be a whole person, sharing the human I am behind the therapist, so I express authentically who I am on stage.
I am true to myself, through and through. I want others to develop that same ability. So I teach it in 1:1 and group work, and I demonstrate it on stage. I’m most proud that I have stayed with this path. It is not easy to express oneself authentically, especially because my expression comes out of many painful life experiences. I dive deep and you feel that in my creative work.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I’ve had a long health journey, 14 years in and I’m still working it out. Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Possible Chronic Lyme, MCAS, just to name a few of the diagnoses. There were times I could not get out of bed. I have a hefty childhood trauma history that includes losing a parent to alcoholism. My life has been difficult. One the one hand these challenges have made me a great therapist and artist, giving me expanded access to empathy and emotional expression. On the other hand, I have struggled at times to keep it all together. Sometimes I’m not even sure how I’ve accomplished as much as I have with so much working against me. There is something deep within me and I can’t even really describe what it is. Maybe it’s my soul, but she wants to keep finding a path through even when the light is hard to see. I’m highly sensitive and feel the weight of everything going on in the world and that impacts my physical health. I’m working on holding more light, while also being honest about the darkness that exists. But, I’m committed to bringing hope to my life and the world – we need it now more than ever.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Contact Info:
- Website: www.katiemason.com
- Instagram: @ktmasondream
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katiemasoncounseling
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiemasoncounseling/
Image Credits
@facted.media just for the headshot photo