We recently connected with Robin Goff and have shared our conversation below.

Robin , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

The inspiration for The Light Center came from a meditation experience, in which I audibly heard, ” build the Light Center!” It was an awe inspiring moment for me and of course I immediately said, “Yes!” I truly did not know what that meant exactly but assumed it would be some kind of a healing center. I had started out as a nurse, then a hospice chaplain and all along was learning about energy healing. And so my assumption was that I would create a space where a number of different kinds of healing practices would be offered. I moved to Kansas and began searching for land on which to create a center. A friend told me that his grandfather’s farm was on the market and I should take a look. That led me a bit off of the beaten path to a very old farm that needed a tremendous amount of clean up and repair. I was able to look past that to see some amazing land that provided a good bit of natural landscape and privacy. So I liquidated everything from my divorce settlement and spent every penny I could gather to buy the old farm, with little thought for how I would proceed with no money in my pocket and so much that needed to be done.
It was just two days after I closed on the property, that I received a call from my father. He asked me whether I had received the check. I didn’t know what he was referring to. He said “Your brothers and sisters have already received their checks.” He told me then that I had received an inheritance from my Uncle Ted, which I was not expecting at all. Because I was in the process of moving out of the place where I had been living, the check had not yet found its way to me. It seemed that I needed to step out in faith and sign my name on the papers, without knowing that there would be some funds there to back me up. Then I was able to deal with the leaking roof and faulty furnace with the partnership of my favorite uncle who had died a year before.
This miracle was to be the first of many times that I was stunned by the assistance that came forth whenever it was needed.

Robin , 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?

When I graduated from Nursing School at Duke University I had no idea where my path would lead. Right out of school I found a job in a busy surgical unit and became charge nurse. But my path was abruptly altered by the death of my mother who had a terrible experience with cancer, back before the time of palliative or hospice care. I left hospital nursing, never to return as I embarked on a search for better ways to deal with terminal illness. I was interested in doing a masters degree but there was no field of nursing that felt like a fit for me at that time. Instead I attend San Francisco Theological Seminary and completed a Master of Arts in Values. The stated purpose of that program was to create change agents. While I didn’t now exactly what that might mean in my career path, it resonated deep within me. When I heard about hospice care starting up in America, I set out to discover all I could about new approaches for end of life care. I was in a hospital chaplaincy training and was connected with a small local hospice to serve as their chaplain. I was hooked by this compassionate program to guide people more gently toward their death. It was during the ten years that I served as a hospice chaplain, that I truly learned what it means to heal. By sitting with hundreds of people who were bravely facing the end of their life, I began to understand the difference between healing and curing. I watched people mend their relationships with people who mattered to them, deepen their relationship with Spirit and come into a place of deep inner peace.
Gradually, I developed my own ways of talking with people about grief, loss and process of healing into wholeness. I always say that my work now falls somewhere between nursing and chaplaincy, in the realm of finding the way home to oneself. That is the work that is encompassed at The Light Center, where people engage with a wide range of healing approaches for personal and spiritual development. When the focus shifts away from rescuing, fixing or curing people, there is a wide range of ways that people find their own unique path to healing.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

For the last 30 years, I have been creating and leading The Light Center, a natural sanctuary for personal and spiritual development, on an old farm in rural Kansas. Prior to starting this project, I had always lived in the suburbs in various parts of the U.S., and so was entirely unprepared for rehabbing a 100 year old farm. As I began I was alone with my dog and there was only one other house somewhat nearby, not really in shouting distance. I was nervous because it was obvious that someone had been breaking into the house as it sat empty, and each time I visited with the realtor the window of the back door was broken, so someone could enter. I wondered it anyone would even hear me if I screamed! When I learned that there were responders for 911 not far away that was very reassuring. I had spent every cent to my name to purchase the farm with cash, as the bankers were not interested in giving me a mortgage loan. That meant that I had no cash on hand to manage the leaking roof or faulty furnace. Through one miracle after another funds arrived unexpectedly to support the needed repairs and maintenance. Since I had purchased the farm for cash, then the bank was willing to give me a mortgage using the property as collateral, and things took off from there. I worked as a hospice chaplain prior to buying the farm and continued to do so for a few years, until I felt just too busy. In order to develop The Light Center I decided to leave my paid job. I devoted all my time and energy to serving as the Spiritual Leader in a volunteer capacity and continue in that capacity until this day, thirty years later. Throughout these many years The Light Center has emerged as a leader in the community, as people discover many ways to enrich their life through the exploration of healing in the embrace of Nature. It is time on this good Earth for us all to open to the multitude of ways that we can walk with greater respect and awareness through all of the myriad ways the world is changing rapidly. We intend that The Light Center is an oasis in which we can learn, practice and share ways to live more fully in wholeness and harmony with all of life .

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

At the heart of the work that is being offered at The Light Center are small group intensives that address alternative ways for healing, with a holistic perspective. My undergraduate degree was a BS in Nursing from Duke University, which provided a foundation for my work and leant credibility to my teachings. For many years I taught about Healing into Wholeness at various International conventions and integrative medicine conferences. With a background in both nursing and hospice chaplaincy, I forged my own territory midway between the two. I developed ways of speaking and teaching that conveyed the paradigm of healing in contrast to the curing model. Both are necessary and have valuable interventions to bring to a person who is wrestling with any kind of dis-ease. There are of course times when the conventional medical model is essential to life-saving situations and there are other times when less invasive natural healing approaches are effective. Before even starting The Light Center, I had encountered a wonderful energy healing teacher who truly changed my personal understanding about aspects of health and illness that added depth to my work with people. New concepts of the energy anatomy and ways to work at the levels of subtle energy deepened my concepts of what can support the work of healing ourselves and others. My teacher was highly respectful of the belief system of each person seeking healing support, creating an approach that could enhance the individual’s self healing journey. That coupled with my own personal learning experiences with healing and professional background helped me to gain a reputation as a grounded , trusted voice in the community. I also studied metaphysics extensively at Unity Village and gained a credential as a Licensed Unity Teacher, enhancing my abilities to offer spiritual counsel. And so The Light Center developed a strong reputation throughout the greater Kansas City area as a center offering a wide range of healing approaches for people of all walks of life.
Our intensives provide a safe and supportive space for people to relax into the deep inner work of healing. Grief work has always been at the heart of offerings and a professional team supports many people healing through the difficult issues of loss. For over 20 years we have offered retreats for those who have lost someone close to them by suicide and other types of traumatic loss. A wide range of facilitators have offered modalities to enhance healing of the body, mind and spirit.Our approach is holistic and allows people to move at their own pace through the spirals of their own unique healing journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lightcenter.info
• Instagram: the_light_center
• Facebook: The Light Center